Washington and Oregon officials will meet at 2 p.m. today to review spring chinook catches in the lower Columbia and consider a fishing extension.
The results of the teleconference will be posted online at www.columbian.com/news/sports/outdoors soon after the meeting is over.
Angling effort has been low since the reopening on Friday. The catch of chinook kept or released per boater was a salmon per 10.5 rods. That’s the worst catch rate for this time period since at least 2000.
Spring chinook counts at Bonneville Dam are lagging too. Through Tuesday, the total at the dam is 788 chinook, compared to 9,754 in 2010 and a 10-year average of 21,981.
The Columbia on Wednesday was flowing 305,000 cubic feet per second at Bonneville. While down from nearly 400,000 cfs earlier, normal is more in the range of 180,000 cubic feet per second.
The visibility at Bonneville is 2 feet. That’s even worse than at Willamette Falls, where there are 2.8 feet of clarity.
Walleye fishing was good in The Dalles pool with boaters averaging almost 3.2 walleye per rod.
On Saturday, the East Fork of the Lewis River from the upper boat ramp at Lewisville Park to the mouth and the Washougal River from the Mount Norway bridge to the mouth open for hatchery steelhead. Selective gear rules apply, with bait prohibited.
Kokanee angling remains good in Merwin Reservoir with a catch average of 3.3 fish per rod. The reservoir was dropped to 16 feet below full pool on Wednesday, too low to launch at Speelyai Bay.
Tom Gauntt, a PacifiCorp spokesman in Portland, said the reservoir would be back to 12 feet down by 2 p.m. Friday.
Horseshoe Lake at Woodland got 8,000 brown trout while Battle Ground Lake received 6,800 rainbows and Lacamas Lake was planted with 6,800 brown trout.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Estuary, 72 boaters with 12 spring chinook kept and one released. (WDFW)
Cathlamet, five boaters with no spring chinook or steelhead. (WDFW)
Longview to Portland, 388 boaters with 30 adult chinook, one jack chinook and two steelhead kept plus 10 spring chinook released; 18 boaters with three legal sturgeon kept plus 30 sublegals released. (ODFW)
Longview, 222 boaters with 18 adult spring chinook, one jack chinook and four steelhead kept plus three chinook and two steelhead released; 50 bank rods with one steelhead kept plus one steelhead and one spring chinook released. (WDFW)
Kalama, 117 boaters with 14 spring chinook kept; 49 bank rods with one spring chinook kept and one steelhead released; 20 boaters with three sturgeon kept plus 12 sublegals released. (WDFW)
Woodland, 93 boaters with 10 spring chinook kept plus five released; 118 bank rods with two spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus one spring chinook and one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 248 boaters with 17 spring chinook kept and five released, plus one sublegal sturgeon released; 85 bank rods with three spring chinook kept and two released; nine boaters with two legal sturgeon kept and six sublegals released. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport, 140 boaters with six spring chinook kept; 12 boaters with 23 sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Troutdale, 218 boaters with 10 spring chinook kept plus two released; eight boaters with seven sublegal sturgeon released. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 67 boaters with two spring chinook kept and one released; 17 bank rods with no salmon or steelhead; seven boaters with 19 sublegals released. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, 15 boaters with no salmon or steelhead; 99 bank rods with three spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, six boaters with nine sublegal sturgeon released; 30 bank rods with four legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 19 sublegals released. Through March, 29 percent of the sport sturgeon allocation had been caught. Thirty-five boaters with 101 walleye kept and 11 released; six bank rods with two bass kept; 74 bank rods with one spring chinook kept; four boaters with no salmon. (WDFW)
John Day pool, 59 boaters with six legal sturgeon kept plus two oversize and 38 sublegals released. Sturgeon fishing is catch and release for the rest of the year. Twenty boaters with eight walleye kept; two boaters with no bass. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Three bank rods with no catch. Fishing is closed on Wednesdays through May. (WDFW)
Klickitat — One bank rod with no salmon or steelhead. (WDFW)
Merwin Reservoir — Forty-two boaters with 130 kokanee kept plus nine kokanee and five trout released. Catches are best near the surface. (WDFW)
Horsehoe Lake — Two anglers with no catch. (WDFW)
Kress Lake — Thirteen anglers with seven rainbow trout kept plus 15 rainbow and one brown trout released. (WDFW)
Silver Lake — Five anglers with four rainbow trout kept and one released. (WDFW)
