Columbia River fishing report 3/17

Spring chinook angling in the lower Columbia has dropped off as the river downstream of the Willamette and Cowlitz rivers turned turbid. Weather conditions over the weekend were exactly conducive to enjoyable fishing either.

On Wednesday, the Willamette River at the Morrison Bridge in Portland had just 1.2 feet of visibility. The Columbia River at Bonneville Dam has 5 feet of visibility.

Most of the spring chinook sampled last week were of Willamette, Cowlitz, Kalama or Lewis river origin.

Test netting in the Longview, Cathlamet and Astoria areas on Sunday was limited due to the bad weather. Ten drifts were made with four chinook caught. Half were fin-clipped and half were upper Columbia origin.

Boaters at the upper end of The Dalles pool averaged 3.3 walleye per rod.

Angler checks by the Washington and Oregon departments of Fish and Wildlife:

Lower Columbia — Estuary, 26 boaters with seven adult spring chinook kept. (ODFW)

Downstream of Puget Island, 124 boaters with 18 adult spring chinook kept. (WDFW)

Cathlamet, eight boaters and 10 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)

Westport, Ore., to Portland, 215 boaters with three adult spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus two spring chinook released; 99 Oregon bank rods with one adult spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus three wild steelhead released. (ODFW)

Longview, 146 boaters with six adult chinook and one steelhead kept; 36 bank rods with one steelhead kept and one released. (WDFW)

Cowlitz River mouth, two boaters with no catch. (WDFW)

Kalama, 94 boaters and 21 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)

Woodland, 157 boaters with one spring chinook kept plus 12 sturgeon released; 52 bank rods with no catch; five boaters with 13 legal and 27 sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)

Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 110 boaters with one spring chinook kept and one released; 20 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)

Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 16 boaters with one spring chinook kept. (WDFW)

Troutdale, Ore., 44 boaters with one adult spring chinook kept. (ODFW)

Camas-Washougal, six boaters with no catch. (WDFW)

North Bonneville, 19 bank rods with one adult spring chinook released. (WDFW)

Columbia Gorge, five Oregon bank anglers with no catch. (ODFW)

Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, 77 boaters with 226 walleye kept and 29 released; three bank rods with no catch; one bank rod with six bass released; 22 bank rods with one oversized sturgeon released; eight boaters with one legal sturgeon kept and three sublegals released. (WDFW)

John Day pool, 104 boaters with 112 walleye kept plus 32 released; two bank rods with no catch; 38 boaters with three legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 16 sublegals. (WDFW)

Cowlitz — Sixty-four bank rods with five hatchery spring chinook and 10 hatchery steelhead kept plus one hatchery steelhead released; 132 boaters with 85 hatchery steelhead kept plus one wild steelhead released. The chinook were caught near the barrier dam, while the steelhead were mainly caught near the trout hatchery or down river. (WDFW)

Kalama — Three boaters with one wild steelhead released; 44 bank rods with five hatchery steelhead kept plus eight wild steelhead released. (WDFW)

Coweeman — Eight bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)

East Fork Lewis — Five bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)

Lower Willamette — Catches plummeted with the muddy water. The 488 boaters sampled with eight spring chinook kept. The 213 boaters checked had released legal-size 466 sturgeon. (ODFW)