Spring chinook anglers get a three-day reprieve as the Columbia River will be open Friday through Sunday.
Washington and Oregon officials may meet again on Tuesday to review catches with an eye toward more fishing. The river likely will reopen again in early June even if there is not another fishing period in May.
Spring salmon angling also will be open for the three days between Bonneville Dam and the state line, east of Umatilla, Ore.
Hatchery steelhead fishing opens Monday downstream of Interstate 5. That fishery will be open despite the closure on adult salmon.
Boaters have been averaging about a spring chinook per four rods at the mouth of Wind River and Drano Lake. Bank anglers in the Klickitat River downstream of Fisher Hill Bridge are beginning to catch chinook, too.
Beginning Sunday, the daily bag limit on hatchery spring chinook at Drano Lake increases to four adult fish and continues through June 30. Spawning needs at Little White Salmon National Fish Hatchery have been met
The catch average for boaters in the lower Willamette River was a bit more than a fish per six rods last week. Oregon estimates there were 3,041 angler trips with 409 spring chinook caught and 70 released.
Fish passage at Willamette Falls is through Saturday was 7,861 adult spring chinook, which is less than the five-year average for the date of 11,500. The 50-percent passage date at Willamette Falls for the past five years is May 19.
The catch-and-release sturgeon fishery in the lower Willamette is good. Oregon estimates there were 70 angler trips with 140 legal, 165 sublegal and 21 oversize sturgeon released last week.
Kokanee fishing slowly is improving at Merwin Reservoir, although still spotty at times.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 129 bank rods with 37 spring chinook kept and one released. (WDFW)
• The Dalles pool, 254 boaters with 83 spring chinook kept and 22 released; 117 bank rods with 15 spring chinook kept and three released; 16 boaters with 34 walleye kept and 17 released; six boaters with 12 bass kept and 86 released. (WDFW)
• John Day pool, 162 boaters with 18 spring chinook kept and four released; 89 bank rods with 11 spring chinook kept and seven released; 72 boaters with 55 walleye kept and 90 released; 22 boaters with 62 bass kept and 194 released.
Cowlitz — Ninety-eight bank rods with 39 adult chinook, 11 jack chinook and one steelhead kept plus one chinook released; 28 boaters with seven adult spring chinook and five jacks kept. (WDFW)
Kalama — Fourteen boaters with one steelhead kept; 63 bank rods with one spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
East Fork Lewis — Five bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Wind — At the mouth, 264 boaters with 71 adult spring chinook and two jack chinook kept; 17 bank rods with 13 adult spring chinook kept. In the gorge, five bank rods with two adult spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Eight bank rods with no catch; 381 boaters with 111 adult spring chinook and one jack kept plus four adult chinook released. (WDFW)
Klickitat — Fourteen bank rods with four adult spring chinook and one steelhead kept. (WDFW)
