Fishing Report 8/26

Catch begins to arrive at Buoy 10

After a couple weeks of waiting, the anticipated chinook run has started to show up at the popular Buoy 10 fishery.

On Sunday, for example, counts by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife revealed 127 boats with 365 anglers, and 48 chinook kept and 66 coho kept. The previous Sunday, there had been fewer anglers, with six chinook kept and three coho kept.

One of every three private boat anglers had caught a salmon. Chinook retention is expected to be allowed through the end of the month.

The counts for the six days beginning Aug. 18:

Boats Anglers Chinook Coho

Aug. 18 62 149 35 27

Aug. 19 91 250 37 29

Friday 40 106 11 13

Saturday 40 106 11 13

Sunday 127 365 48 66

Monday 25 66 6 3

The previous four days for which there had been a count had averaged 11 chinook and five coho.

Chinook retention is expected to be allowed through the end of the month.

Angler checks from the WDFW:

Lower Columbia — Chinook catches have picked up while steelhead catches have dropped.

• Below Bonneville Dam, there was an average of one salmonid kept/released per 5.9 rods.

• Longview, 209 bank anglers with 12 steelhead kept and six released; 196 boat anglers with 20 chinook kept.

• Kalama, 186 bank anglers wit 16 chinook kept, and six steelhead kept and five released.

• Bonneville Pool, 87 bank anglers kept 15 steelhead and released three. Boat anglers at the mouths of the tributaries are catching some fall chinook.

• Camas/Washougal, 53 boat anglers reported only one chinook kept. A total of 13 boat anglers kept 15 walleye.

• Cathlamet, 62 bank anglers with four steelhead kept, none released.

• Woodland, 118 bank anglers with eight steelhead kept and two released; 71 boat anglers with nine chinook kept.

• Cowlitz, 106 boat anglers with 18 chinook kept; 21 steelhead kept and eight released.

Drano Lake — 140 boat anglers with 75 steelhead kept and 37 released. Eighty percent of the anglers sampled had caught a steelhead.

Wind River — Bank and boat anglers at the mouth are catching some steelhead. A total of 25 bank anglers had seven steelhead kept and one steelhead released.