Chinook angling focus upstream
With the closure of the Buoy 10 fall Chinook fishery at the beginning of the month, the focus has moved upstream to the Tongue Point/Rocky Point line.
Most of the stretch from there to Bonneville Dam will be open for Chinook through Dec. 31, or until the harvest guideline of 17,2000 has been reached. Beginning Sunday, Chinook retention will be prohibited from the Tongue Point/Rocky Point line upstream to a line projected from Warrior Rock Lighthouse on the Oregon shore to Red Buoy No. 4 to a marker on the lower end of Bachelor Island on the Washington shore.
The area from Tongue Point/Rocky Point upstream also is open for adipose fin-clipped coho, and adipose fin-clipped steelhead.
Buoy 10 remains open for hatchery-origin coho and steelhead.
In the lower Columbia, the strongest activity has been in the stretch from Longview to Woodland. The best catch rate was at Woodland, with a check of 263 boat anglers yielding 111 Chinook kept.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife for Sept. 1-5:
Lower Columbia — Rocky Point to Cathlamet, three bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
• Cathlamet, Eight bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
• Longview, 122 bank rods with four Chinook adults kept, three steelhead kept and one released; 362 boat anglers with 93 Chinook adult, five jacks, one steelhead, and one coho adult kept; two coho adults released. (WDFW)
• Longview to Portland, 252 boats with 641 anglers, showing 169 fall Chinook adults, 11 fall Chinook jacks, three adipose fin-clipped coho and one adipose fin-clipped steelhead kept, plus seven fall Chinook, five unclipped coho and on unclipped steelhead released. There was no catch for 23 bank anglers (ODFW).
• Cowlitz River mouth, 291 anglers on 117 boats with 85 adult Chinook and two coho kept.
• Kalama, 163 bank anglers with 26 adult Chinook kept and one steelhead released. A total of 291 boat anglers with 85 adult Chinook and two coho kept. (WDFW)
• Woodland, 58 bank anglers with 10 adult Chinook kept; 263 boat anglers with 111 adult Chinook, three jacks, 1 adult coho, and two steelhead kept (WDFW).
• Vancouver, 65 bank anglers with two adult Chinook kept and two steelhead released; 150 boat anglers with 40 adult Chinook kept.
• Camas-Washougal, 102 boat anglers with 12 adult Chinook kept and one adult coho released. (WDFW)
• Bonneville, 46 bank anglers with four adult Chinook, one jack, and two steelhead kept, and one steelhead released; 19 boat anglers with four adult Chinook kept (WDFW).
• Lewis River North Fork, 99 bank anglers with 10 coho and six steelhead kept, and coho released (WDFW).
• Troutdale, 357 boat anglers with 31 adult Chinook, two Chinook jacks and two adipose fin-clipped coho kept, and two fall Chinook and one unclipped coho released (ODFW).
• Columbia Gorge, 147 bank anglers with 18 Chinook adults and two Chinook jacks kept, plus one coho released; 60 boat anglers with 15 Chinook adults and four Chinook jacks kept for 20 boats. (ODFW)
• Drano Lake, effort and catch has decreased, though boat anglers and catching some Chinook and steelhead; 42 boat anglers had three kept Chinook and eight kept steelhead, with two steelhead released. (WDFW)
• Washougal River, 46 bank anglers with no reported catch. (WDFW)
• White Salmon River, 14 bank anglers with two kept steelhead. (WDFW)
• Klickitat River, 10 bank anglers with four Chinook adults kept; six boat anglers with six adult Chinook and three jacks kept.
• Grays River, 23 bank anglers with seven Chinook adults kept and seven Chinook adults released.
• Bonneville Pool, 42 boat anglers with four Chinook adults and four steelhead kept, with two steelhead released (WDFW).
