There’s a rare opportunity coming Friday and Saturday — a realistic chance to retain a sturgeon from the Columbia River.
Bonneville pool is open Friday and Saturday and again June 20 and 21 from Bonneville Dam upstream to the spawning sanctuary boundary. That boundary stretches from the east dock at the Port of The Dalles boat ramp straight across to a marker on the Washington shore.
About 850 sturgeon remain on the 1,100 annual guideline.
However, boaters should expect windy conditions. The Columbia Gorge windsurfer websites are predicting west winds from 26 to 30 miles per hour both days.
Saturday marks the start of the main ocean salmon season off Washington and northern Oregon. Fishing will be open daily from the Columbia River ports with a limit of two hatchery coho or one hatchery coho and one chinook.
Monday is the beginning of the summer salmon management period in the Columbia River. The daily bag limit shifts to six fish, of which no more than two may be adult salmon or hatchery steelhead.
Downstream of Bonneville Dam, adult hatchery summer chinook or any sockeye may be retained only through June 30.
State, federal and tribal biologists are forecasting a run of 67,500 summer chinook will enter the Columbia River. Under the plethora of management agreements and allocation plans, sportsmen in the lower Columbia are due 2,414 summer chinook, while the commercials get 1,893.
Washington and Oregon on Wednesday approved eight hours of gillnetting from 9 p.m. Monday to 5 a.m. Tuesday from Beacon Rock to the ocean.
The sockeye run is forecast to be 347,100 fish entering the Columbia. Non-Indians are allowed to harvest 1 percent of the sockeye run.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of fish and wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Estuary, seven bank rods with one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Cathlamet, 19 boaters with four steelhead kept plus one steelhead and three adult spring chinook released; 58 bank rods with five steelhead kept and two released. (WDFW)
Westport, Ore., to Portland, 40 boaters with two adult spring chinook and six steelhead kept plus five adult spring chinook and one steelhead released; six boaters with 15 shad kept; 191 Oregon bank rods with four adult spring chinook, two jack chinook and 14 steelhead kept plus two adult chinook, three jack chinook, one steelhead and one sockeye released. (ODFW)
Longview, 75 boaters with eight adult spring chinook, one jack chinook and six steelhead kept plus three adult chinook and one jack released; 192 bank rods with 13 steelhead kept, one adult spring chinook and one jack chinook kept plus three steelhead and two sockeye released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, nine boaters with three steelhead kept plus one jack chinook and three sockeye released. (WDFW)
Kalama, 160 boaters with 15 adult spring chinook, four jack chinook and three steelhead kept plus 21 adult chinook and two jacks released; 100 bank rods with two adult spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus two adult chinook and two steelhead released;19 boaters with 52 shad kept and 12 released. (WDFW)
Woodland, 43 boaters with four adult spring chinook kept plus 16 adult and one jack spring chinook released; 128 bank rods with four adult spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus two steelhead released. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 46 boaters with five adult spring chinook kept and seven adult chinook released; 53 bank rods with one spring chinook kept and five released. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 18 boaters with one jack chinook kept; two boaters with four sublegal sturgeon released; two boaters with eight shad kept. (WDFW)
Troutdale, 87 boaters with two adult spring chinook and one jack chinook kept plus two adult chinook and one jack chinook released; 19 boaters with four shad kept and three shad released. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 37 boaters with three adult and one jack spring chinook kept plus two adult chinook released; nine bank rods with one adult spring chinook kept; 23 boaters with 25 shad kept; 17 bank rods with 27 shad kept. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, nine boaters with no catch; 195 bank rods with 21 adult and eight jack spring chinook kept plus 25 adult chinook released; three boaters with 30 shad kept; 457 bank rods with 1,244 shad kept and five released. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Bonneville Dam), 100 boaters with 14 adult spring chinook and one jack chinook kept plus 25 adult chinook released; 114 boaters with 858 shad kept; 20 Oregon bank rods with one adult chinook kept and four adult chinook released; 202 bank rods with 906 shad kept and 15 released. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, 28 boaters with 13 walleye kept and 70 released; nine bank rods with one bass kept and seven released; two boaters with five bass kept and five released; 43 bank rods with one spring chinook kept; 12 boaters with no salmon; nine boaters and 12 bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
John Day pool, 61 boaters with 91 walleye kept and 50 released; 11 boaters with 31 bass kept and 29 released; 18 bank rods with no salmon; 14 boaters with one spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — Forty-six bank rods with 24 adult spring chinook, eight jacks and one steelhead kept plus one adult chinook released; 12 boaters with 11 adult and one jack chinook kept.( (WDFW)
Kalama — Four bank rods with no steelhead. (WDFW)
North Fork Lewis — Twenty bank rods with one steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Three boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
Wind — Ten bank rods with two adult spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
