WDFW Sport Sampling Results:
September 13, 2005

Latest Southwest Washington Sport Sampling Summaries [PDF Format]

Salmon/Steelhead -

Cowlitz River - No report on angling success. During the past week, Tacoma Power employees recovered 192 fall chinook adults, eight jacks, 49 spring chinook adults, one jack, 118 summer-run steelhead, 17 cutthroat trout, 57 coho salmon adults and one coho jack adult during four days of separator operations at Tacoma Power’s Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery.

Tacoma Power employees released 47 spring chinook adults, 49 coho salmon adults and one jack into the Cispus River at the 2810 Road site above the mouth of Yellow Jacket Creek during the week.

During the week Tacoma Power employees recycled 71 steelhead adults and three cutthroat trout downstream to the Interstate-5 boat launch, and they recycled 85 steelhead and seven cutthroat trout downstream to the Olequa boat launch.

During the week sixteen fall chinook adults were released into Mayfield Lake at Ike Kinswa State Park boat launch. In addition, seven cutthroat trout were released at the Bremer Bridge on the Tilton River.

River flows at Mayfield Dam are currently at 3,510 cubic feet per second (cfs) on Monday, September 12. Flows are expected to remain steady. Water visibility at Mayfield Dam is over 11 feet.

Kalama River - Bank anglers in the Camp Kalama area are catching some fall chinook.

Drano Lake - Boat anglers are catching some steelhead.

Klickitat River - Bank anglers are catching some fall chinook. Fish were rolling early in the morning. Water was low and clear.

Yakima River - Angler effort remains very light. No chinook or coho harvested.

Buoy 10 - Chinook catches continue to decline with one angler in 12 harvesting a fish. Anglers averaged a coho kept per every 5.5 rods. Approximately 250 boats were counted last Saturday (Sept. 10).

Buoy 10 catch to date is about 9,000 Chinook. The final catch is expected to be about 10,000 fish, compared to the pre-season expectation of 12,400 Chinook.

Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam - We sampled 2,108 salmonid anglers (including 770 boats) with 508 adult chinook kept and 15 released. Boat anglers averaged an adult chinook kept per every 3.8 rods based on completed trips while bank anglers averaged one per every 9.5 rods based on mainly incomplete trips.

Catch and effort in the gorge has increased. Catches from Vancouver downstream dropped off during the weekend, possibly due to the small tides (3 feet change from high to low). Overall, nearly 1,200 boats were counted last Saturday.

The Technical Advisory Committee updated the upriver Chinook runsize to include 286,000 Upriver Brights (URBs) and 100,000 Bonneville Pool Hatchery (BPH) fish. Preseason expectations were 354,600 URBs and 115,800 BPH returning to the Columbia River mouth.

Through September 11, an estimated 60,584 angler trips on the lower Columbia have produced a catch of 14,076 adult fall chinook. A Joint State hearing has been scheduled for today at 3:00 pm. Discussion will include upriver Chinook stock status and the on-going lower Columbia River recreational fishery.

Bonneville Pool - Fall chinook catches are increasing, particularly at the mouths of the Klickitat and White Salmon in the early morning.

Hanford Reach - Fishing was still slow. Pole hours for adult chinook were one fish for every 34 hours. The season is still early.

Sturgeon -

Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam - Effort continues to be very light during the current catch and release only fishery. Only 9 boats were counted from Bonneville Dam downstream last Saturday.

Trout -

Mineral Lake - Planted with 2,500 half-pound rainbows last Tuesday (Sept. 6).

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