Spring chinook anglers get another four days of fishing in the lower Columbia River beginning today, with recent catches better downstream than in the metropolitan area.
During the five-day extension through Monday, anglers between Bonneville Dam and the river mouth made 11,957 trips catching 2,264 adult spring chinook (2,029 kept and 235 released) plus 59 steelhead (36 kept and 23 released).
That’s a chinook per 5.2 angler trips. The catch seems much better from Longview downstream than in the Vancouver-Portland area.
Through Monday, anglers in the lower river had taken slightly more than 30 percent of their upper Columbia-Snake chinook allocation.
A joint state hearing may be scheduled on Wednesday to consider an additional fishing extension.
• Kokanee fishing at Merwin Reservoir has slowed. Speelyai Bay boat ramp remains closed, but Cresap Bay is open as an alternative.
• Horsethief, Spearfish and Rowland lakes in Klickitat County open for fishing on Saturday in what’s left locally of the old late-April opening day.
• Walleye anglers in The Dalles pool averaged 6.3 fish per rod last weekend.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Tongue Point to Wauna power lines, 72 boat rods with 12 adult spring chinook kept. (ODFW)
Downstream of Puget Island, 194 boaters with 52 adult spring chinook and one jack chinook kept plus two adult chinook released. (WDFW)
Westport, Ore., to Portland, 688 boat rods with 107 adult spring chinook and one jack chinook kept plus 14 adult chinook released; 243 Oregon bank rods with 21 adult spring chinook, two jack chinook and two steelhead kept plus four adult chinook and one steelhead released. (ODFW)
Cathlamet, 39 boaters with 13 adult spring chinook kept and one released; three bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Longview, 250 boaters with 54 adult spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus three adult chinook released; 24 bank rods with one steelhead kept; two boaters with no sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, 29 boaters with nine adult spring chinook kept and two released. (WDFW)
Kalama, 225 boaters with 33 adult spring chinook kept and four released; 15 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Woodland, 102 boaters with 20 adult spring chinook kept and three released; 150 bank rods with 11 adult spring chinook kept plus one chinook and three steelhead released. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 180 boaters with 25 adult spring chinook kept and two released; 63 bank rods with three adult spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 13 boaters with three adult spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Troutdale, Ore., 131 boaters with 19 adult spring chinook kept plus two released. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 22 boaters with two adult spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, 60 bank rods wth two adult spring chinook kept and one released. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Beacon Rock), 27 boaters with 11 adult spring chinook kept plus one chinook released. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, 86 boaters with 468 walleye kept plus 80 released. (ODFW)
John Day pool, 15 boaters with 51 walleye kept and four released. (ODFW)
Lower Willamette — Mouth to St. Johns Bridge, plus Multnomah Channel, 1,667 boaters with 77 spring chinook kept and 12 released. (ODFW)
Cowlitz — Twenty boaters with three adult spring chinook kept; eight bank rods with one steelhead. At the salmon hatchery, crews recovered 300 winter steelhead adults, five winter steelhead jacks, 347 adult spring chinook, seven jack chinook and one summer steelhead in five days of separator operations. (WDFW)
Kalama — Fifty-two bank rods with three wild steelhead released; 27 boaters with one spring chinook kept and one wild steelhead released. (WDFW)
