Southwest Washington Fishing Reports
2002 Report Archive
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WDFW Sport Sampling Results for February 4-10, 2002
Sport Sampling Summaries - PDF Format

Salmon/Steelhead

• Cowlitz River - Last week, 7 bank anglers at the barrier dam kept 3 steelhead and released 1. At Blue Creek, 19 bank anglers kept 2 steelhead and released 1 and 13 boat anglers had no catch. At Mission Bar, 1 bank angler had no catch.
• Flows below Mayfield Dam had dropped to 4,940 cfs this morning.
• Lewis River - Last week, 18 bank anglers kept 4 steelhead and released 2. Flows below Merwin Dam had dropped to 6,000 cfs this morning.
• Bonneville, The Dalles, and John Day pools - Anglers continue to catch some steelhead.
• Columbia River Forecasts:
  • First the good news:
    • Fall Chinook - Total forecast of 677,900 Columbia River fall chinook returning to the mouth of the river in 2002 would be the third largest return since 1948. (see Columbia River Fall Chinook 2002 Preseason Forecasts).
  • Now the bad news:
  • Coho:
    • Last year, the ocean abundance of Columbia River coho was estimated at 1.3 million fish. 873,000 were early stock and 429,700 were late stock.
    • In 2002, the ocean abundance prediction is for 305,100 Columbia River coho. Its expected 161,600 are early stock and 143,500 are late stock.
  • Bottom line - This year's ocean abundance of Columbia River coho is only 23% of last year.
    

Sturgeon

• Bonneville, The Dalles, and John Day pools - Slow for legal sized fish.
  

Walleye and Bass and other warm water fish

• Slow for walleye. No in-sample effort for bass was found.
  

Trout

• Merwin Reservoir - 6 boat anglers kept 4 kokanee. Fish were around 12 inches in length.
• Recent releases of ½ pound rainbows:
• Klineline Pond near Hazel Dell - 2,000
• Lacamas Lake near Camas - 2,100
• Ice House Lake near Bridge of the Gods - 1,000
• Kidney Lake near North Bonneville - 2,000
• Little Ash Lake near Stevenson - 1,100

Smelt

• In general - Sport dipping was slower last weekend than mid-week on both the Cowlitz and Lewis rivers.
• Cowlitz River on Saturday Feb. 9:
  • Gearhart Park near Longview - 0-2 smelt per dip
  • Kelso to Carnival Market 0-6 smelt per dip
  • Rocky Point to Lexington 0-6 per dip
  • Water temperature was 42 degrees
• Lewis River on Saturday Feb. 9:
  • Very slow. 0-2 smelt per dip in the dark hours
• Lewis River on Sunday Feb. 10:
  • Very slow. Just upstream from the forks, it was taking approximately 2 hours to get a 10 pound limit during the daylight hours. Lots of birds still present