Creel Survey
April 5, 2009
Contributed by Joe Hymer

Latest Southwest Washington Sport Sampling Summaries [PDF Format]

Salmon/Steelhead

Cowlitz River - Anglers from Olequa upstream are catching steelhead and some spring chinook. Most of the catch was found between the salmon and trout hatcheries.

Kalama River - Anglers are catching winter steelhead including some nice size fish.

Lewis River - Effort and catch is generally light although some winter steelhead are being caught.

Wind River and Drano Lake - Light effort. Drano Lake will be closed each Wednesday through May beginning this week.

Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam - There were 3,275 boats and 1,082 bank anglers counted during the Saturday April 4 flight. The majority of the effort was for salmonids. The boat count is a new record - beats the old record of 3,260 on April 14, 2001. However, the previous record included about 300 sturgeon boats.

Through April 4, an estimated 85,641 angler trips have produced 8,267 adult chinook kept and 1,631 released. Total catch and effort expectations (pre-update) include 23,300 Chinook (hatchery + wild) handled from 149,000 angler trips. However, the mark rate is higher than expected (about 85% hatchery fish).

Last week's catch rate of 0.50 chinook per boat was higher than the same time last year (0.42 chinook per boat).

Bonneville Dam adult spring chinook counts are increasing although still behind this time last year. Yesterday (Monday April 6), 100 fish were counted at the dam. To date, 436 adult spring chinook have been counted compared to 552 last year. The recent 10-year average is 11,559 fish.

The Columbia is warming with 46 degrees recorded at Bonneville Dam yesterday. Water temp is still a couple degrees below the recent 10-year average.

Bonneville Pool - Light effort and no catch was observed.

The Dalles Pool - Some spring chinook are being caught by bank anglers.

John Day Pool - Boat anglers are catching some steelhead.

Sturgeon

Bonneville Pool - Slow for legal size fish.

The Dalles and John Day pools - All sturgeon must be released through the end of the year beginning April 19 and 13, respectively.

Walleye and Bass

Bonneville Pool - Boat anglers averaged 4 bass per rod. No walleye were found in the sample.

The Dalles Pool - Including fish released, boat anglers averaged over a walleye per rod. No effort was observed for bass.

John Day Pool - Boat anglers are catching some bass and walleye.

Trout

Silver Lake near Castle Rock - Planted with 10,015 catchable size rainbows last week.

Battleground Lake - Planted with 5,027 catchable size rainbows March 30.

Lacamas Lake - Planted with 5,432 catchable size rainbows April 1.