Fishing report 1/2

Winter steelhead fishing has been slow in the past week and returns to hatcheries on the Cowlitz, Kalama and Lewis rivers are lagging.

River 2013 2012

Lewis 29 283

Kalama 40 177

Cowlitz 349 634

Lacamas Lake was stocked with more than 4,600 catchable-size rainbow trout in late December.

Other waters receiving rainbows include 1,000 trout in both Icehouse and Little Ash lakes in Skamania County and 500 in Maryhill Pond in Klickitat County.

Sturgeon retention resumed Wednesday in Bonneville pool of the Columbia Gorge.

Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) department of Fish and Wildlife:

Mid-Columbia — John Day River backwater, four boaters with two wild steelhead released; one bank rod with no steelhead. (ODFW)

Cowlitz — Two-hundred-ninety-six bank rods with 15 steelhead, five cutthroat trout and one adult coho kept; 141 boaters with 24 steelhead kept and one adult coho released. (WDFW)

Kalama — Nineteen boaters with one steelhead kept; 30 bank rods with one adult coho kept plus two adult coho, four jack coho and two steelhead released. (WDFW)

Lewis — Sixteen bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)

North Fork Lewis — Twenty-seven boaters with one adult fall chinook, one jack coho and three steelhead kept plus two steelhead, eight adult coho, one jack coho and two adult fall chinook released; 22 bank rods with no salmon or steelhead. (WDFW)

Washougal — Seventy-seven bank rods with two winter steelhead kept; 37 boaters with five steelhead kept and five released. (WDFW)