Angling rules change in the lower Columbia River come Wednesday with the arrival of October.
Retention of any fall chinook — fin-clipped or not — is allowed, although, granted, it’s mostly a case of target-gone-by.
At Buoy 10, the bag limit on Wednesday changes to six fish, of which two may be adult salmon or hatchery steelhead. The minimum size for salmon is 12 inches. Any chinook may be retained, but only fin-clipped coho. The three-coho bag limit ends on Tuesday.
And while discussing fishing at Buoy 10 in October may sound silly, the catch last weekend still was almost a coho per rod. Washington sampled 110 anglers with 79 coho on Saturday and 37 rods with 38 coho on Sunday.
Oregon’s Buoy 10 check for the weekend was 589 anglers with 530 coho and one steelhead kept plus 261 wild coho and 20 chinook released.
Catches last week between Warrior Rock and Kelley Point also were decent.
In Bonneville pool on Sunday morning there were more than 100 boats counted off the mouth of the Klickitat River and a couple of dozen off the mouth of the White Salmon.
Drano Lake is closed to fall fishing from 6 p.m. Tuesdays to 6 p.m. Wednesdays.
Goose Lake in the southern Gifford Pinchot National Forest was stocked last week with 2,100 cutthroat trout.
Angler sampling by the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of fish and wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Tongue Point to Warrior Rock, 22 boaters with three adult coho kept plus three adult coho, 12 adult chinook and two jack chinook released. (ODFW)
Cathlamet, eight bank rods with no salmon or steelhead. (WDFW)
Longview, 10 boaters with one coho kept; 16 bank rods with no salmon or steelhead. (WDFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, 44 boaters with 11 adult coho and three steelhead kept plus 33 adult fall chinook, one jack chinook, 13 coho and two steelhead released. (WDFW)
Kalama, 14 boaters with one coho kept, plus six coho, two adult chinook and two jack chinook released; 16 bank rods with two adult chinook released. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Portland, 392 boaters with 78 adult chinook, 21 jack chinook and one coho kept plus two adult chinook and one coho released. (ODFW)
Woodland, 40 boaters with one coho kept plus 11 adult fall chinook released; 19 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 278 boaters with 94 adult chinook, 10 jack chinook and five coho kept plus one adult chinook and one coho released; 185 bank rods with 58 adult chinook and three jacks kept plus two adult chinook and one coho released. (WDFW)
Troutdale, Ore., 416 boaters with 79 adult chinook, 11 jack chinook and three adult coho kept plus one adult chinook and two adult coho released; three boaters with one walleye kept. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 124 boaters with 25 adult fall chinook and six jack chinook kept plus one jack chinook released; two bank rods with no catch; four boaters with 13 walleye kept; two boaters with one legal and one sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, 20 boaters with 12 adult chinook kept; 56 bank rods with 15 adult chinook and two jack chinook kept. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge, downstream of Bonneville Dam, 151 boaters with 55 adult chinook, six jack chinook and one adult coho kept plus one adult coho released. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 53 boaters with 31 adult chinook, three jack chinook, one adult coho and one steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — Eighty-nine bank rods with 24 adult chinook, 42 adult coho and two jack coho kept plus 14 adult chinook and 24 adult coho released. (WDFW)
Kalama — Fifty bank rods with three adult chinook and 17 adult coho kept plus four adult chinook, two adult coho and one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Lewis — Fifteen boaters with two adult coho kept. (WDFW)
North Fork Lewis — Two boaters with three adult coho released; 62 bank rods with four adult chinook, 28 adult coho and one jack coho kept plus one adult chinook and three adult coho released. (WDFW)
Washougal — Eighty-nine bank rods with 14 adult chinook kept and two released. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Twenty-seven boaters with nine adult chinook, six jack chinook, four adult coho and three steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Klickitat — Thirty bank rods with 10 adult chinook and one jack coho kept. (WDFW)
