Sportsmen in the lower Columbia River are projected to be at 91 percent of their initial spring chinook allocation when angling closes beginning Tuesday.
Washington and Oregon biologists have issued a report estimating that 9,230 upper Columbia-origin spring chinook out of an allocation of 10,157 will used through Monday.
This week, lower Columbia anglers are predicted to make 45,500 trips with a good catch of 8,400 adult spring chinook. In the week ending Sunday, there were 2,821 kept chinook from 42,330 angler trips.
No additional hearings are scheduled, but catches are being tracked and a hearing early next week is possible, if warranted, to extend fishing.
Commercial fishermen in the lower Columbia caught 1,746 total chinook on April 1, of which 1,511 were upper Columbia origin. The commercials have used 87 percent of their allowed 1,735 upper Columbia chinook prior to the run forecast update in mid-May.
Once the lower Columbia closes, much of the local angling interest will shift to the lower Willamette River, Wind River, Drano Lake and the Columbia upstream of Bonneville Dam.
The sport allocation for upstream of Bonneville is 1,354 spring chinook with none caught through Sunday. That season is scheduled to close beginning May 10.
Spring chinook angling from a boat in the Bonneville pool is not allowed downstream of the Tower Island power lines near The Dalles.
Washington officials sampled two spring chinook caught in Drano Lake last weekend.
Catches in the Willamette slowed last weekend due to muddy water. Sampling in Multnomah Channel and the main Willamette downstream of St. Johns Bridge tallied 1,119 boaters with 77 spring chinook kept and eight released.
The East Fork of the Lewis River from the mouth to the upper boat ramp at Lewisville Park and the Washougal from the mouth to the Mount Norway Bridge open on Wednesday for hatchery steelhead. Through June 6, selective gear rules are in place and no bait may be used.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Estuary, 154 boaters with 37 adult spring chinook kept and two released. (WDFW)
Tongue Point to Wauna power lines, 41 boaters with 13 adult spring chinook and one jack chinook kept plus one spring chinook released. (ODFW)
Clatsop Spit to Wauna power lines, eight bank rods with one adult spring chinook and one steelhead kept. (ODFW)
Cathlamet, 104 boaters with 11 adult spring chinook and two steelhead kept plus four adult chinook released; 78 bank rods with one adult spring chinook and one steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Westport, Ore., to Portland, 1,305 boaters with 155 adult spring chinook, two jacks and two steelhead kept plus 31 adult chinook and one jack released; 589 Oregon bank rods with 26 adult chinook and six steelhead kept plus three chinook and two steelhead released. (ODFW)
Longview, 335 boaters with 36 adult chinook and one jack kept plus five adult chinook and one steelhead released; 79 bank rods with three steelhead kept plus one steelhead and three chinook released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, 16 boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
Kalama, 291 boaters with 19 adult and one jack chinook kept plus three chinook released; 37 bank rods with one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Woodland, 175 boaters with 34 adult spring chinook kept and six released; 105 bank rods with six spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 333 boaters with 35 spring chinook kept and 11 released; 89 bank rods with two adult spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 434 boaters with 46 adult spring chinook kept plus eight adult and one jack chinook released. (WDFW)
Troutdale, 11 boaters with three spring chinook kept and three released. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 83 boaters with six spring chinook kept and one released; nine bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, 235 bank rods with 33 spring chinook kept and seven released. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Beacon Rock), 53 boaters with three spring chinook kept and two released. (ODFW)
Columbia Gorge, 19 Oregon bank rods with one spring chinook kept. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, 45 boaters with 28 walleye kept and 11 released; one bank rod with two walleye kept; four bank rods with on bass; 15 boaters with 32 sublegal sturgeon released; 22 bank rods with one legal, one oversize and four sublegals released; 23 bank rods with no salmon or steelhead. (WDFW)
John Day pool, 24 boaters with two walleye kept and five released; 47 boaters with five legal sturgeon kept plus three legal, one oversize and 17 sublegals released.
Cowlitz — Thirty-three boaters with 16 steelhead kept; 59 bank rods with one spring chinook and 13 steelhead kept plus two steelhead released. (WDFW)
Lewis — Five bank rods with no steelhead. Salmon fishing is closed. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Eight boaters with two spring chinook kept. Two to three boats a day have been fishing at Wind River and Drano Lake. Drano is closed on Wednesdays through June. (WDFW)
