Sturgeon catches have been very slow as the water temperature is just 39 degrees as measured at Bonneville Dam.
Not only are the catches poor in the lower Columbia, they are marginal in the Bonneville pool.
For the first two weeks of January, only 23 sturgeon were kept in the Bonneville pool, which was 2 percent of the winter guideline of 1,150. Those figures are for through Jan. 13.
The tributaries are low, cold and the bite for winter steelhead is poor.
Streamflow on Wednesday in the Washougal River at Hathaway Park was a low 635 cubic feet per second. The East Fork of the Lewis River at Heisson was 578 cubic feet per second, compared to an average of 894 for the date.
The North Fork of the Lewis downstream of Merwin Dam is a low 3,510 cubic feet per second. The average is 6,400. The Cowlitz River at Mayfield Dam was 7,680 cubic feet per second.
A couple of walleye were checked in both the Bonneville and John Day pools, so it’s not too cold for them to bite.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Kalama, four boaters with one sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Vancouver, four boaters with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 29 bank rods with two sublegal sturgeon released; 107 boaters with seven legal sturgeon kept plus five legal, three oversize and 318 sublegals released; four boaters with two walleye kept; one bank rod with no walleye, (WDFW)
The Dalles pool, 22 bank rods with one oversize and nine sublegal sturgeon released; 10 boaters with one oversize and seven sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
John Day pool, 47 bank rods with two sublegal sturgeon released; 33 boaters with one legal sturgeon kept plus two oversize and 13 sublegal sturgeon released; four boaters with two walleye kept and two walleye released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — Fourteen bank rods with one steelhead kept; seven boaters with one winter steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Washougal — Sixty-seven bank rods with one hatchery steelhead kept and two wild fish released; 31 boaters with one wild steelhead released. (WDFW)
