Fishing report 3/13

Spring chinook fishing in the lower Columbia River has been about as slow as it can get with Washington yet to sample an angler with a fish yet.

Joe Hymer of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said the zero watch was still on as of late Wednesday afternoon. Effort was low on Wednesday with Oregon’s flight of the lower Columbia counting only 69 salmon boats and 133 bank rods.

Oregon has sampled a whopping three spring salmon, one kept and two released, said Jimmy Watts of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The river is high and has debris floating down. Streamflows at Bonneville Dam on Wednesday were 350,000 cubic feet per second. Normal is 130,000 to 180,000 cubic feet per second.

The water temperature is 41.3 degrees.

The count at Bonneville Dam is one adult spring chinook. Online tallies report five chinook, but the first four were late fall chinook counted in early January.

The Willamette River is very muddy.

Smelt were in the North Fork of the Lewis River on Tuesday at least upstream to Island boat ramp. There also are smelt off Willow Grove downstream of Longview and at Woodland.

Sturgeon retention is closed in Bonneville pool. A brief retention season in mid-June is expected to be adopted.

Lacamas Lake has been stocked with 4,000 rainbow trout. Battle Ground Lake got 1,500 trout and Sacajawea Lake in Longview got 3,600 trout.

Saturday is the final day to fish for steelhead on the Washougal, East Fork Lewis, Coweeman, Elochoman, Gays and South Fork Toutle rivers plus Rock, Salmon, Mill, Germany, Cedar and Abernathy creeks.

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

Lower Columbia — Estuary, eight boaters with no spring chinook or steelhead. (WDFW)

Tongue Point to Wauna power lines, eight boaters with no chinook. (ODFW)

Westport, Ore., to Portland, 87 boaters and 109 bank rods with no spring chinook. (WDFW)

Cathlamet, three bank rods with one steelhead kept; two boaters with no salmon or steelhead. (WDFW)

Longview, 26 boaters and 26 bank rods with no salmon or steelhead. (WDFW)

Kalama, 17 boaters and 10 bank rods with no salmon or steelhead; three boaters with no sturgeon. (WDFW)

Woodland, 44 bank rods and 24 boaters with no salmon or steelhead; 20 boaters with 20 legal and 30 sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)

Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 66 boaters with 27 bank rods with no salmon or steelhead. (WDFW)

Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 52 boaters with no salmon or steelhead; two boaters with eight sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)

Troutdale, five boaters with no spring chinook. (WDFW)

Camas-Washougal, two bank rods and 11 boaters with no salmon or steelhead; two boats with no sturgeon. (WDFW)

North Bonneville, five bank rods with no salmon or steelhead. (WDFW)

Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 111 bank rods with seven legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 144 sublegals released; 85 boaters with six legal sturgeon kept plus three oversize and 188 sublegals released. (WDFW)

The Dalles pool, 33 boaters with one legal sturgeon kept plus 20 sublegals released; 16 bank rods with one legal sturgeon kept plus one sublegal released; 35 boaters with 38 walleye kept and 21 released. (WDFW)

John Day pool, 39 boaters with 22 walleye kept plus nine released; 34 bank rods with two legal sturgeon kept plus three oversize and eight sublegals released; 28 boaters with one legal sturgeon kept plus three sublegals released. (WDFW)

Cowlitz — Thirty-five boaters with one adult spring chinook and 12 steelhead kept plus one steelhead released; 20 bank rods with one hatchery steelhead kept. (WDFW)

Washougal — Seven boaters with one hatchery steelhead kept and one wild steelhead released; nine bank rods with two wild steelhead released. (WDFW)