Effort continues to build for spring chinook in the lower Columbia, despite it being a month too early to fish.
The flight on Saturday counted 28 boats and 82 bank rods. Oregon sampled its first spring chinook by an angler on Saturday near St. Helens.
Four spring chinook have been counted at Bonneville Dam.
The Columbia is muddy downstream of the mouth of the Cowlitz.
Ninety boats and 27 bank rods fishing for sturgeon also were tallied in the flight. One-third of the boats were in the Vancouver area.
Sturgeon retention will be closed beginning Feb. 19 in the Bonneville pool. Sportmen are projected to reach the catch guideline of 2,000 sturgeon by that date.
Catch and effort is high in the John Day pool also and a late February or early March switch to catch-and-release is likely.
Three local waters have received another shot of trout. Klineline Pond got 3,000 rainbow trout, Battle Ground Lake got 2,000 trout and Silver Lake near Toutle got 3,100 trout.
Angler checks and related information from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Chinook to Knappton, two bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Longview, one bank rod with no spring chinook; one bank rod with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Longview to Portland, 64 Oregon bank rods with five winter steelhead released; 32 boaters with one spring chinook kept; 110 boaters with three legal sturgeon kept plus 50 sublegals released; 11 Oregon bank rods with no sturgeon. (ODFW)
Woodland, three boaters and four bank rods with no spring chinook. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Bonneville Dam), 14 boaters with no sturgeon; 10 Oregon bank rods with no sturgeon. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 114 boaters with 36 legal sturgeon kept plus three legal, two oversize and 148 sublegals released; 33 bank rods with four legal sturgeon kept plus seven sublegals released. (WDFW)
The Dalles, 13 boaters with one oversize and three sublegals released; 37 bank rods with three sublegals released; 19 bank rods with no steelhead; one boater with no steelhead; three boaters with two walleye kept. (WDFW)
John Day pool, 76 boaters with eight legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 14 sublegals released; 52 bank rods with three sublegals released; six bank rods with one steelhead kept and one released; four boaters with no steelhead; 20 boaters with nine walleye kept; three bank rods with no bass. (WDFW)
Walleye anglers are getting their fish with jigs or blade baits in 30 to 50 feet of water. (ODFW)
Klineline Pond — Forty-two bank rods with 48 rainbow trout kept and two released. (WDFW)
