Spring chinook angling effort and catches in the lower Columbia River are building, but far from fast. The catch average last week was about a chinook per 20 fishing trips.
Still, with such a relatively brief season, it’s time to be fishing now.
State officials estimate there were 10,196 angler trips in the lower Columbia last week with a catch of 432 chinook kept and 57 released. The steelhead numbers were 51 kept and 47 released.
For the season, there have been an estimated 26,429 trips with 923 chinook and 297 steelhead kept, plus 109 chinook and 331 steelhead released.
Catch rates for the month of March, through Sunday, have been best in the estuary (downstream of Puget Island), Cathlamet and Woodland areas.
The U.S. Army Corps reported on Wednesday the river’s visibility at Bonneville Dam was 4 feet. In the lower Willamette, the U.S. Geological Survey reported 2.3 feet of visibility on Wednesday at the Morrison Street Bridge in Portland.
Battle Ground Lake was stocked last week with 4,000 rainbow trout. Klineline Pond received 2,000 trout.
Angler checks from the Washington and Oregon departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Estuary, 25 boaters with four spring chinook kept. (ODFW)
Downstream of Puget Island, 167 boaters with 11 adult spring chinook kept and one released; three bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Cathlamet, 18 boaters with one adult spring chinook kept; eight bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Westport, Ore., to Portland, 552 boaters with 22 spring chinook kept and two released; 145 Oregon bank rods with eight chinook and three steelhead kept plus one chinook and two steelhead released. (ODFW)
Longview, 215 boaters with three adult and one jack spring chinook kept; 55 bank rods with one steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, 35 boaters with one adult spring chinook kept and two sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Kalama, 118 boaters with one adult spring chinook kept; 24 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Woodland, 148 boaters with four adult spring chinook kept and three released; 106 bank rods with one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 411 boaters with 21 adult spring chinook kept plus three adult and one jack chinook released; 85 bank rods with one steelhead kept and two released. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 113 boaters with seven adult chinook kept and three released; six bank rods with no catch; three boaters with one legal and three sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Troutdale, Ore., 73 boaters with no catch. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 27 boaters and four bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge, two boaters and 21 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Beacon Rock), two boaters with one chinook released. (ODFW)
Columbia Gorge, six Oregon bank rods with one steelhead released. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, 59 boaters with 137 walleye kept and 23 released; four boaters with 15 sublegal sturgeon released; 10 bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
John Day pool, 139 boaters with 142 walleye kept and 88 released; five bank rods with one walleye released; 25 boaters with 14 bass kept and 145 released
Cowlitz — Sixty-six bank rods with seven steelhead and five spring chinook kept; 101 boater with 51 steelhead and four spring chinook kept plus one steelhead released. The steelhead were mostly caught near the trout hatchery, while the chinook were spread through the river. (WDFW)
Through mid-March, about 100 spring chinook have returned to the salmon hatchery. Last year, only three were back at this time.
Wind River — No anglers observed last weekend. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Two boaters with no spring chinook. (WDFW)
