Cowlitz River – Spring Chinook continue to be caught at the barrier dam while steelhead are being caught near Blue Creek. 50 bank anglers kept 3 adult Chinook and 2 steelhead.7 boat anglers kept 5 steelhead.
Last week, Tacoma Power recovered a total of 146 spring Chinook adults, 72 jacks, 160 mini-jacks and 251 summer-run steelhead adults during four days of operation at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator.
During the week Tacoma Power employees released seven spring Chinook adults and 45 jacks to Lake Scanewa above Cowlitz Falls Dam on the upper Cowlitz River, 16 spring Chinook adults and 12 jacks into the upper Cowlitz River at the Skate Creek Bridge near Packwood and151 spring Chinook mini-jacks into Riffe Lake at Mossyrock Park.
Through June 26, summer run steelhead returns to the separator are currently running about 70% of the recent 8 year average. The attraction water at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery ladder has been off and on with release of juvenile fall Chinook coupled with robust river flows may have a dampening effect on returns to date.
River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 3,590 cubic feet per second with a visibility of 10 feet on Monday, July 6.
Washougal River – No report on steelhead angling success.Approximately 300 summer steelhead adults were recycled downstream to the Mill on the lower Washougal July 1.
Lower Columbia mainstem from the Rocky Point Tongue Point line upstream to Bonneville Dam – During the first five days of July we sampled 390 bank anglers with 22 adult and 6 jack Chinook, 2 sockeye, and 21 steelhead. We also sampled 95 boat anglers (41 boats) with 5 adult and 2 jack Chinook, 0 sockeye, and 5 steelhead.
On the Thursday July 2nd flight, almost 300 boats and 300 WA and 150 OR bank anglers were counted.
Currently open for hatchery steelhead, sockeye, and Chinook jacks (adipose fin clipped or not).Through July, adult Chinook must be released while sockeye may be kept.
TAC met on Monday July 6, 2009 and updated the Chinook and Sockeye run sizes. The updated summer Chinook run size is 58,000 at the river mouth. This is based on average counts from now through July 31 at Bonneville and an estimated below Bonneville harvest of 5,100 Chinook. TAC increased the sockeye run size to 190,000 at the river mouth. This forecast is based on an average run timing curve. The pre-season forecasts were 70,700 summer Chinook and 183,200 sockeye.
The Dalles Pool – Generally light effort and catch.
John Day Pool – Generally light effort and no catch observed.
Lower Columbia mainstem from the mouth to the Wauna powerlines – Charter boat anglers averaged nearly 2/3 legal kept per rod while private boaters averaged one per every 3.5 rods. Fishing from the bank was slow. Approximately 40% of the fish caught were keeper size.
234 private and 8 charter boats were counted during the Thursday July 2nd flight.
Staff will provide an updated catch estimate which will be used to determine if any fish remain on the guideline.Stay tuned.
Lower Columbia mainstem from the Wauna powerlines to Marker 85 – Boat anglers are catching some legals.Slow from the bank.
On June 30, Goldendale Hatchery staff planted 200 excess brood stock rainbow averaging 3 pounds each into Takhlakh Lake.
Nearly 3,000 catchable size rainbows are expected to be released into both Skate Creek and the Tilton River this week.Last week, 3 bank anglers on Skate Creek had no catch while 4 anglers kept 1 rainbow on the Tilton River.
Swofford Pond – 2 bank anglers had no catch.
Mayfield Lake – 4 bank anglers had no catch.2 boat anglers kept 1 rainbow.
Riffe Lake – 52 bank anglers kept 7 and released 4 landlocked coho.
