Angling reopened Wednesday downstream of Interstate 5 for hatchery steelhead, hatchery chinook jacks, sockeye and shad. Upstream of I-5, shad fishing opened.
The shad count through Tuesday at Bonneville Dam is 30. With high flows in the Columbia, shad fishing is anticipated to start slowly.
The big spike in spring chinook crossing Bonneville Dam made for good catches at the mouth of Wind River and Drano Lake. Boaters at the mouth of the Wind River last week averaged a salmon per three rods.
At Drano Lake, the numbers were a chinook per four rods for bank anglers and per three rods for boaters.
Fishing is improving the lower Klickitat River, too.
Sturgeon retention is open in the estuary season. The count on Saturday’s opener was 119 boats and 56 bank rods.
Kokanee fishing has been slow in Merwin Reservoir, although an unusual number of trout have been caught.
Bass fishing is good in the John Day pool of the mid-Columbia.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Ilwaco to Knappton, five bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Buoy 10 to Puget Island, four boaters with one legal sturgeon kept and one sublegal released. (ODFW)
Longview to Portland, 102 boaters with six legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 88 sublegals released. (ODFW)
Kalama, five boaters with five sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, two boaters with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, two boaters with one sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge, three boaters with no sturgeon. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, four boaters with two bass kept; six bank rods with four bass kept; seven boaters with 13 sublegal sturgeon released; 37 bank rods with one legal sturgeon kept, plus one oversize sturgeon and 19 sublegals released. (WDFW)
John Day pool, six boaters with two walleye kept; nine boaters with 20 bass kept and 67 released; three bank rods with seven bass kept and 15 released; 15 boaters with one legal sturgeon kept and 15 sublegals released; six bank rods with no sturgeon. Sturgeon retention is closed beginning Monday. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — Fifty boaters with 19 adult chinook and three jack chinook kept plus one adult chinook released; 196 bank rods with 22 adult chinook, one jack chinook and one steelhead kept plus one adult spring chinook and one steelhead released. Spring chinook fishing is best between the hatcheries. (WDFW)
Kalama — Thirty-seven boaters with one adult spring chinook and five steelhead kept plus three steelhead and one adult chinook released; 64 bank rods with five steelhead and three adult spring chinook kept plus one steelhead and one spring chinook released. (WDFW)
Lewis — Thirty boaters with one spring chinook kept; 19 bank rods with no salmon or steelhead. (WDFW)
North Fork Lewis — Nineteen bank rods with no salmon or steelhead; one boater with no catch. (WDFW)
Washougal — Thirty-nine bank rods with two steelhead kept and one released; five boaters with one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Wind — At the mouth, 1,286 boaters with 452 adult spring chinook and five jack chinook kept plus 21 adult chinook, three jack chinook, one legal sturgeon and one sublegal sturgeon released.
In the gorge, 11 bank rods with two spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Forty-four bank rods with 15 spring chinook kept; 273 boaters with 66 adult spring chinook and one jack kept plus one spring chinook released. (WDFW)
Klickitat — Sixty-two bank rods with 22 adult spring chinook, two jack chinook and one steelhead kept plus one adult chinook and one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Merwin Reservoir — Two boaters with three kokanee and five trout kept plus three trout released.
