Swift Reservoir has been stocked with 50,000 rainbow trout and is ready for Saturday’s opener.
The trout are about 2.5 fish per pound. The water elevation is 995 feet, so the reservoir is within five feet of full pool.
Swift no longer opens in late April. The delayed start is to give more time for young salmon and steelhead originating from the upper North Fork of the Lewis River to make it to the fish collector at the dam before angling begins.
Here’s one tip from four decades of fishing at Swift: Bring along some worms. They often seem to outperform Power Bait, white corn, Gulp grubs, Fire Corn and eggs when trolling at the lake.
Summer is here in the lower Columbia River, signaled by huge shad counts at Bonneville Dam and an increasing number of steelhead being caught downstream of Longview.
The commercials fished Wednesday night in the lower Columbia from Beacon Rock to the coast for spring chinook.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Tongue Point to Wauna power lines, seven boaters with one adult spring chinook and one jack kept plus one adult chinook released. (ODFW)
Estuary, three bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Cathlamet, 33 bank rods with one adult spring chinook and three steelhead kept plus four chinook and one steelhead released; six boaters with one jack chinook kept plus one adult spring chinook and one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Westport, Ore., to Portland, 81 boaters with two adult spring chinook, one jack chinook and 10 steelhead kept plus three adult chinook and three steelhead released; 123 Oregon bank rods with one adult spring chinook, one jack chinook and nine steelhead kept plus six adult spring chinook released. (ODFW)
Longview, 55 boaters with two adult spring chinook and six steelhead kept plus two steelhead and one adult spring chinook released; 56 bank rods with six steelhead kept plus two steelhead and one adult chinook released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, five boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
Kalama, 34 boaters with four adult spring chinook kept and three released; 45 bank rods with no catch; 14 boaters with 84 shad kept. (WDFW)
Woodland, eight boaters with two adult spring chinook kept; nine bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 52 boaters with two adult spring chinook kept and two released; 44 bank rods with one adult spring chinook kept and one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 16 boaters with two adult spring chinook kept; six boaters with no shad. (WDFW)
Troutdale, 19 boaters with 35 shad kept; 46 boaters with two adult spring chinook kept. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 51 boaters with three adult and two jack chinook kept plus four adult chinook released; 20 bank rods with one jack chinook kept and one adult spring chinook released; two boaters with one sublegal sturgeon released; 17 boaters with 18 shad kept; 57 bank rods with 62 shad kept. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, 11 boaters with no catch; 96 bank rods with eight adult and two jack chinook kept plus eight adult and one jack chinook released; four boaters with 30 shad kept; 276 bank rods with 663 shad kept and 10 released. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Bonneville Dam), 77 boaters with 14 adult and two jack spring chinook kept plus 29 adult chinook, one jack and two steelhead released; 97 boaters with 1,081 shad kept and 30 released. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, 10 boaters with five walleye kept and 11 released; four boaters with six bass kept and 31 released; two bank rods with two bass released; 22 bank rods with one spring chinook released; 16 boaters with no catch; 25 bank rods with one oversize and seven sublegals released; 13 boaters with 16 sublegals released. (WDFW)
John Day pool, 36 boaters with 71 walleye kept and six released; 17 boaters with 28 bass kept and 50 released; 19 bank rods with four chinook kept and three released; 61 boaters with two spring chinook kept and two released; 27 boaters with five legal sturgeon kept plus three legal, four oversize and 20 sublegals released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — Twenty-five bank rods with two adult and five jack spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Wind — Three boaters with no spring chinook at the mouth. Two bank rods with no catch in the upper river. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Seven boaters with one adult spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Klickitat — Fourteen bank rods with two adult spring chinook and four jacks kept. (WDFW)
