Cowlitz
River - Anglers at Blue Creek and Olequa are catching late
winter run steelhead. The first two spring chinook of the season returned
to the salmon hatchery last week.
River flows at
Mayfield Dam are approximately 10,100 cubic feet per second on Monday,
March 12. Currently the water visibility is over two feet.
Kalama
River - Bank anglers in the canyon are catching some wild winter
run steelhead.
Lewis River
- Anglers near the salmon hatchery are catching some hatchery
spring chinook and wild winter run steelhead.
Wind River
- Effective March 16, anglers fishing the Wind River may retain
only one – rather than two – hatchery spring chinook per
day. In addition, the river will remain closed to all fishing upstream
from a point 400 feet below Shipherd Falls until the catch-and-release
season begins in September.
Drano Lake
- Opens to fishing for spring chinook beginning March 16. The
daily limit remains 2 hatchery chinook or hatchery steelhead or one
of each.
Through March 7,
only 8 spring chinook had been counted at Bonneville Dam. However, five
year-old Wind River and Drano Lake fish have been sampled from the lower
Columbia mainstem fisheries.
Lower Columbia
from the I-5 Bridge downstream - Last week we sampled almost
600 salmonid anglers (including 243 boats) with 31 chinook and no steelhead.
Boat anglers averaged a chinook kept/released per every 17.7 rods while
bank anglers averaged one per every 34.7 based on mainly complete and
incomplete trips, respectively. Catch was found throughout the river
but boaters in the Vancouver area did best with a fish per every 12.6
rods.
22 (71%) of the
31 chinook caught were adipose clipped. Based on Visual Stock Identification,
54.5% of the fish kept were lower river stock.
During the same
period last year, boat anglers averaged a chinook kept/released for
every 16.8 rods; no catch was observed from the bank.
Salmonid angler
effort increased in the lower Columbia River this past weekend with
359 boats and 251 Oregon bank rods counted below I-5 on Saturday’s
(3/10) flight.
On Sunday March
12, 2006 a total of 235 boats plus 168 OR and 49 WA salmonid bank anglers
were counted from I-5 Bridge downstream during the ODFW flight. When
comparing to this past Saturday's flight, please note Saturday's are
usually a higher effort day than Sunday's.
In February 2007,
just 24 chinook were caught from an estimated 4,400 anglers trips.
Bonneville
and The Dalles pools - No effort was found during the current
steelhead season. Opens to fishing for hatchery spring chinook and hatchery
steelhead from the Tower Island powerlines, located about 6 miles below
The Dalles Dam, upstream to McNary Dam beginning March 16.
John Day
Pool - Boat anglers averaged nearly a steelhead kept/released
per rod while bank anglers averaged one per every 5 rods. About 3/4
of the fish caught were hatchery fish that were kept.
Lower Columbia
below Bonneville Dam - Slow for legal size fish. In February
2007, an estimated 5,300 angler trips produced just 58 legals kept.
This is the third year in a row that catches in January and February
total 100 fish or less.
Bonneville
Pool - Slow for legal size fish. Through February, an estimated
28 (4%) of the 700 fish guideline had been taken.
The Dalles
Pool - Slow for legal size fish. An estimated 34 (34%) of the
100 fish guideline had been taken through February.
John Day
Pool - Boat anglers are catching some legals.
Klineline
Pond - 54 bank anglers kept 56 rainbows and released 49. Planted
with 1,536 rainbows weighing over ½ pound each on March 7.
Battleground
Lake - Planted with 2,000 rainbows averaging over one-half
pound each on March 6.
Lacamas
Lake - Planted with 4,000 rainbows averaging 2/3 pound each
on March 6.
