Fishing report 4/28

Sturgeon retention in the Columbia River estuary closes beginning Sunday, one of several regulation changes effective with the arrival of May.

Downstream of the Wauna power lines near Cathlamet, sturgeon retention will be closed Sunday through May 13. Fishing reopens daily on May 14 with a 41-inch fork length minimum and 54-inch maximum.

Angling is scheduled to be open May 14 through June 26, closed June 27-30, then open July 1-4.

Also beginning Sunday, the Columbia is closed to sturgeon fishing until Aug. 31 from Bonneville Dam downstream for nine miles to a line from Marker 82 on the Oregon shore, through the upstream end of Skamania Island to a boundary marker on the Washington shore.

Other sturgeon closures starting Sunday are from John Day Dam downstream 5.4 miles to the west end of the grain silo at Rufus and from McNary Dam downstream 1.5 miles to the Interstate 82 Bridge.

Opening on Sunday is the Wind River from 100 feet upstream of Shipherd Falls upstream to 800 yards downstream of Carson National Fish Hatchery. Inside this area there is a closure from 400 feet downstream to 100 feet upstream of the coffer dam.

Any chinook can be kept from this section of the Wind River.

The Bonneville Dam count ballooned to almost 4,800 spring chinook on Tuesday.

The lower Willamette River was 57 degrees with 2.6 feet of visibility on Tuesday. The flow was a moderate 37,000 per second, but increasing. On the weekend, Oregon checked 532 boats with 264 spring chinook kept and 61 released. The best catches were at the upper end of Multnomah Channel and Portland harbor.

The catch last week was 3,481 angler trips with 571 spring chinook kept and 163 released.

Battle Ground Lake was stocked recently with 4,000 rainbow trout. Horseshoe Lake at Woodland was stocked with 2,000 rainbow trout.

Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) department of Fish and Wildife:

Lower Columbia — Longview, four boaters and four bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)

Longview to Portland, 19 boaters with two legal sturgeon kept plus 15 sublegals released. (ODFW)

Kalama, 10 boaters with one sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)

Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, three bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)

Camas-Washougal, four bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)

North Bonneville, one bank rod with no catch. (WDFW)

Columbia Gorge, nine boaters with two legal sturgeon kept plus 17 sublegals released. (ODFW)

Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 15 bank rods with no salmon or steelhead. Spring chinook and steelhead fishing is closed beginning Monday from Bonneville Dam to the state line upstream of McNary Dam.(WDFW)

The Dalles pool, 27 bank rods with two legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 12 sublegals released; 26 boaters with 85 sublegal sturgeon released; 161 bank rods with three spring chinook kept plus one chinook and one steelhead released; eight boaters with no salmon or steelhead; one bank rod with one walleye released; 37 boaters with 145 walleye kept and three released; one bank rod with four bass kept; two boaters with nine bass released. (WDFW)

John Day pool, 56 anglers with one spring chinook kept; eight boaters with one sturgeon released; 12 boaters with eight walleye; six boaters with five bass. (WDFW)

Cowlitz — Forty-five boaters with 20 steelhead kept; 89 bank rods with four steelhead, one adult spring chinook and one jack chinook kept plus two steelhead and one adult chinook released. The steelhead are being caught near the trout hatchery. (WDFW)

Kalama — Six boaters with no salmon or steelhead; 33 bank rods with seven steelhead kept and six released. (WDFW)

Lewis — Eight bank rods and two boaters with no catch. (WDFW)

North Fork Lewis — Nine bank rods and six boaters with no catch. (WDFW)

Wind — At the mouth, 10 boaters and two bank rods with no spring chinook. (WDFW)

Washougal — Four boats with two hatchery steelhead kept and two wild fish released; nine bank rods with one wild steelhead released. Most of the catch was in the lower river. (WDFW)

Drano Lake — Eighty-three boaters with nine spring chinook; eight bank rods with no spring chinook. (WDFW)

Klickitat — Twelve bank rods with two steelhead kept. (WDFW)