Spring chinook fishing in the lower Columbia is done until late May — at the earliest — as sportsmen have come close to filling their early-season quota.
Washington and Oregon released numbers on Tuesday that show a kept catch of 6,482 adult spring chinook destined for waters upstream of Bonneville Dam. Add in the handling mortality on released fish and the number gets close to the early-season allocation of 6,905.
Total catch is 8,947 fish adding in chinook headed for the Willamette and other lower Columbia streams.
An extension is expected to be announced next week for the spring chinook fishery between Bonneville Dam and the Washington-Oregon border, east of Umatilla, Ore. That fishery is scheduled to close May 5, but has barely started due to slow fish passage at Bonneville Dam.
Angling effort now shifts to the lower Willamette River, plus Wind River and Drano Lake in the Columbia Gorge.
• Walleye fishing remains good in the upper end of The Dalles pool,
• Kokanee catches continue sporadic in Merwin Reservoir.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Tongue Point to Wauna power lines, 58 boaters with 12 adult spring chinook kept and two released. (ODFW)
Downstream of Puget Island, 243 boaters with 111 adult spring chinook and four jack chinook kept plus 11 adult chinook released. (WDFW)
Cathlamet, 93 boaters with 34 adult spring chinook and three jack chinook kept plus two adult chinook released; 18 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Longview, 613 boaters with 108 adult spring chinook, nine jack chinook and one steelhead kept plus 17 adult chinook and one jack released; 31 bank rods with one adult chinook kept. (WDFW)
Westport, Ore., to Portland, 992 boaters with 160 adult spring chinook and four jack chinook kept plus 12 adult chinook released; 374 Oregon bank rods with 25 adult spring chinook, one jack chinook and one steelhead kept plus four adult chinook and one steelhead released. (ODFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, 48 boaters with three adult spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Kalama, 385 boaters with 98 adult spring chinook and three jacks kept plus five adult chinook released; 12 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Woodland, 377 boaters with 85 adult spring chinook and two jacks kept plus 11 adult chinook released; 237 bank rods with nine adult spring chinook, one jack chinook and one steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 589 boaters with 91 adult spring chinook and two jack chinook kept plus 17 adult chinook released; 65 bank rods with five adult chinook and one steelhead kept plus one adult chinook released. (WDFW)
Troutdale, Ore. 249 boaters with 25 adult spring chinook kept plus one released. (ODFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 118 boaters with 26 adult spring chinook kept and four released. (WDFW)
Camas-Washougal, 26 boaters with seven adult spring chinook kept and two released. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Beacon Rock), 26 boaters with 14 adult spring chinook kept and two released. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Beacon Rock), 272 anglers with 145 adult spring chinook kept plus 12 adult chinook and one jack chinook released. (ODFW)
North Bonneville, 247 bank rods with 33 adult spring chinook kept and six released. (WDFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, 59 boaters with 231 walleye kept and 60 released; two Oregon bank rods with one walleye kept. (ODFW)
John Day pool, 49 boaters with 172 walleye kept and 55 released; 13 bank rods with 38 walleye kept and 11 released. (ODFW)
Cowlitz — Twenty-three boaters with two adult spring chinook and four steelhead kept plus one steelhead released; 29 bank rods with three adult spring chinook, two jack chinook and two steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Last week, the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator got 371 winter steelhead, one winter steelhead jack, 505 adult spring chinook, 26 jack chinook and two summer steelhead.
Kalama — Sixty-two bank rods with one hatchery steelhead and one spring chinook kept plus one wild steelhead and one wild spring chinook released; 30 boaters with four hatchery spring chinook and a hatchery steelhead kept plus one wild steelhead released. (WDFW)
East Fork Lewis — Eleven bank rods with three wild steelhead released. (WDFW)
Wind — Four boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Six bank rods with no catch; 18 boaters with one adult spring chinook. About 25 boats were fishing Drano on Saturday morning. (WDFW)
Klickitat — Two bank rods with no fish. (WDFW)
Horsethief Lake — Six anglers with 35 fish kept and two released. (WDFW)
Rowland Lake — Fifty-two anglers with 151 fish kept and 110 released. (WDFW)
Spearfish Lake — Four anglers with eight fish kept. (WDFW)
