Fishing report 3/6

Recreational dip-netters will have one more day — this Saturday — to catch eulachon smelt on the Cowlitz River.

Fishing with dip nets will be allowed from the riverbank from 6 a.m. to noon, under a new rule approved by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Each dip-netter may retrain 10 pounds of smelt for the day.

Guy Norman, WDFW southwest regional director, said the extra day of fishing will allow the department to collect additional data on the movement of eulachon smelt into the Cowlitz River.

“The fishery was open for four partial days over the past month, but dip-netters didn’t actually land any smelt until March 1,” Norman said. “Catch rates were extremely good that day, indicating a strong run, and another opening will give us a better idea of just how strong that run is.”

Prior to last month, the recreational smelt fishery had been closed for three years and was listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act after more than a decade of declining returns. However, since 2011, smelt returns to the Columbia River have shown significant improvement, Norman said.

Fishing on the Columbia River and other Southwest Washington waters have been light.

Angler checks by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife:

Lower Columbia — Officials have yet to sample the first spring Chinook of the season. There has been light effort during current catch-and-release sturgeon fishery.

• Cathlamet, 1 boater, no salmon catch

• Longview, 4 bank rods, no salmon catch; 7 boaters, no salmon catch; two boaters, one legal sturgeon released.

• Kalama, 11 bank rods, no salmon catch; 1 boater, no salmon catch

• Woodland, 14 bank rods, no salmon catch; 14 boaters, one steelhead released.

• Vancouver, 28 bank rods, no salmon catch; 44 boaters, no salmon catch; 2 bank rods, 8 sublegal sturgeon released.

• Camas/Washougal, 18 boaters, no salmon catch.