Cowlitz River – Bank and boat anglers continue to catch some coho on the lower Cowlitz as well as a few fall Chinook.
Last week, Tacoma Power recovered 10,260 coho adults, 910 jacks, 1,354 fall Chinook adults, 290 jacks, 26 summer-run steelhead adults, 105 sea-run cutthroat trout and one chum salmon adult during seven days of operation at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator. Please note: With the new collection facility, more fish are able to be processed faster now.
During the week Tacoma Power employees released 912 fall Chinook adults, 257 jacks, 89 coho adults and three jacks into Mayfield Lake at the Ike Kinswa State Park boat launch, 269 coho adults and 12 jacks into the Tilton River at Gust Backstrom Park in Morton, 1,128 coho adults and 92 jacks into Lake Scanewa above Cowlitz Falls Dam, and 786 coho adults and 49 jacks into the upper Cowlitz River at the Skate Creek Bridge in Packwood, Washington during the week.
River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 4,430 cubic feet per second on Monday, October 12.
Kalama River – Anglers are catching some coho and steelhead but fishing is slow overall.
Lewis River – On the North Fork, bank anglers are catching coho though the majority are dark hatchery fish or wild fish that must be released. Also some steelhead and Chinook (which also have to be released) are being caught.
Drano Lake – Generally light effort and catch.
Klickitat River – Boat anglers just inside the mouth are catching good numbers of coho as well as some Chinook and steelhead.
Yakima River – Effort and harvest picked up this past week. Estimated harvest for the week was 175 adult chinook, 37 jacks, and 10 adult coho. One wild steelhead was caught and released. For the season 214 adult chinook, 37 jacks, and 10 adult cohohave been harvested.
The Yakima River salmon season is scheduled to remain open through October 22.
Buoy 10 – Pretty heavy effort this late in the season. On Saturday October 10, a total of 42 boats were counted at Buoy 10. Most were found on the Washington side upstream from the Megler-Astoria Bridge. Though creel sampling has ended for both Washington and Oregon, there were reports of good coho catches at least earlier in the week.
Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam – Chinook catches have tapered off but coho are being caught from the mouth of the Cowlitz to the Camas/Washougal area. Effort is still fairly strong with close to a hundred boats counted in the Camas/Washougal area and 54 at the mouth of the Cowlitz during the Saturday October 10 flight.
Bonneville Pool – Good catches of coho and some fall Chinook primarily around the mouth of the Klickitat. About 55 boats were observed off the mouth yesterday (Sunday October 11) morning.
October 15 is the last day scheduled for the anti-snagging rule to be in effect from Bonneville Dam to McNary Dam.
Hanford Reach – Last week737 boat anglers (294) boats kept428 adult and102 jack Chinook and released 8 adults and 8 jacks. The overall average was 1.8 chinook per boat. 5 hatchery steelhead were retained and 11 were released. One sturgeon was reported kept at Vernita. The Vernita area continues to be the hotspot with catches in the remainder of the Reach picking up
In addition,143 bank anglers at Ringold kept 10 jack fall Chinook and 29 hatchery origin steelhead and released 2 jack Chinook and 2 hatchery origin and 4 wild steelhead.
An estimated 2,722 fall chinook were harvested this past week in the Hanford Reach (2,198 adults &524 jacks). So far this season, 6,340 adult fall chinook and 1,913 jacks have been harvested. Harvest is running 46% above last year. Be alert for possible regulation changes.
