Anglers get their second shot at sturgeon retention in the Bonneville pool of the Columbia River from Friday through Sunday.
Boaters averaged a kept legal sturgeon per 4.6 rods last weekend.
Sportsmen kept 369 sturgeon last weekend, leaving 576 on the allocation.
Washington and Oregon officials will review this weekend’s harvest on Tuesday, so changes to the July 3 to 5 final retention period are possible.
Winds are forecast to be light this weekend, however the temperature in the Columbia Gorge is forecast to be more than 100 degrees all three days.
Washington’s new sport-fishing rules go into effect on Wednesday and there are several changes.
Washington's new sport-fishing rules go into effect on Wednesday and there are several changes.
Among them:
o All streams not listed are closed to all fishing.
o All streams open to fishing are listed geographically, not alphabetically in the Columbia River Basin section.
o Selective gear rules are in effect on several smaller streams that remain open to fishing.
o Mandatory hatchery steelhead retention rules are in effect on several larger streams but anglers may keep up to 3 fish.
o On a few streams, only hatchery trout may be retained to harvest residual steelhead smolts or mature sea run cutthroats.
o On some streams, only hatchery trout may be retained - no other gamefish.
oDuring the month of July, barbed hooks allowed on the Elochoman, lower Cowlitz, South Fork Toutle and Green rivers.
o North Fork Lewis is now listed as just the Lewis River.
Among them:
o All streams not listed are closed to all fishing.
o All streams open to fishing are listed geographically, not alphabetically in the Columbia River Basin section.
o Selective gear rules are in effect on several smaller streams that remain open to fishing.
o Mandatory hatchery steelhead retention rules are in effect on several larger streams but anglers may keep up to 3 fish.
o On a few streams, only hatchery trout may be retained to harvest residual steelhead smolts or mature sea run cutthroats.
o On some streams, only hatchery trout may be retained – no other gamefish.
oDuring the month of July, barbed hooks allowed on the Elochoman, lower Cowlitz, South Fork Toutle and Green rivers.
o North Fork Lewis is now listed as just the Lewis River.
Washington’s new sport-fishing rules go into effect on Wednesday. Among the changes is a rule that the only trout retention at Swift Reservoir is fin-clipped rainbow, so wild rainbow or cutthroat must be released.
The unclipped coho and chinook that are caught occasionally can be kept, put they count as part of the five-fish daily limit.
Summer chinook fishing is scheduled to continue through July 6 in the lower Columbia River. That fishery also will be reviewed on Tuesday.
For the first six days of the summer season, there were 9,221 angler trips with 716 adult summer chinook kept, 533 chinook released, 255 steelhead kept, 62 steelhead released, 76 sockeye kept and nine released.
Those are mark rates of 57 percent for summer chinook, 80 percent for steelhead and 89 percent for sockeye. Sockeye do not have to be fin-clipped to be retained.
Beginning Wednesday, the two-pole rule and boat-limit rule no longer apply at Wind River and Drano Lake. At Drano, fishing will be allowed again seven days a week and the bank-only area near the mouth will be open for boats again.
Kress Lake in southern Cowlitz County has been stocked with 2,000 brown trout recently.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Downstream of Puget Island, 26 boaters with three adult chinook and two steelhead kept plus one adult chinook and one sockeye released. (WDFW)
Tongue Point to Wauna power lines, three boaters with no catch. (ODFW)
Clatsop Spit to Wauna power lines, 10 Oregon bank rods with one adult summer chinook and two steelhead kept plus one steelhead released. (ODFW)
Cathlamet, 32 boaters with one adult chinook, four steelhead and one sockeye kept; 59 bank rods with 11 steelhead and one sockeye kept plus five steelhead and one sockeye released. (WDFW)
Westport, Ore., to Portland, 97 boaters with five adult summer chinook, two steelhead and one sockeye kept; two boaters with no shad; 155 Oregon bank rods with four adult summer chinook and three jack chinook kept plus one adult summer chinook and three steelhead released; eight boaters with five legal sturgeon, one oversize sturgeon and 34 sublegals released. (ODFW)
Longview, 98 boaters with five adult chinook, one jack and five steelhead kept plus two adult chinook and one sockeye released; 138 bank rods with 13 steelhead and four sockeye kept plus two steelhead released; five boaters with 14 legal, six oversize and eight sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, 12 boaters with four adult chinook kept and one released. (WDFW)
Kalama, 66 boaters with nine adult chinook, two jacks and a sockeye kept plus nine adult chinook released; 115 bank rods with 18 adult chinook kept plus seven released; four boaters with 12 sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Woodland, 78 boaters with four adult chinook kept and two released; 118 bank rods with six adult chinook kept and six released. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 73 boaters with 10 adult chinook kept and 10 released; 114 bank rods with three chinook and one steelhead kept plus five chinook released. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 45 boaters with nine chinook, one steelhead and two sockeye kept plus two adult chinook and two steelhead released; 45 bank rods with one adult chinook, two steelhead and three sockeye kept plus two steelhead released; five boaters with six legal sturgeon and eight sublegals released. (WDFW)
Troutdale, Ore., 114 boaters with six adult summer chinook kept plus two adult chinook and one steelhead released; two boaters with no shad; two boaters with one legal sturgeon and one sublegal sturgeon released; 10 boaters with 26 walleye kept and two released. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 42 boaters with two adult chinook and one steelhead kept plus two adult chinook released; three boaters with no shad. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, 34 boaters with one adult chinook kept and one released; 109 bank rods with six adult and one jack chinook kept and seven adult chinook released; five boaters with 10 shad kept; 235 bank rods with 392 shad kept; one boater with no walleye. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Bonneville Dam), 76 boaters with seven adult summer chinook and two jack chinook kept plus two adult chinook released; 17 boaters with 32 shad kept; 58 Oregon bank rods with five adult summer chinook kept plus two released; 132 bank rods with 577 shad kept. (ODFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Marker 82), seven boaters with four legal and 15 sublegal sturgeon released. (ODFW)
Cowlitz — At the trout hatchery, seven boaters with three summer steelhead. (WDFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, six boaters with 31 walleye kept and 13 released; 21 boaters with eight bass kept and 21 released. (WDFW)
