Spring chinook fishing in the lower Willamette River improved to a salmon per 10 rods last week.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates boaters made 5,240 trips in the lower Willamette, keeping 431 spring chinook and releasing 84. That’s an 84 percent mark rate.
The water temperature at Willamette Falls is 55 degrees, while the visibility is 4.8 feet.
When salmon angling gets slow, some boaters are anchoring and fishing catch-and-release for sturgeon.
The numbers for the lower Willamette last week were 206 boaters with 229 legal sturgeon released along with 498 sublegals and 23 oversize sturgeon released.
Washington sampled anglers at both the mouth of Wind River and Drano Lake in the Columbia Gorge with spring chinook last weekend, but the Bonneville Dam counts are not large enough to generate a lot of excitement yet.
Kress Lake near Kalama has been stocked with 5,500 rainbow trout in the past 10 days.
Angler checks by the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 13 bank rods with one spring chinook salmon kept. (WDFW)
• The Dalles pool, 49 boaters with 134 walleye kept and 22 released; one bank rod with two walleye kept; 69 bank rods with three spring chinook kept and one released; seven boaters with 26 bass kept and 55 released; 11 boaters with 15 sublegal sturgeon released; six bank rods with three sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
• John Day pool, 149 boaters with 201 walleye kept and 135 released; four bank rods with three walleye kept; 20 boaters with two spring chinook kept; 50 bank rods with one spring chinook kept; 43 boaters with six bass kept and 310 released; 56 boaters with six legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 25 sublegals released; two bank rods with no sturgeon.
Wind — At the mouth, 67 boaters with three spring chinook. In the gorge, two bank rods with no catch. (WDFW) Beginning on May 1, anglers with a two-pole endorsement may fish with two rods and all anglers may continue fishing until a boat limit is achieved.
Drano Lake — Sixty-seven boaters with six spring chinook kept; eight bank rods with no catch. (WDFW) Beginning on May 1, anglers with a two-pole endorsement may fish with two rods and all anglers may continue fishing until a boat limit is achieved.
Lewis — Six bank rods with two wild steelhead released. Spring chinook retention is closed. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — One-hundred-forty-nine boaters with 88 steelhead and 19 spring chinook kept plus two adult chinook released; 294 bank rods with 48 adult spring chinook, two jack chinook and 37 steelhead kept plus two adult spring chinook released. (WDFW)
Streamflow at Mayfield Dam is approximately 8,500 cubic feet per second with 7 feet of visibility. (WDFW)
Klineline Pond — Fifty-nine bank rods with 121 catchable size rainbow trout and six brood stock rainbow kept plus 10 rainbows released. The best bite was in the southeast and northwest corners of the pond. (WDFW)
Merwin Reservoir — Kokanee angling is spotty on good days and poor much of the time.
