This is the final week before the fall salmon season anglers have been waiting for begins on Aug. 1. Steelhead are the vast majority of the catch in the lower Columbia, but the mark rate in the sport harvest was only 47 percent.
Beginning Aug. 1, fall regulations begin along with estimated runs of 1.6 million chinook and more than 900,000 coho to the Columbia River.
Merwin Reservoir has been sweetened for anglers with a release of 2,338 rainbow trout averaging 1.25 pounds and 1,548 averaging nearly 7 pounds.
Angler sampling by the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Estuary, 36 boaters with 25 steelhead and one sockeye kept plus 23 steelhead released; 31 bank rods with one adult summer chinook and seven steelhead kept plus eight steelhead released. (WDFW)
Clatsop Spit to Wauna power lines, five boats with one steelhead kept. (ODFW)
Cathlamet, 62 boaters with 30 steelhead kept and 10 released; 100 bank rods with 16 steelhead kept and nine released. (WDFW)
Westport, Ore., to Portland, 50 boaters with two steelhead kept and five released; 25 bank rods with one steelhead kept and two released; three boaters with four walleye kept and two released. (ODFW)
Longview, 137 boaters with 25 steelhead and one sockeye kept plus one adult summer chinook and 30 steelhead released; 309 bank rods with one adult summer chinook and 43 steelhead kept plus one jack chinook and 36 steelhead released; three boaters with four legal and eight sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Kalama, 88 boaters with 26 steelhead kept plus 12 steelhead and one jack chinook kept; 253 bank rods with one adult chinook, two jack chinook, one sockeye and 15 steelhead kept plus one adult chinook and 30 steelhead released; 10 boaters with four legal, three oversize and 21 sublegals released. (WDFW)
Woodland, 58 boaters with two steelhead kept and eight released; 89 bank rods with nine steelhead kept and 14 released; five boaters with seven walleye kept. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 53 boaters with three steelhead kept plus six steelhead and one adult chinook released; 117 bank rods with seven steelhead and one sockeye kept plus eight steelhead released. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 13 boaters with one steelhead released; 93 bank rods with 12 steelhead and three sockeye kept plus 12 steelhead released; two boaters with one legal and three sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Troutdale, 77 boaters with two steelhead kept and two released; two boaters with one walleye kept. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 50 boaters with one adult chinook and three steelhead kept plus one adult chinook and four steelhead released; 35 bank rods with one steelhead kept; two boaters with four sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, 203 bank rods with two adult summer chinook, three jacks and 35 steelhead kept plus 80 steelhead and four adult chinook released. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Bonneville Dam), 29 boaters with three steelhead kept plus one summer chinook and 13 steelhead released; 41 Oregon bank rods with ones adult summer chinook and six steelhead kept plus one steelhead released. (ODFW)
Multnomah Channel, Coon Island to Gilbert River boat ramp, two boaters with six walleye.
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 138 boaters with 24 legal sturgeon kept plus 10 oversize and 338 sublegals released; 22 bank rods with 17 sublegal sturgeon released. Sturgeon retention is closed for the rest of 2014. Nine bank rods with one chinook kept and one released; 16 boaters with one steelhead kept and five released; 24 boaters with 41 bass released. (WDFW)
The Dalles pool, five bank rods with one steelhead kept and one chinook released. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Eight boaters with with three steelhead kept and two released. (WDFW)
Klickitat — Four bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — Six boaters with one adult spring chinook and six steelhead; 21 bank rods with one steelhead kept and four spring chinook mini-jacks released. Two hundred steelhead and one sockeye were recycled from the hatcheries downstream to the Interstate 5 boat launch. (WDFW)
