WDFW Sport Sampling Results:
August 15, 2005
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Latest
Southwest Washington |
Salmon/Steelhead -
Cowlitz River - Wind River - Light effort; 5 boats were counted here last Saturday (August 13) morning. Some steelhead are being caught.
Drano Lake - Catch slowed from the previous week. However, boat anglers still averaged nearly a steelhead kept/released per rod. Bank anglers were also catching some fish. Still pretty high effort with around 100 boats counted last Saturday morning.
White Salmon River - Anglers are catching steelhead and chinook, some of later that are showing some color.
About 45 water craft observed last Saturday morning. Highway 141 is lined with autos, campers,etc.
Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam - Including fish released, boat anglers averaged a steelhead per every 4.4 rods based on completed trips while bank anglers averaged one per every 7.8 rods based on mainly incomplete trips. Fish are being caught throughout the river. 71% of the fish caught were hatchery fish. Some fall chinook are also being caught.
Nearly 40% (46 boats) of the 114 boats counted during last Saturday's flight were found at the mouth of the Cowlitz.
From August 1-14, a total of 4,469 adult fall chinook had been counted at Bonneville Dam. It's the lowest total since 1992 (2,118 fish). In addition, this year's count to-date is approximately 60% of the recent ten year average of 7,543 adults.
Bonneville Pool - No report on angling success. A few boats are appearing at the mouths of the Washington tributaries. The pool level has been reported to be dropping.
Sturgeon -
Lower Columbia from the mouth upstream to the Wauna power lines - Lower Columbia from the mouth to the Wauna powerlines -
143 private and 3 charters were counted during last Saturday's flight. Today is the last day of the year to retain sturgeon in this section of river.
Ports of Chinook and Ilwaco - Charter boat anglers averaged 0.77 legal white sturgeon per rod while private boaters averaged 0.18 per rod.
Knappton and Deep River ramps - Boat anglers averaged 0.24 legal white sturgeon per rod.
Lower Columbia from the Wauna powerlines to Bonneville Dam - Very light effort (21 boats and 1 bank angler counted during last Saturday's flight) in the current catch and release only fishery.
Huge catfish landed at Round Lake
A 33 pound 8 oz. (36") catfish was landed by a bank angler at Round Lake (just below Lacamas Lake) on the evening of August 10. James L. Hutchison of Vancouver caught the fish using chicken livers. Mr. Hutchison had caught several smaller brown bullhead catfish before the larger fish struck. He reported it took a half an hour to land the fish on a light, 6 foot long trout rod.
The fish has been tentatively identified as a channel catfish. Channel catfish were released into Lacamas at least twice, once in the late 80's and again around 1993. Channel cats were sampled by the state in Lacamas Lake a few years ago. Attached is a picture of the fish.
fyi - The Washington state record channel catfish is 36.2 pounds. It was caught from the I-82 Pond #6 (Yakima County) in September 1999.
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