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Thursday, May 01, 2008
The Columbian

Spring chinook bite turns off everywhere

Spring chinook angling is in the doldrums pretty much everywhere, with poor reports coming from Drano Lake along with the Wind, Willamette, Lewis, Kalama and Cowlitz rivers.

Counts are lagging at Bonneville Dam.

Given the good catch in early April in the lower Columbia, it is reasonable to assume passage at Bonneville should zoom in the next two weeks, but the chinook do not always follow script.

Anglers considering a kokanee trip to Merwin while waiting for Drano Lake to turn on for salmon might want to wait another couple of weeks. None of the Merwin trollers questioned on Friday said they got even had a bite.

There is always trout fishing, as the local lakes were stocked heavily in April.

Northwestern Reservoir on the White Salmon River proved to the hotspot on Saturday’s trout-season opener.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife sampled 25 anglers with 94 trout, a 3.76 per rod average at the 97-acre reservoir behind Condit Dam.

At Kidney Lake near North Bonneville, 57 anglers were sampled with 72 trout, a 1.26 average.

In Klickitat County, the numbers were: Rowland Lake, 59 rods, 130 trout, 2.2 average; Spearfish Lake, 33 rods, 70 trout, 2.1 average; and Horsethief Lake, 14 rods with 14 trout, 1.0 average.

Angler checks from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW):

Lower Columbia — Cathlamet, one bank rod with no sturgeon. (WDFW)

Cowlitz River mouth, two boaters with two sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)

Kalama, two boaters with no bank rods; one boater with one sublegal released. (WDFW)

Woodland, five boaters with three sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)

Vancouver, 10 boaters with one legal sturgeon kept and seven sublegals released; one bank rod with no catch.

Willamette River mouth area, 19 boaters with five legal sturgeon kept and 29 sublegals released. (WDFW)

Camas-Washougal, two boaters with 22 sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)

North Bonneville, two boaters with four sublegal sturgeon released, 10 bank rods with four sublegals released. (WDFW)

Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, six boaters with six sublegal sturgeon released; 34 bank rods with one legal sturgeon kept and 17 sublegals released; 19 boaters with one spring chinook released; 21 bank rods with no salmon; four boaters with nine bass released. (WDFW)

The Dalles pool, 42 boaters with two spring chinook kept; 81 bank rods with 12 spring chinook kept and two released. (WDFW)

Cowlitz — Nineteen boaters with three steelhead and three jack spring chinook plus one steelhead released; 142 bank rods with two spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus two steelhead released. (WDFW)

Kalama — Fifty-five boaters with three spring chinook kept and two steelhead released; 52 bank rods with one spring chinook kept. (WDFW)

Lewis — Seventy-seven boaters with six spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus two spring chinook released; 39 bank rods with one steelhead kept. (WDFW)

North Lewis — Thirty-four boaters with three spring chinook kept and one released; 62 bank rods with one adult spring chinook, one jack spring chinook and two steelhead kept. (WDFW)

Wind — Thirteen bank rods with no spring chinook; 190 boaters with 13 spring chinook. (WDFW)

Drano Lake — Twenty-three bank rods with no spring chinook; 371 boaters with 27 spring chinook kept and two released. Six bank rods just outside the mouth of Drano with one spring chinook. (WDFW)

Klickitat — Thirteen bank rods with one steelhead kept. (WDFW)

Merwin Reservoir — Four boaters with two northern pikeminnows, but no kokanee.