Cowlitz River – Boat anglers in the lower river are catching fall Chinook and steelhead.
Last week, Tacoma Power recovered 422 summer-run steelhead adults, 50 spring Chinook adults, six jacks, 81 spring Chinook mini-jacks, 45 fall Chinook adults, five jacks, one coho adult, 10 sea-run cutthroat trout and three sockeye salmon adults during five days of operation at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator.
During the week Tacoma Power employees released 33 spring Chinook adults, four jacks and one coho salmon into the Cispus River above the mouth of Yellow Jacket Creek, 43 fall Chinook adults and four jacks into Mayfield Lake at the Ike Kinswa State Park boat launch, and 73 spring Chinook mini-jacks into Riffe Lake at Mossyrock Park. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife personnel transported ten cutthroat trout to the Tilton River.
River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 2,460 cubic feet per second with a visibility of over 13 feet on Monday, August 24.
Kalama River – Bank anglers are catching some summer run steelhead.
Lewis River – Boat anglers are catching some summer run steelhead.
Wind River – Boat anglers are catching some summer run steelhead. A half-dozen boats observed here yesterday morning.
Drano Lake – Including fish released, boat anglers averaged 1.8 steelhead per rod. Just over half the fish were released. Just over a hundred boats found here yesterday morning.
White Salmon River – Bank anglers are catching fall Chinook and steelhead. Nearly 70 watercraft were spotted here yesterday though none were sampled last week.
Buoy 10 – Mostly coho in the catch with close a fish per rod on some days. Through August 19, there have been an estimated 18,000 anglers with 3,200 chinook and 9,200 coho.
Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam – Effort and Chinook catches are increasing, especially for boat anglers. Last Saturday August 22, nearly 1,100 boats and 550 WA and 133 OR bank anglers were counted during the flight. The highest number of boats (224) were found at the mouth of the Cowlitz.
Last week we sampled 1,054 bank anglers with 198 steelhead, 66 adult and 8 jack fall Chinook, 1 adult coho, and 1 sea-run cutthroat. In addition, we sampled 1,320 boat anglers (568 boats) with 211 adult and 17 jack fall Chinook, 94 steelhead, and 3 adult coho. Nearly 2/3 of the steelhead caught were kept.
Bonneville Pool – Boat anglers are catching a mixture of bright and tule fall Chinook at the mouths of the White Salmon River and Drano Lake.
Hanford Reach – All ahead slow. WDFW staff sampled 7 boats (23 anglers) this past week. Two boats (8 anglers) were fishing for salmon along with 6 bank anglers at Ringold. No catch reported.
