Summer chinook fishing should hit full stride this weekend in the lower Columbia River. Chinook retention is scheduled to be open through June 30.
On Sunday’s summer chinook opener, 62 percent of the chinook were fin-clipped and 71 percent of the steelhead.
The commercials landed 1,713 chinook, 148 sockeye and 303 sturgeon from 116 deliveries Sunday night. But the most interesting catch was a 52-pound striped bass landed near Bridal Veil in the Columbia Gorge.
Sturgeon fishing in the estuary is closed beginning Friday.
Catch and angling effort increased significantly in the first half of June and the harvest guideline will be reached at the end of fishing today.
Yale Reservoir is providing 16-fish limits of kokanee, although the landlocked salmon only average between 10 and 11 inches. Fishing is good throughout the lake. The fish are at about 25 feet deep.
Shad counts have been huge in the past week with more than 3.1 million shad past Bonnneville Dam now.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Fort Canby/Ilwaco, 248 charter anglers with 118 legal sturgeon kept plus 77 oversize and 176 sublegals released; 98 private boaters with 16 legal sturgeon kept plus three oversize and 23 sublegals released. (WDFW)
Buoy 10 to Puget Island, 16 charter anglers with two legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 16 sublegals released; 683 private boaters with 222 legal sturgeon kept plus seven legal, 51 oversize and 723 sublegals released. (ODFW)
Tongue Point to Westport, 37 boaters with one adult chinook and one steelhead kept plus one adult chinook, one steelhead and one sockeye released. (ODFW)
Chinook, 177 private boaters with 26 legal sturgeon kept plus one legal, 14 oversize and 48 sublegals released. (WDFW)
Cathlamet, seven bank rods with one sockeye and one steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Longview, 84 bank rods with four steelhead kept and one released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, four boaters with four legal and 12 sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Kalama, 87 boaters with seven adult summer chinook and one jack kept plus eight adult summer chinook released; 42 bank rods with seven adult summer chinook kept and one released. (WDFW)
Woodland, 33 bank rods with three summer chinook kept; 13 boaters with one adult summer chinook kept and two released. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 21 boaters with one adult summer chinook kept; 43 bank rods with four adult summer chinook kept and one jack chinook released. (WDFW)
Troutdale, six boaters with two walleye kept; 10 boaters with one shad kept. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 29 boaters with one steelhead and one summer chinook released; 11 bank rods with no catch; three bank rods with three shad kep t; 12 boaters with 19 shad kept. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, 17 boaters with one adult summer chinook kept; 32 bank rods with two adult summer chinook, two jack chinook and three sockeye kept plus four adult chinook and two jacks released; 241 bank rods with 789 shad kept and 15 released; four boaters with 15 shad kept. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Bonneville Dam), 15 boaters with 107 shad kept. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 343 boaters with 125 legal sturgeon kept plus 91 oversize, 17 legal and 1,653 sublegal sturgeon released; 146 bank rods with 17 legal sturgeon kept plus three legal, 10 oversize and 191 sublegals released. (WDFW)
The Dalles pool, 16 boaters with four walleye kept and seven released; four boaters with 35 bass kept. (WDFW)
John Day pool, 57 boaters with 35 walleye kept and nine released; six boaters with eight bass kept and 27 released; seven bank rods with eight bass kept. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — Sixteen boaters with one adult spring chinook and one steelhead; 63 bank rods with eight adult spring chinook, one jack and one steelhead. All the fish were sampled near the barrier dam. (WDFW)
North Fork Lewis — Two boaters with one spring chinook released; eight bank rods with one steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Yale Reservoir — Three trollers with 48 kokanee.
