Barbed hooks will be allowed for anglers at the mouth of Wind River and Drano Lake beginning Friday and continuing through June 30.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced the new regulation Wednesday.
The barbless rule was to allow for easier release of spring chinook headed for upper Columbia and Snake river tributaries. However, an analysis shows the catch is mostly hatchery-origin salmon headed for Carson or Little White Salmon national fish hatcheries.
Almost 44,000 spring chinook have passed Bonneville Dam in the past five days, a hopeful sign for Wind and Drano anglers.
Through Monday, at least, the big counts had not turned into a big bite at the two Columbia Gorge hotspots.
The boat-limit rule applies beginning May 1 along with the two-pole endorsement at Wind River and Drano Lake.
Multnomah Channel or the lower Willamette also are options. Oregon estimates there were 5,038 boat anglers in the Willamette downstream of St. Johns Bridge last week with 954 chinook kept and 116 released. That a fish per 4.7 rods.
The lower Columbia River is closed until it reopens May 16 downstream of Interstate 5 for hatchery steelhead, hatchery jack chinook and shad. Upstream of I-5 opens May 16 for shad.
Merrill Lake, a fly-fishing only, catch-and-release only lake in southern Cowlitz County, has been stocked with 2,000 brown trout.
Horseshoe Lake in Woodland has been stocked with 3,443 rainbow trout, while Icehouse Lake in Skamania County got another 850 rainbow.
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 50 bank rods with 10 spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
The Dalles pool, 20 boaters with one spring chinook released; 71 bank rods with one spring chinook kept and two released; 18 boaters with 39 walleye kept and two released; 15 bank rods with six sublegal sturgeon released; seven boaters with one legal sturgeon kept plus one legal, one oversize and 14 sublegals released; six boaters with 13 bass kept and 14 released. (WDFW)
John Day pool, 131 boaters with 459 walleye kept and 43 released; 27 boaters with nine bass kept and 124 released; 48 boaters with six legal sturgeon kept and 27 sublegals released; 80 boaters with one spring chinook kept and one released; 118 bank rods with four spring chinook kept and one released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — Ninety-six boaters with six adult spring chinook and 31 steelhead kept plus one adult chinook and one steelhead released; 241 bank rods with 74 adult spring chinook, five jack chinook and 25 steelhead kept plus six steelhead released. (WDFW)
Wind — At the mouth, 103 boaters with 17 spring chinook kept and two sublegal sturgeon released. In the gorge, one bank rod with two spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Ninety-seven boaters with 13 spring chinook kept; three bank rods with three spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Klickitat — Five bank rods with no salmon or steelhead. (WDFW)
