Let’s not get too excited, but there is a bit of news regarding spring chinook.
The first hatchery spring chinook of the season returned to Merwin Dam on Wednesday. That’s a bit ironic given the North Fork of the Lewis River is expected to have a dismal return of only about 700 spring salmon.
A second spring chinook has been counted at Bonneville Dam. So, there was only a month hiatus between now and the first fish in mid-February.
Washington officials also sampled their second spring chinook in the sport fishery on Wednesday.
Water clarity in the Willamette River at the Morrison Bridge was slightly less than 2 feet on Thursday. Water clarity on Wednesday at Bonneville Dam was 4 feet, so sufficient for salmon fishing. The water temperature at Bonneville Dam is 39.7 degrees.
Angling at Wind River and Drano Lake opens on Thursday.
Walleye fishing continues to be good in the upper The Dalles pool and in John Day pool.
Angler sampling by the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) department of Fish and Wildlife;
Lower Columbia — Tongue Point to Wauna power lines, one boater and two bank rods with no spring chinook. (ODFW)
Cathlamet, two bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Longview, 15 boaters and 22 bank rods with no spring chinook or steelhead. (WDFW)
Portland to Westport, Ore., 40 boaters with no spring chinook; 73 Oregon bank rods with one spring chinook kept. (ODFW)
Kalama, 15 boaters with one spring chinook kept; 11 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Woodland, 10 boaters and 55 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 46 boaters and two bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, four boaters and two bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Troutdale, Ore., four boaters with no spring chinook. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 18 boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, seven bank rods with one steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, one boater with no walleye; 41 boaters with four legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 89 sublegal released; 37 bank rods with two legal sturgeon kept plus 21 sublegals released. (WDFW)
The Dalles pool, 65 boaters with 86 walleye kept and 38 released; six bank rods with two walleye kept; 20 boaters with one legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 22 sublegal sturgeon released; two bank rods with one legal sturgeon kept. (WDFW)
John Day pool, 100 boaters with 137 walleye kept and 44 released; 40 bank rods with one legal sturgeon kept plus four sublegal and three oversize sturgeon released; 51 boaters with five sublegal and one oversize sturgeon released; one bank rod with one steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Willamette — Downstream of St. Johns Bridge and Multnomah Channel, 76 boaters with no spring chinook; 126 boaters with 67 sturgeon released. (ODFW)
Cowlitz — Ninety-four boaters with 10 steelhead kept; 96 bank rods with three steelhead kept. Twenty-two winter steelhead returned to the fish separator at Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery last week. The river has 5 feet of visibility and is 41.5 degrees. (WDFW)
Coweeman — Eleven bank rods with four wild steelhead released. (WDFW)
Kalama — Ninety-four bank rods with five hatchery steelhead kept plus one hatchery and six wild steelhead released; 42 boaters with four hatchery steelhead kept plus one hatchery and 10 wild steelhead released. (WDFW)
East Fork Lewis — Thirty-five bank rods with seven wild steelhead released; five boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
