Cowlitz River
- Steelhead continue to be caught at Blue Creek and chinook at the
barrier dam. Last week, Tacoma Power recovered 85 summer-run steelhead,
seven spring chinook adults, four jacks, 46 spring chinook mini-jacks,
six fall chinook adults, ten jacks and one coho salmon jack at the Cowlitz
Salmon Hatchery separator during five days of operations.
Tacoma Power employees
released 45 spring chinook mini-jacks into Riffe Lake and five fall
chinook adults and nine jacks into Mayfield Lake. Two spring chinook
jacks were released into Lake Scanewa at the Cowlitz Falls Project Day
Use Site.
River flows at Mayfield
Dam are approximately at 2,520 cubic feet per second on Monday, August
27. Water visibility is over 10 feet.
Anglers are reminded
Chinook retention will be prohibited in the lower Cowlitz from the Hwy.
4 Bridge at Kelso downstream Sept. 5-30.
Kalama River
- Some fall chinook are being caught. The first three adult coho
had returned to Kalama Falls Hatchery by August 22.
North Fork Lewis
and Wind rivers - Light effort.
Anglers are reminded
Chinook retention will be prohibited in the lower Lewis River (including
the North Fork) from the I-5 Bridge downstream Sept. 5-30.
Drano Lake -
Anglers are catching some summer run steelhead and fall chinook.
White Salmon
River - Anglers are catching summer run steelhead. Some bright fall
chinook are reported being caught in the evenings by anglers casting
spinners.
Klickitat River
- Light effort.
Buoy 10 -
To date, catch rates for Chinook in the Buoy 10 fishery have been similar
to the same period in past years. Chinook catch rates were highest during
August 22-23 (0.30 Chinook/angler), but declined to 0.10 Chinook/angler
on Sunday August 26. During August 22-26, an estimated 10,900 anglers
have kept 2,300 Chinook and 1,700 coho.
Preseason catch
expectations include 3,800 adult Chinook and 12,000 coho. Generally,
jacks and stray adults comprise about 15% of total Chinook catch, therefore
the actual in season catch guideline is about 4,300 Chinook total.
Chinook retention
was scheduled to be allowed August 22 through September 3. Based on
the catch rates that staff modeled, it appears the fishery can continue
at least through Friday August 31. A Joint State Hearing is scheduled
for 3:00 PM Wednesday, August 29 to review ongoing fisheries and consider
modifications for the Buoy 10 fishery if necessary.
Lower Columbia
below Bonneville Dam - Last week we sampled 2,204 salmonid anglers
with 195 adult and 13 jack fall chinook, 9 adult coho, and 66 steelhead.
Overall boat anglers averaged an adult chinook kept per every 9.7 rods
while bank anglers averaged one per every 27.4 rods based on mainly
completed and incomplete trips, respectively. Catches for boat anglers
were spread throughout the river while bank anglers at Kalama did well.
Catches improved over the past weekend with a chinook per every other
boat at Longview and 1 per every 3 boats in Kalama yesterday.
Nearly 900 boats
and 200 WA and 60 OR bank anglers were counted during the Saturday August
25 flight.
Anglers are reminded
Chinook retention will be prohibited in the mainstem Columbia from the
Lewis River downstream Sept. 5-30.
Bonneville Pool
- Boat anglers are catching some fall chinook, coho, and steelhead.
They're fishing off the mouths of the Washington tributaries.
Hanford Reach
- Things still remain slow for fall Chinook. The Ringold area boat
and bank anglers had a high incidental steelhead catch. Angler report
of many steelhead caught and released in the mid to lower Reach with
very little salmon activity. Still no reports from the mouth of the
Yakima river.
