Even with marginal water conditions, it’s April and time to fish for spring chinook in the Columbia or Willamette rivers.
State officials estimate there were 9,500 angling trips for the week ending Sunday with a catch of 677 spring chinook and 35 steelhead kept plus 156 spring chinook and 31 steelhead released.
That’s a chinook per 11.4 rods, not good, but at least worth now making an effort to catch.
The total for March was 23,200 angler trips with 800 chinook kept and 200 released. Slightly more than 500 of those spring chinook were upper Columbia salmon. The sport allocation allows for 10,157 upper Columbia fish to be killed prior to the run update in mid-May.
Catch numbers for Tuesday’s commercial fishery in the lower Columbia River are not available yet.
State officials monitored 98 drifts and recorded 169 spring chinook and 49 steelhead. Repeat: This is only a subsample of the catch. Sixty-seven percent of the chinook were salmon destined for upstream of Bonneville Dam.
The observers also recorded 48 sublegal sturgeon and 21 shad.
A hearing is scheduled for noon today to review the fishery downstream of Bonneville Dam but an extension beyond Tuesday’s scheduled closure is virtually a given.
The Klickitat River is open now for hatchery spring chinook and hatchery steelhead on Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays through May 31. The daily limit is two hatchery chinook or two hatchery steelhead or one of each.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Tongue Point to Wauna power lines, 28 boaters with five spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus one chinook released. (ODFW)
Estuary, 161 boaters with 15 spring chinook kept and one released; three bank rods with no salmon or steelhead. (WDFW)
Cathlamet, 19 boaters and 11 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Westport, Ore., to Portland, 269 boaters with 16 spring chinook kept and three released; 356 bank rods with 15 spring chinook and two steelhead kept plus eight spring chinook and one steelhead released. (ODFW)
Longview, 264 boaters with 20 spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus three spring chinook released; 33 bank rods with one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, five boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
Kalama, 207 boaters with 12 spring chinook kept and four released; 22 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Woodland, 128 boaters with 24 spring chinook kept and two released; 36 bank rods with no catch; two boaters with seven sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 114 boaters with one spring chinook kept; 35 bank rods with one spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 127 boaters with two spring chinok kept. (WDFW)
Troutdale, Ore., 88 boaters with eight spring chinook kept and four released. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 32 boaters and five bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge, downstream of Beacon Rock, eight boaters with no catch. (ODFW)
Columbia Gorge, Oregon side, 21 bank rods with one spring chinook kept and one released. (ODFW)
North Bonneville, 176 bank rods with 28 spring chinook kept and seven released. (WDFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, 35 boaters with two legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 38 sublegals released; 11 bank rods with two sublegal sturgeon released; 47 boaters with 29 walleye kept and 16 released. (WDFW)
John Day pool, 58 boaters with seven legal sturgeon kept plus three oversize, two legal and 26 sublegals released; 48 boaters with 20 walleye kept and 23 released; two boaters with four bass released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — Seventy-nine boaters with one spring chinook and 54 steelhead; 144 bank rods with four spring chinook and 24 steelhead kept plus one spring chinook and two steelhead released. (WDFW)
Kalama — Eight boaters with three steelhead kept and five released; 10 bank rods with one steelhead kept. The river is closed for spring chinook. (WDFW)
Lewis — Two bank rods with no catch. The river is closed for spring chinook. (WDFW)
Merwin Resevoir — Two boaters with five kokanee last week. On Wednesday, approximately 30 boats were on the reservoir with almost no catch.
