Ocean anglers off Washington and northern Oregon may keep two chinook salmon in their daily bag limit beginning today.
State and federal officials liberalized the coastal limit to two salmon — chinook or coho — daily. Coho must be fin-clipped but both hatchery and wild chinook may be retained. Before the rule change, only one chinook per day was allowed in the two-fish limit.
Sturgeon angling at the Columbia River estuary is open through Sunday. The catch through Monday was 3,563 sturgeon in the estuary, with a total catch of 3,905 projected through Sunday. The guideline for the season is 9,600. A hearing is planned for Tuesday to consider a season extension.
Catch rates have improved for charter anglers, with 41 percent getting a legal fish. Private boaters are getting a keeper per 12 rods.
Summer chinook fishing is waning, but steelhead catches are improving in the lower Columbia.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) Departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Fort Canby ramp, two boaters with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Clatsop Spit to Jones Beach, 112 Oregon bank rods with two summer chinook and 12 steelhead kept plus one summer chinook, 12 steelhead, and one sockeye released. (ODFW)
Tongue Point to Puget Island, 53 boaters with one summer chinook and 10 steelhead kept plus eight steelhead released; 581 private boaters with 112 legal sturgeon kept plus five legal, 21 oversize, 373 sublegal, and three green sturgeon released; eight charter anglers with no sturgeon. (ODFW)
Ilwaco, 83 boaters with 34 legal sturgeon kept plus six legal, 12 oversize, and 104 sublegals released; 110 private boat anglers with seven legal sturgeon kept plus two oversize and 11 sublegals released. (WDFW)
Chinook, 163 private boat anglers with 16 legal sturgeon kept plus four oversize and 22 sublegals released. (WDFW)
Chinook to Knappton, 33 bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Megler-Astoria bridge to Cathlamet, 43 bank rods with 11 steelhead and one sockeye kept plus four steelhead released; eight boaters with no salmon or steelhead. (WDFW)
Knappton, Deep River ramps, 95 boaters with 10 legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 37 sublegals released. (WDFW)
Cathlamet, 89 bank rods with 14 steelhead kept plus three steelhead and one sockeye released; 44 boaters with 10 steelhead and one summer chinook kept plus one steelhead released; two boaters with one legal sturgeon kept and one sublegal released. (WDFW)
Longview, 395 bank rods with 46 steelhead, three sockeye and one jack chinook kept plus nine steelhead, one adult chinook, and one jack chinook released; 100 boaters with nine steelhead kept and two released; seven bank rods with three sublegal sturgeon released; 18 boaters with two legal sturgeon kept and 16 sublegals released. (WDFW)
Longview to Portland, 172 boaters with 10 summer chinook, two jack chinook and 14 steelhead kept plus three summer chinook, two jack chinook, and six steelhead released; three boaters with no shad; 54 boaters with six legal sturgeon kept and 143 sublegals released; 189 Oregon bank rods with two summer chinook and nine steelhead kept plus two summer chinook and nine steelhead released. (ODFW)
Kalama, 170 bank rods with seven adult summer chinook, three jack chinook, 10 steelhead, and one sockeye kept plus one adult chinook, one jack chinook, and 12 steelhead released; 50 boaters with seven adult summer chinook kept and four released; 33 boaters with two legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 28 sublegals released. (WDFW)
Woodland, 98 bank rods with four steelhead, one sockeye, and one jack chinook kept plus six steelhead released; 31 boaters with two steelhead released; four bank rods with three sublegal sturgeon released; two boaters with two sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Lewis River to Kelley Point, 29 bank rods with two adult and one jack summer chinook kept plus one steelhead released; 31 boaters with two steelhead released. (WDFW)
Camas-Washougal, eight boaters with one jack chinook released; 13 bank rods with two adult and one jack chinook kept plus one adult chinook and one steelhead released; four boaters with 21 sublegal sturgeon released; two bank rods with no shad. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, 15 boaters with no salmon or steelhead; 152 bank rods with 10 summer chinook kept plus nine chinook, three steelhead, and one sockeye released; 30 bank rods with 49 shad kept. (WDFW)
Troutdale, 120 boaters with three summer chinook and two steelhead kept plus three steelhead released; 27 boaters with 44 sublegal sturgeon released; three boaters with two walleye kept. (ODFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Bonneville Dam), 70 boaters with six summer chinook, two jack chinook, five steelhead, and one sockeye kept plus five summer chinook, one jack chinook, and 17 steelhead released; five boaters with no shad; 59 Oregon bank rods with two summer chinook and three steelhead kept plus two steelhead released; 10 bank rods with 18 shad kept. (ODFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Marker 82), 31 boaters with seven oversize and 41 sublegals released. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, 112 bank rods with seven summer chinook kept and two released; 12 boaters with six walleye kept and five released; two boaters with four bass kept. (WDFW)
John Day pool, state samplers checked just three hatchery summer chinook kept and three wild chinook released, as boat-fishing effort dropped significantly. None of the chinook were taken by boaters.
Shad anglers averaged eight fish per boat. The walleye catch was 1.6 fish per boat. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — Twenty-one boaters at Blue Creek with eight steelhead; two bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Lewis — At the mouth, two boaters with one steelhead kept. (WDFW)
