Salmon fishing started off strong on Saturday and Sunday at Buoy 10 with a catch average of three fish per four rods, mostly coho.
Sampling by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife checked 900 anglers with 113 fall chinook kept, 17 chinook released, 495 coho kept, 270 coho released, one steelhead kept and three steelhead released.
It was the best Buoy 10 opener since 2001, when 1.1 million coho returned.
Catches slipped a little on Monday and Tuesday, but are still good for this early in August.
Outside of Buoy 10, angling effort has been modest in the lower Columbia River. About 25 percent of the boats observed on Saturday’s were at the mouth of the Cowlitz River.
Drano Lake is yielding lots of steelhead, however almost 75 percent were wild fish.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Westport, Ore., to Portland, 66 boaters with two adult chinook and 15 steelhead kept plus 11 steelhead released. (ODFW)
Longview, seven boaters with two steelhead released; 52 bank rods with five steelhead kept and three released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, four boaters with one adult chinook kept. (WDFW)
Kalama, 56 boaters with four adult chinook and 11 steelhead kept plus four steelhead released; 42 bank rods with three steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Woodland, 47 boaters with one chinook and two steelhead kept; 36 bank rods with one steelhead released; three boaters with 12 legal, two oversize and 12 sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 12 boaters with five steelhead kept and three released; 70 bank rods with two adult chinook and eight steelhead kept plus nine steelhead released. (WDFW)
Troutdale, Ore., 33 boaters with two adult chinook and one steelhead kept plus one steelhead released; 28 boaters with 18 walleye kept and four released. (ODFW)
Camas, three boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, 22 bank rods with one adult chinook and three steelhead kept plus two steelhead released. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Bonneville Dam), 23 boaters with one chinook and three steelhead kept plus five steelhead released, (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 13 boaters with one steelhead kept and two released. (WDFW)
The Dalles pool, two boaters with six bass released. (WDFW)
Wind — Five boaters with three steelhead released; four bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Seven bank rods with two steelhead and one chinook released; 190 boaters with 17 adult chinook and 65 steelhead kept plus one adult chinook, one jack chinook, 177 steelhead and one sockeye released. (WDFW)
