Southwest Washington Fishing Reports
2002 Report Archive
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WDFW Sport Sampling Results for February 19-24, 2002
Sport Sampling Summaries - PDF Format

Salmon/Steelhead

• Cowlitz River - Last week, 17 bank anglers at the barrier dam kept 2 steelhead. Eight bank anglers at Blue Creek had no catch while 9 boat anglers kept 5 steelhead. Flows below Mayfield Dam were 5,000 cfs this morning.
• Lewis River - Last week, 6 bank anglers had no catch. Flows below Merwin Dam were 6,000 cfs this morning.
• Lower Columbia from the I-5 Bridge downstream - No salmon or steelhead observed during limited sampling last week.
• Bonneville, The Dalles, and John Day pools - Still catching steelhead in The Dalles and John Day pools. Not much effort of catch in Bonneville Pool last week.

Sturgeon

• Lower Columbia from Bonneville Dam downstream - Some legals being caught from Vancouver to Woodland based on the limited sampling last week.
• Bonneville Pool - Counting legals released, boat anglers averaged a fish per every 5 rods last week. Slow for legal sized fish from the bank.
• The Dalles Pool - No legal sized fish were sampled there last week.
• John Day Pool - Slow from the bank but the few boat anglers sampled did catch some legal and oversized fish.

Walleye and Bass and other warm water fish

• Bonneville, The Dalles, and John Day pools - Light effort and no catch observed for walleye. No effort observed for bass.
  

Trout

• Klineline Pond near Hazel Dell - Last week, 85 bank anglers kept 48 rainbows and 1 brood trout (22 ½ inches) and released one rainbow.
• Kress Lake near Kalama - 44 more hatchery steelhead were released there last week.
• Several lakes will close to fishing March 1 under permanent regulations. Those waters include Carlisle Lake near Onalaska, Fort Borst Park Pond near Centrailia, Kidney Lake near North Bonneville, Plummer Lake near Centrailia, Lake Scanewa (Cowlitz Falls Reservoir), Northwestern Reservoir on the White Salmon River, Rowland Lake near Lyle and Spearfish Lake near Dallesport. Except for Lake Scanewa, all waters will re-open on April 27. Lake Scanewa will re-open on June 1.

Smelt

• Cowlitz River - Test dipping on Friday revealed 0 to 25 smelt per dip at the Lexington area. It took 5 minutes to ½ hour to get a limit. At Carnival Market, the catch was 0-3 smelt per dip and slower elsewhere. River was high and turbid.
• Lewis River - Smelt were reported being taken near the Lewis River Salmon Hatchery last weekend. Reports indicated ten pound limits were taken in a few dips there. Two smelt entered the trap at Merwin Dam last week. Schools of 15-20 smelt were observed every few seconds near the hatchery intake today.