Given that the lower Columbia River is at minor flood stage and has about a foot of visibility, it’s amazing that more than 2,000 anglers went out last week in pursuit of spring chinook.
Granted, that’s a piddly number compared to normal in mid-March, but river conditions are awful and bordering on unsafe.
Washington and Oregon officials estimate there were 2,258 trips last week with a catch of 11 spring chinook.
For March, through Sunday, overall numbers are 6,210 trips with 25 lower Columbia spring chinook and 16 upper Columbia-Snake spring chinook kept plus six chinook released.
The key number is the 16 upper Columbia-Snake fish caught. That’s 16 against an early-season allocation of 6,905 fish.
The National Weather Service is forecasting the Columbia River will be close to 17 feet on the gauge through Monday, so the water is not dropping.
The cumulative spring chinook count at Bonneville Dam was 12 through Monday.
• Ironically, the high muddy water is not bothering the walleye in the upper end of The Dalles pool, where boaters averaged 4.4 fish per rod last week.
• Sturgeon retention is closed beginning Saturday in Bonneville and The Dalles pool. Bonneville pool will get one additional day of retention, typically in mid-June. Catch-and-release fishing is allowed.
• Horseshoe Lake at Woodland has been stocked with 9,400 rainbow trout.
• Kokanee fishing is sputtering along at Merwin Reservoir. Anecdotal reports have trollers getting a few fish, but not really a good bite, on most days.
Angler sampling by the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Tongue Point to Wauna power lines, 17 boaters with no catch. (ODFW)
• Downstream of Puget Island, 14 boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
• Cathlamet, three boaters and eight bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
• Westport, Ore., to Portland, 85 boaters with no catch. (ODFW)
• Longview, 23 boaters and 26 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
• Cowlitz River mouth, three boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
• Kalama, 25 boaters and 12 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
• Woodland, five boaters and 56 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
• Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 93 boaters with one spring chinook kept; 17 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
• Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 12 boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
• Troutdale, Ore., 37 boaters with no catch. (ODFW)
• Camas-Washougal, four boaters and two bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
• North Bonneville, nine bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 14 boaters with two oversize and three sublegal sturgeon released; 37 bank rods with three legal sturgeon kept and one oversize sturgeon released; one bank rod with no spring chinook. (WDFW)
• The Dalles pool, 66 boaters with 222 walleye kept and 69 released; 12 bank rods with no sturgeon; 11 boaters with three legal sturgeon kept plus three sublegals and one oversize sturgeon released. (WDFW)
• John Day pool, 78 boaters with 35 walleye kept and 66 released; three boaters with two bass released; 25 bank rods with three legal sturgeon kept plus 11 sublegals released; 23 boaters with three legal sturgeon kept plus six oversize and eight sublegals released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — One-hundred-ninety-nine boaters with two spring chinook and 41 steelhead kept plus one steelhead released; 124 bank rods with one jack chinook and six steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Streamflow at Mayfield Dam on Wednesday was a high 14,500 cubic feet per second.
Kalama — Fourteen bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
