Spring chinook salmon fishing lower Columbia
March 11th, 2006 by Fishing admin
Spring chinook startingto show in sport catch
Spring chinook salmon fishing is well under way in the lower Columbia and its tributaries even if there are not a lot of salmon around yet.
The gillnetters caught 214 spring chinook last Thursday and an additional 111 on Tuesday.
State officials are beginning to sample spring salmon in the sport fleet too. Two were checked on the weekend downstream of St. Helens, Ore., and three in the North Fork of the Lewis River. A salmon was landed Monday at Frenchmen’s Bar and three have been counted already at Willamette Falls.
A flight of the lower Columbia on Saturday counted 219 salmon boats plus 151 bank rods on the Oregon side and 33 on the Washington beaches. The effort level is similar to a year ago.
Angler checks and related information from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW):
Lower Columbia — Chinook to Elochoman, three boaters with one sublegal sturgeon released; five bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Brookfield to Elochoman, 36 boaters with no spring chinook or steelhead. (WDFW)
Cathlamet, three boaters with no sturgeon; 21 boaters with no spring chinook or steelhead. (WDFW)
Longview, 21 boaters no sturgeon; four bank rods with no sturgeon; 67 boaters with no spring chinook; six bank rods with no salmon. (WDFW)
Longview to Portland, 19 boats with two spring chinook; 87 Oregon bank rods with three hatchery steelhead kept plus one spring chinook and one wild steelhead released; eight boats with 29 sublegal sturgeon released. (ODFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, six boaters with no salmon. (WDFW)
Kalama, 33 boaters with no salmon or steelhead; 12 bank rods with one steelhead; 24 boaters with one oversize and 38 sublegal sturgeon released; three bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Woodland, 53 boaters with two spring chinook and one steelhead; one bank rod with no salmon; three boaters with one sublegal sturgeon released; two bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Frenchmen’s Bar, 19 boaters with no salmon; eight bank rods with salmon. (WDFW)
Davis Bar, nine bank rods with no salmon. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, 10 bank anglers with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge, 10 boats with 18 sublegal sturgeon released. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 20 boaters with three legal sturgeon kept and 139 sublegals released; 73 bank rods with three legal sturgeon kept and 29 sublegals released; eight boaters with two walleye; two boaters with five bass released. (WDFW)
The Dalles pool, eight boaters with one sublegal sturgeon released; 25 bank rods with one sublegal sturgeon released; 15 boaters with four walleye kept and three released; four bank rods with one walleye kept; two bank rods with no bass. (WDFW)
John Day pool, five boaters with one oversize and one sublegal sturgeon released; 40 bank rods with one oversize and 12 sublegal sturgeon released; 16 bank rods with one steelhead kept; 44 boaters with 15 walleye kept and one released; two boaters with one bass released; three bank rods with no bass. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — Eleven boaters with one steelhead; 48 bank rods with four steelhead kept and one released. The steelhead are being caught near Blue and Olequa creeks. (WDFW)
Kalama — Steelhead fishing is very good, with about 85 percent of the catch wild fish which must be released. A few spring chinook also have been landed. So far, 425 wild steelhead have been passed upstream of Kalama Falls Hatchery to spawn. (WDFW)
Lewis — Seven boaters with two spring chinook kept and two steelhead released; 20 bank rods with one spring chinook kept and one steelhead released. (WDFW)