Washington fisheries officials have yet to check a spring chinook on this side of the lower Columbia, but Oregon tallied two hatchery fish and a wild one among its beach anglers last weekend.
Twenty-two spring chinook had been counted at Bonneville Dam through Sunday. Ten of those came on Monday. The water temperature is 42 degrees and the flow is a moderate 150,000 cubic feet per second.
Smelt have entered Oregon’s Sandy River, just in time for the sport dipping season.
Oregon will allow dippers to take 10 pounds per person from 6 a.m. to noon on Saturday and 6 a.m. to noon on March 15. No license is required.
Sturgeon retention is closed in the Bonneville pool of the mid-Columbia River. Anglers kept 149 sturgeon in the early portion of the season. That number is 13.6 percent of the catch guideline.
Washington and Oregon are expected to adopt the summer retention season later this month or in April.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Tongue Point to Wauna power lines, 10 boaters with no salmon or steelhead; two Oregon bank rods with no catch. (ODFW)
Cathlamet, two bank rods with no steelhead or salmon. (WDFW)
Westport, Ore., to Portland, 40 boaters with no spring chinook salmon; 160 Oregon bank rods with two spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus one spring chinook and one steelhead released. (ODFW)
Longview, six boaters and four bank rods with no steelhead or salmon. (WDFW)
Kalama, two boaters and 12 bank rods with no spring chinook or steelhead. (WDFW)
Woodland, two boaters and 12 bank rods with no chinook or steelhead. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, five boaters and nine bank rods with no chinook or steelhead. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, two boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, 21 boaters with 21 walleye kept and one released; 19 bank rods with one legal sturgeon kept plus two sublegals release; seven boaters with 10 sublegal sturgeon released. (ODFW)
John Day pool, 61 boaters with 83 walleye kept and 23 walleye released; 26 boaters with two legal, one oversize and 12 sublegal sturgeon released; 32 bank rods with two sublegal sturgeon released; 24 bank rods with one steelhead kept. (ODFW)
Cowlitz — Twelve boaters with eight steelhead kept; 21 bank rods with three steelhead kept and one released. Nineteen winter steelhead were recovered at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator in three days of operation.
Merwin Reservoir — Two boaters with one kokanee.
