WDFW Sport Sampling Results:
March 27-April 2, 2006
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Southwest Washington |
Salmon/Steelhead -
Cowlitz River - Hatchery spring chinook catches are increasing on the lower river from I-5 Bridge downstream while hatchery winter steelhead are being caught by boat anglers in the upper river.
Lewis River - Some hatchery spring chinook are being caught near the salmon hatchery.
Wind River and Drano Lake - Low effort and no catch observed.
Klickitat River - No effort observed on the Saturday (April 1) opener.
Lower Columbia from the I-5 Bridge downstream - We sampled 1,571 salmonid anglers (including 719 boats) with 300 chinook and 12 steelhead. Boat anglers averaged a chinook kept/released per every 5.6 rods. Best catches were in the Cathlamet area with a chinook per every 3 rods when including fish released. Bank angling is still slow.
83% of the chinook caught were kept. Slightly over half the fish kept were lower river stock based on Visual Stock Identification.
During the same period in 2005, boat anglers from the I-5 Bridge downstream averaged a chinook kept/released per every 17.1 rods. Catch rates in 2004, 2003, and 2002 were a chinook per every 6.4, 7.1, and 4.7 rods, respectively.
An estimated nearly 2,000 spring chinook were caught last week bringing the season total to about 3,100 fish handled. A Joint State Hearing is being arranged for Thursday April 6 @ 2 PM to discuss sport effort and catches and update escapements/dam counts.
Bonneville and The Dalles pools - Light effort and no catch observed.
Ringold - From Paul Hoffarth, WDFW Biologist - Angler effort and catch increased in March. A total of 445 steelhead were caught during the month of March. Of these, 216 were harvested with 4 wild steelhead caught and released. Catch in March was higher than the 2004 fishery. Anglers averaged about 6.3 hours per fish in March. Total catch and harvest for the 2005-06 fishery remains well below that of the 2003 and 2004 seasons.
The Ringold area (Highway 395 Bridge to old Hanford Townsite) steelhead fishery closed on March 31. Bank anglers will be permitted to fish for steelhead through April 15 but only along the shoreline located near the Ringold Springs Hatchery. The area open is from the WDFW marker ¼ mile downstream of the Ringold irrigation wasteway outlet to the marker ½ mile upstream of Spring Creek. Effort and catch is typically very light during the bank only fishery.
Sturgeon -
Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam - No legals were sampled.
Bonneville Pool - Anglers are catching some legals.
The Dalles Pool - The Columbia River and its tributaries from The Dalles Dam to John Day Dam will change to catch and release only for sturgeon beginning April 8. The annual harvest guideline of 100 fish is expected to be taken by that time.
Walleye and Bass -
Bonneville Pool - Boat anglers averaged 2/3 walleye and near 2.5 bass kept/released per rod. No bank effort was observed.
The Dalles Pool - Boat anglers averaged a walleye per rod when including fish released. No effort was observed for bass or from the bank.
Trout -
Klineline Pond - 93 bank anglers kept 131 rainbows and released 72. Best fishing is in the N.W. corner by anglers using worms and Power Bait. Planted with 1,500 rainbows averaging over one-half pound each on March 27.
Sliver Lake near Castle Rock - Planted with 3,348 catchable size rainbows on March 27.
Swofford Pond near Mossyrock - Planted with 3,333 catchable size rainbows on March 27.
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