Angling effort has ramped up at the mouth of Wind River and Drano Lake, with a catch of about a spring chinook per six rods, which is about half the rate of a year ago.
Combining PIT (passive integrated transponder) tag detections at Bonneville Dam and applying juvenile tag rates, it is estimated through Monday about 1,200 spring chinook headed for Wind River and almost 1,400 for Drano Lake had passed Bonneville.
Starting Sunday at Wind River from the mouth to the Highway 14 Bridge and in Drano Lake, anglers with the two-rod endorsement may fish with two rods. The boat-limit rule (all can fish until the boat’s limit is caught) also begins Sunday.
Angling in the upper Wind River opens Sunday. That’s the area from 100 feet upstream of Shipherd Falls upstream to boundary markers 800 yards downstream of Carson National Fish Hatchery, except closed 400 feet below to 100 feet above the coffer dam.
Unmarked chinook may be retained in the upper Wind.
It’s estimated about 90 spring chinook destined for the Klickitat River have passed Bonneville Dam.
• Spring chinook returns are tracking ahead of expectations for the Cowlitz and Kalama hatcheries.
The Cowlitz has almost 4,300 adult chinook compared to 2,655 at this time a year ago. The Kalama has 17 spring chinook compared to three a year ago.
The Lewis hatcheries are behind 2015’s pace, with 31 back compared to 48 a year ago.
• Spring chinook catches in the lower Willamette River and Multnomah Channel improved last week to a fish per eight rods, but that’s still slow for this time of the year.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife estimated 4,146 anglers kept 458 adult spring chinook and released 57.
In the catch-and-release sturgeon fishery in the lower Willamette, the numbers were 75 anglers with 153 legals, 163 sublegals and 20 oversize sturgeon released.
• Battle Ground Lake and Klineline Pond each were planted with 250 large rainbow trout and 2,000 cutthroat trout on Monday.
• All sturgeon fishing, including catch-and-release, is closed from Bonneville Dam downstream for 9 miles to a line crossing the Columbia River from Marker 82 on the Oregon shore to a boundary marker on the Washington shore upstream of Fir Point from Sunday through Aug. 31.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 62 bank rods with seven spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
• The Dalles pool, 13 boaters with no catch; 97 bank rods with two spring chinook kept and one wild chinook released; 34 boaters with 107 walleye kept and 27 released; four boaters with 20 bass kept and 55 released; 10 boaters with two legal sturgeon kept plus one legal, 37 sublegals and one oversize sturgeon released; eight bank rods with one sublegal sturgeon released. Sturgeon retention is closed beginning Saturday.(WDFW)
• John Day pool, 11 boaters with one spring chinook kept; 49 bank rods with one spring chinook and one steelhead released; 66 boaters with 124 walleye kept and 96 released; one bank rod with four walleye kept; 24 boaters with 45 bass kept and 145 released; 20 boaters with three legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 27 sublegals released; five bank rods with two sublegals and one oversize released. (WDFW)
Cowlitz — Fifty-four boaters with six adult spring chinook and 17 steelhead kept plus one cutthroat trout released; 153 bank rods with 24 adult spring chinook, three jack chinook and 12 steelhead kept plus two adult chinook released. (WDFW)
Kalama — Eight boaters with two spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus one steelhead released; 25 bank rods with five adult spring chinook and a steelhead kept. (WDFW)
Wind — At the mouth, 177 boaters with 28 adult chinook kept and two released; 11 bank rods with one adult spring chinook kept. (WDFW)
In the gorge, two bank rods with one steelhead released. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Eight bank rods with no catch; 157 boaters with 26 adult spring chinook kept and one released. (WDFW)
Klickitat — Two bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
