Bright chinook destined for the Youngs Bay net pens have improved the bite on the Oregon side of Buoy 10.
Oregon officials have sampled about a fish per boat during the past few days, with 80 percent of the catch being Youngs Bay chinook.
Checks at the Washington side boat ramps have been very slow.
For the first week of Buoy 10, the numbers are 1,116 angler trips with 58 chinook kept, 16 released and two coho released. State officials anticipate a catch of 10,950 chinook and 7,000 coho at Buoy 10.
Chinook retention is closed beginning Aug. 29, but hatchery coho remain fair game.
In the ocean, anglers off the Columbia River mouth averaged 1.23 salmon per rod last week. The catch was 81 percent coho. Anglers have taken 28 percent of the coho quota and 25 percent of the chinook guideline.
Last week, there were 14,265 fishing trips in the lower Columbia between Tongue Point and Bonneville Dam with 151 fall chinook kept, 5,344 steelhead and three coho released. The mark rate on steelhead was 55 percent and 40 percent of the steelhead catch came in the Columbia Gorge.
Walleye catches in the Washougal area, plus near Government Island, are improving as the water drops.
Swift Reservoir has been stocked with 1,700 rainbow trout averaging 5 pounds and 1,400 averaging 1.5 pounds.
Angler checks and related information from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Tongue Point to Puget Island, 31 boaters with 21 steelhead kept and seven released; 39 bank rods with four steelhead kept and five released. (WDFW)
Cathlamet, 49 boaters with nine steelhead kept and two released; 105 bank rods with 18 steelhead kept and seven released. (WDFW)
Longview, 117 boaters with 37 steelhead kept and 20 released; 470 bank rods with 64 steelhead kept plus 27 steelhead and one jack chinook released. (WDFW)
Longview to Portland, 148 boaters with two adult fall chinook and 10 steelhead kept plus one chinook and 13 steelhead released. (ODFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, 18 boaters with one adult fall chinook kept. (WDFW)
Kalama, 67 boaters with 10 steelhead kept and 10 released; 354 bank rods with seven adult chinook, one jack chinook and 40 steelhead kept plus 42 steelhead released. (WDFW)
Woodland, 50 boaters with 13 steelhead kept and eight released; 300 bank rods with one adult fall chinook, one jack chinook and 40 steelhead kept plus 29 steelhead released. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 65 boaters with two adult chinook and nine steelhead kept plus five steelhead released; 280 bank rods with three adult chinook and 45 steelhead kept plus 22 steelhead released. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport, 11 boaters with two steelhead kept; 17 bank rods with four steehead kept and three released. (WDFW)
Troutdale, 186 boaters with three adult chinook, one jack chinook and 17 steelhead kept plus 27 steelhead released; 34 boaters with 12 walleye kept and two released. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 49 boaters with four steelhead kept and seven released; 45 bank rods with one adult chinook, one jack and two steelhead kept plus four steelhead released; three boaters with four walleye kept and two released; one bank rod with no walleye. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, 22 boaters with two adult chinook and three steelhead kept; 365 bank rods with five adult chinook, 123 steelhead kept and 129 steelhead released. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Bonneville Dam), 63 boaters with one chinook and nine steelhead kept plus 18 steelhead and one pink salmon released; 85 Oregon bank rods with 25 steelhead kept and 21 released; two boaters with two walleye kept. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 42 boaters with 55 steelhead kept and 36 released. Most of the fish were taken off Drano Lake or the mouth of the White Salmon River. (WDFW)
North Fork Lewis — Nineteen bank rods with four steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — At Blue Creek, 11 bank rods with one steelhead kept. At the mouth, two boaters with one adult fall chinook. (WDFW)
