Spring chinook catch rates improved markedly past week to a salmon per 10 rods. While not fast, that’s twice as good as two weeks ago. The Interstate 205-to-Warrior Rock stretch of the river produced some chinook late last week before the bite died on the weekend.
The numbers for the week were 14,517 angler trips with 1,288 spring chinook kept and 194 released. Upper Columbia-Snake fish were 55 percent of the catch.
Angling is closed on Tuesday. Washington and Oregon officials will meet by teleconference April 7 to review sport catches and determine whether to extend the season or let is close beginning April 10, as scheduled.
State observers monitored 74 drifts in Tuesday’s commercial spring chinook fishery in the lower Columbia River.
The 74 drifts caught 160 spring chinook, with 84 percent being fin-clipped hatchery fish. A bit surprising is only 47 percent were of upper Columbia River origin. The 160 drifts also handled 28 steelhead, of which 64 percent were hatchery fish.
Spring chinook fishing opens Saturday in the Klickitat River. It will be open Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays through May. The limit is two fish total, either hatchery steelhead or hatchery chinook.
About 45 percent of the boats counted on Saturday were in the Vancouver area, although nearly 50 were observed in the Multnomah Falls-Horsetail Falls area.
• Walleye fishing slowed a bit for boaters in The Dalles pool just downstream of John Day Dam, but is still decent. Anglers also are getting an incidental catch of smallmouth bass.
• Horseshoe Lake in Woodland was stocked with 2,840 rainbow trout last week.
• Kokanee catches are improving at Merwin Reservoir as the water clarity finally improves.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Downstream of Puget Island, 265 boaters with 50 adult spring chinook, two jack chinook and a steelhead kept plus two adult chinook released; 17 bank rods with one steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Tongue Point to Wauna power lines, 49 boaters with four adult spring chinook kept and one chinook released; 16 Oregon bank rods with two hatchery steelhead kept. (ODFW)
Cathlamet, 17 boaters with no catch; 114 bank rods with three adult spring chinook and three steelhead kept plus one spring chinook released. (WDFW)
Westport, Ore. to Portland, 859 boaters with 69 adult chinook and one steelhead kept plus seven adult chinook released; 183 Oregon bank rods with two adult spring chinook and one spring chinook released. (ODFW)
Longview, 448 boaters with 17 adult spring chinook and six steelhead kept plus two steelhead released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, 19 boaters with one adult spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Kalama, 375 boaters with 27 adult spring chinook kept and three released; two bank rods with two adult spring chinook kept; three boaters with two sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Woodland, 265 boaters with 23 adult spring chinook kept and three released; 135 bank rods with three adult spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 415 boaters with 34 adult spring chinook kept and eight released; 96 bank rods with one steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 234 boaters with 27 adult spring chinook kept and five released; one bank rod with no catch; five boaters with five legal and 20 sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Troutdale, Ore., 42 boaters with three adult spring chinook kept and one released. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 22 boaters with no catch; seven bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge, 13 boaters with four adult spring chinook kept; 81 bank rods with two adult spring chinook kept and four released. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Beacon Rock), 69 boaters with eight adult spring chinook kept and three adult spring chinook released. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, 93 boaters with 134 walleye and five bass kept plus six walleye and six bass released; one bank rod with no walleye; 41 boaters with one legal sturgeon kept plus two oversize and 28 sublegals released.
John Day pool, 86 boaters with 121 walleye kept and 31 released; one boater with one bass kept and 45 released; 11 boaters with one legal sturgeon kept plus seven sublegals released; five bank rods with one sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Lower Willamette — Three-hundred-sixty-one boaters with 17 spring chinook kept and five released. Sturgeon anglers released 964 legal-size fish for the week. At Willamette Falls, the water temperature is 49 degrees with 3.4 feet of visibility. (ODFW)
Cowlitz — Ninety-three boaters with nine adult spring chinook and 83 steelhead kept plus five steelhead released; 97 bank rods with 10 adult spring chinook and 16 steelhead kept plus one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Most of the steelhead were caught near the trout hatchery, while the chinook catch is distributed throughout the river. At Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery, 312 winter steelhead and 196 spring chinook, plus two chinook jacks, returned in five days of operation.
Kalama — Twenty-seven boaters with five hatchery steelhead and one hatchery spring chinook kept plus three wild steelhead released; 21 bank rods with one hatchery chinook and one hatchery steelhead kept plus two wild steelhead released. (WDFW)
North Fork Lewis — Two bank rods with no steelhead. Salmon fishing is closed. (WDFW)
