State and tribal biologists say the upper Columbia River spring chinook run is big, but will be substantially smaller than forecast.
Based on Bonneville Dam counts, the run is expected to total 310,000 to 370,000, said Chris Kern of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The forecast made in December called for 470,000 spring chinook destined for waters upstream of Bonneville Dam.
About half the run is believed to have passed Bonneville, making the return somewhat earlier than the very late runs of the past five years, Kern said.
On Tuesday, the states re-opened commercial fishing in the off-channel areas of Youngs Bay, Blind Slough, Tongue Point and Deep River for brief periods to allow catch of local, pen-reared spring chinook.
Test fishing in upper Youngs Bay at Astoria found lots of local chinook, but no upper Columbia salmon.
State and tribal officials may meet again Monday to adopt more commercial set net time in the Bonneville, The Dalles and John Day pools.
Three Clark County waters have been stocked recently with trout.
Battle Ground Lake got 4,000 cutthroat trout, plus 1,500 chunky rainbow trout. Klineline Pond received 4,000 cutthroat, while Lacamas Lake got 10,000 brown trout.
Kokanee fishing has been spotty at Merwin Reservoir. Overall, the bite has been slow with occasional productive periods.
Angler checks and related information from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Longview to Portland, 144 boaters with four legal sturgeon kept plus 99 sublegals released; seven Oregon bank rods with no catch. (ODFW)
Kalama, four boaters with one legal sturgeon kept, one legal sturgeon released, and 12 sublegals released; two bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Woodland, four boaters with eight sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Lewis River to Kelley Point, two boaters with two legal sturgeon kept and six sublegals released. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 13 boaters with one legal sturgeon kept and 24 sublegals released. (WDFW)
Camas-Washougal, one boater with one legal sturgeon kept and one sublegal released; seven bank rods with two sublegals released. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge, 13 boaters with two legal sturgeon kept, one oversize sturgeon released, and 47 sublegals released. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge, 19 boaters with eight legal sturgeon kept plus three legal and 39 sublegals released; 17 Oregon bank rods with one legal sturgeon and 14 sublegals released. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 27 bank rods with 11 spring chinook kept and one released. (WDFW)
The Dalles pool, 40 boaters with four spring chinook kept and two released; two boaters with eight walleye kept and eight released. (WDFW)
John Day pool, 108 boaters with 32 spring chinook kept and six released; 174 bank rods with 58 spring chinook kept plus 20 chinook and one steelhead released; two boaters with four walleye kept and six released; one boater with nine bass released. (WDFW)
The overall catch estimate for last week was 558 spring chinook, with the majority caught off the Oregon shore. (ODFW)
Cowlitz — Twenty-six boaters with two spring chinook and one steelhead kept; 148 bank rods with four adult spring chinook, two jack chinook, and four steelhead kept plus one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Kalama — Forty boaters with four spring chinook and three steelhead kept plus two spring chinook and two steelhead released; 37 bank rods with five steelhead and two spring chinook kept plus one steelhead released. The first seven spring chinook of the season have arrived at Kalama Falls Hatchery. (WDFW)
Lewis — Four boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
North Fork Lewis — Seven bank rods with no catch. There are a couple of hundred spring chinook in the Merwin Dam trap. (WDFW)
Wind — At the mouth, 173 boaters with 51 spring chinook; 15 bank rods with two spring chinook and one steelhead. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Twenty-six bank rods with 11 spring chinook; 190 boaters with 82 spring chinook kept plus two spring chinook and one sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Klickitat — Thirty-two bank rods with four adult spring chinook, one jack chinook and three steelhead kept plus one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Merwin Reservoir — Seven boaters with 11 kokanee.
Lower Willamette — Streamflow at Portland is 46,700 cubic feet per second, almost twice the norm for this date. A sampling of 345 boats last weekend found 102 spring chinook and 18 steelhead.
While the best catches were near Willamette Falls, there was a decent number of chinook checked in Multnomah Channel.Fishing
