Trout season begins its six-month run at Swift Reservoir on Saturday, with 45,000 rainbow trout stocked to fuel fishing from now through November.
The reservoir on Wednesday was within 4 feet of full pool, so launching at Swift Forest Camp will not be an issue.
Spring chinook fishing opened today in the Lewis River and North Fork from the mouth to the power lines downstream of Merwin Dam. The daily limit is six hatchery chinook salmon, of which only one may be an adult. Angling is open for hatchery chinook and hatchery steelhead.
The Klickitat River is open daily starting today from the mouth to Fisher Hill Bridge and from 400 feet upstream of No. 5 fishway to markers downstream of Klickitat Salmon Hatchery.
The salmon limit is six hatchery chinook a day of which no more than two may be adults. In addition, up to three hatchery steelhead may be retained.
Walleye fishing remains good in The Dalles and John Day pools, although has cooled from the exceptional catches of April and early May. Smallmouth bass also are biting well in the two reservoirs.
Angler checks from the Washington and Oregon departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Columbia Gorge, downstream of Bonneville Dam, 15 bank rods with 83 shad kept and one shad released; two boaters with one sublegal sturgeon released. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 16 bank rods with 59 shad kept and 48 released. (ODFW)
• The Dalles pool, 96 boaters with 370 walleye kept and 30 walleye released; three boaters with five sublegal and one oversize sturgeon released. (ODFW)
• John Day pool, 157 boaters with 588 walleye kept and 284 walleye released; one bank rod with three walleye kept; three boaters with five sublegal sturgeon released. (ODFW)
Lower Willamette — Downstream of St. Johns Bridge, including Multnomah Channel, 1,078 boaters with 86 spring chinook kept and 25 released. (ODFW)
Cowlitz — Sixty-six boat rods with 15 adult spring chinook, one jack chinook and one steelhead kept plus two cutthroat trout released; 214 bank rods with 32 adult spring chinook, one jack chinook and one steelhead kept plus one adult chinook and four cutthroat trout released. (WDFW)
Last week, the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery fish separator got 854 adult spring chinook, 54 jacks, 10 winter steelhead, 17 summer steelhead and one cutthroat trout. Water visibility in the Cowlitz at Mayfield Dam is 8 feet.
Kalama — Four bank rods with one wild spring chinook released; six boaters with one hatchery spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Wind — Ten bank rods with three adult and one jack spring chinook kept; 269 boat rods with 106 adult spring chinook and 12 jack chinook kept plus two adult spring chinook, three jacks and one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Ten bank rods with no catch; 426 boaters with 141 adult spring chinook, 24 jack chinook and one steelhead kept plus five adult chinook and a jack released. (WDFW)
Klickitat — Twenty-seven bank rods with 20 adult and one jack spring chinook kept plus three steelhead and an adult chinook released.
