WDFW Sport Sampling Results: August 28, 2006 Latest Southwest Washington Sport Sampling Summaries [PDF Format] Salmon/Steelhead - Cowlitz River - Boat anglers from the I-5 Bridge downstream are catching a mixture of fall chinook, coho, summer run steelhead, and sea run cutthroats. The first coho of the season returned to the salmon hatchery last week. During the past week Tacoma Power and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recovered 516 summer-run steelhead, 82 adult spring chinook salmon, three spring chinook jacks, six fall chinook adults, two adult coho salmon and seven cutthroat trout at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator during five days of operations. Tacoma Power employees released 22 spring chinook adults into the Cispus River above the mouth of Yellowjacket Creek, 37 spring chinook adults and one jack into the upper Cowlitz River at the Franklin Bridge site in Packwood, Washington, and six fall chinook adults, two cutthroat trout and two coho adults were released into Mayfield Lake at Ike Kinswa Park during the week. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife employees released three cutthroat trout into the upper Cowlitz River. Tacoma Power employees recycled 482 summer-run steelhead and one cutthroat trout downstream to the Interstate-5 boat launch and recycled 275 steelhead and one cutthroat downstream to the Massey Bar boat launch during the week. River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 3,000 cubic feet per second on Monday, August 28. Water visibility is approximately 17 feet. Kalama River - Light effort and catches. Four coho returned to Kalama Falls Hatchery last week. Drano Lake - Boat anglers are catching some fall chinook, coho, and steelhead. White Salmon River - Bank anglers are catching some fall chinook, coho, and steelhead. About 40 water craft were counted yesterday morning. Klickitat River - The few bank anglers sampled had no catch. Buoy 10 - If its possible, fishing for chinook has gotten slower. At the ports of Chinook and Ilwaco during the weekend, boat anglers averaged a chinook per every 80 rods. Coho fishing was a little better with a fish per every 14.5 rods. In 2005, anglers averaged nearly a chinook per every 3 rods and a coho per every 7 rods during the same period. Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam - Effort and catch improved dramatically. Last week we sampled 2,631 salmonid anglers (including 897 boats) with 540 adult and 17 jack fall chinook kept, 13 adults and 2 jacks released, 11 adult coho kept and 6 released, 105 steelhead kept and 33 released, and 1 sea run cutthroat kept. Chinook were caught up to the Camas/Washougal area. Best catches were in the Woodland area where boat and bank anglers averaged an adult chinook kept per every 2.8 and 3.7 rods based on mainly completed and incomplete trips, respectively. Overall, boat anglers averaged an adult chinook kept per every 4 rods while bank anglers averaged one per every 13.6 rods. Several fish in the 40 pound range were observed. Steelhead catches were spread throughout the lower river. Best catches were by bank anglers just below Bonneville Dam with a steelhead kept per every 2.9 rods. Overall, bank anglers averaged a steelhead kept per every 14.4 rods based on mainly incomplete trips while boat anglers averaged one per every 34 rods based on mainly completed trips. Coho were mainly caught between the mouths of the Cowlitz and Lewis rivers. Sampling showed 44% of the coho kept were unmarked fish that should have been released. Some anglers confused wild coho for chinook because of the large size of the coho. Bonneville Pool - Boat anglers are catching some fall chinook, coho, and summer run steelhead off the mouths of the Washington tributaries. Ten boats were observed off the mouth of the White Salmon River yesterday. Hanford Reach - Effort was up for the week. No chinook adult were caught during the creel. Weather was warm again and water temperature is still holding in the high 60's. Sturgeon, bass, and walleye made up most of the catch. Sturgeon - Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam - Light effort during the current catch and release only fishery. Walleye - Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam - The few boat anglers sampled from Camas/Washougal upstream had no catch. Trout - Mayfield Lake - Planted with 900 half-pound rainbows on August 23. Skate Creek - Planted with 1,410 half pound rainbows on August 22.