Cowlitz River – Lots of fish being caught near the Cowlitz mouth, mostly steelhead and a few fall Chinook. Also a few sea run cutthroat are showing up in the creel near the trout hatchery.
Last week, Tacoma Power recovered 315 summer-run steelhead adults, 17 spring Chinook adults, seven jacks, 67 Chinook mini-jacks, one fall Chinook adult and three cutthroat trout during five days of operation at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator.
During the week Tacoma Power employees released three spring Chinook adults and three jacks into the Cispus River above the mouth of Yellow Jacket Creek, three spring Chinook adults and four jacks into the upper Cowlitz River at the Skate Creek Bridge in Packwood, Washington, and 62 spring Chinook mini-jacks into Riffe Lake at Mossyrock Park.
River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 2,620 cubic feet per second with a visibility of 14 feet on Monday, August 17.
Lewis River – Excellent at times for steelhead at the mouth. Bank and boat anglers in the North Fork Lewis are also catching some summer run steelhead.
Wind River – Effort was light with 8 boats observed here yesterday morning. No fish were found from the few boat anglers sampled.
Drano Lake – Including fish released, boat anglers averaged over 1.2 steelhead per rod. Just over half the steelhead caught were kept. A few adult fall Chinook are also appearing in the catch. Effort has increased with just over a hundred boats counted here yesterday morning.
White Salmon River – Bank and boat anglers are catching summer run steelhead. Bank anglers are also catching some fall Chinook. Effort has increased with 68 watercraft found here yesterday. SR 141 is very crowded with parked vehicles.
Buoy 10 – Effort and catch have increased. Approximately 950 boats were counted here during Saturday’s flight. Catches have ranged from ½ to a fish per rod. A little over a third of the catch were Chinook.
Lower Columbia from the Rocky Point/Tongue Point line upstream to Bonneville Dam – Last week we sampled 890 bank anglers with 251 steelhead and 10 adult fall Chinook. In addition we sampled 259 boat anglers (128 boats) with 118 steelhead and 10 adult and 1 jack fall Chinook. Two thirds of the steelhead caught were kept.
Nearly 300 boats and 200 WA and 135 OR bank anglers were counted during last Saturday’s flight. The most boats (79) were found at the mouth of the Cowlitz.
Hanford Reach – From Paul Hoffarth, WDFW Fish Biologist in Yakima - We officially kicked off the Hanford Reach fall chinook fishery Sunday. We interviewed 5 boats and 5 bank anglers Sunday. None of the boats were fishing for salmon (sturgeon and walleye). All 5 bank anglers at Ringold were fishing for salmon. Bank anglers reported catching and releasing 1 adipose clipped steelhead. Expansion for the week was 6 steelhead caught and released.
