WDFW Sport Sampling Results: January 22, 2007 Latest Southwest Washington Sport Sampling Summaries [PDF Format] Salmon/Steelhead Summary of options for 2007 Columbia River mainstem spring chinook sport fishery as presented at the Columbia River Recreational Advisor Group Meeting on January 18: Option # Area Days open in March/April Total Estimated Angler Trips Assumptions 1 Below I-5 46 98,500 No fishing above I-5 1a Same as above adds 1 day 101,900 Same as above except 1 fish daily limit 2   Below I-5 42 72,000   Above I-5 33 15,600 2 days in early April 2a Same as above adds 1 day 87,800 Same as above except 1 fish daily limit 3   Below I-5 43 77,100   Above I-5 31 13,500 No April fishery above I-5 3a Same as above adds 1 day 94,000 Same as above except 1 fish daily limit 4   Below I-5 39 57,400   Above I-5 38 20,900 Splits effort above/below I-5 4a Same as above adds 1 day 81,700 Same as above except 1 fish daily limit A Joint State Hearing has been scheduled to review salmon stock status and consider spring recreational fisheries. This hearing is scheduled after the Compact Hearing to be held at: 10:00 a.m. Thursday January 25, 2007 Water Resource Education Center 4600 SE Columbia Way Vancouver, Washington 98668 Bonneville and The Dalles pools - Light effort/no catch observed in The Dalles Pool. No effort observed in Bonneville Pool. Note: John Day Pool creel sampling will not begin until March this year. Kalama River- Best boating conditions of the year this past week. About 1 to 2 fish/hookups per boat. Bank anglers doing good as well with the upper canyon still producing most of the action. The past week (Friday and Monday), 105 "first time" and 27 "recaps" hatchery winter steelhead were recycled to the lower river. Also, 18 wild winter fish were passed upstream of the hatchery where it is catch and release, selective gear regulations. To date 160 wild winter fish have been passed above Kalama Falls Hatchery, a very good early showing of wild winters. Kress Lake continues to be a local favorite with multiple hook ups for the boat anglers on Cowlitz steelhead that were planted into the lake. Cowlitz River- Anglers are still catching early winter steelhead. Best success has been in Blue Creek where in the last week 28 anglers caught 18 steelhead. Blue Creek is open until January 31. Also, there has been some success at South Lewis County Park pond. WDFW released 205 early winters into the pond last week for a total of 553 since mid-December. Sturgeon Lower Columbia from the Wauna powerlines to Bonneville Dam - At Longview, 7 bank anglers sampled had no catch. Potential sport options for the above Wauna recreational sturgeon fishery for the 2007-2008 seasons: Joint Staff recommends splitting the 4,255 fish remaining from the 2006 guideline over the 2-year period for a harvest guideline of 14,900 in 2007 and 2008. Option 1: 4 days/week (Thursday-Sunday) January 1-July 31 and October 1-December 31. Catch expectations 103,000 angler trips with 14,600 sturgeon kept. Option 2: 7 days/week January 1-July 31 and 3 days/week (Thursday-Saturday) October 1-December 31. Catch expectations 112,000 angler trips with 14,600 sturgeon kept. Any modification to the above Wauna recreation fishery designed to access the carryover will be considered for adoption at the Compact/Joint State Hearing scheduled for January 25. Depending on catch rates, both season options could be fine-tuned in season by adding opportunity during September in 2007 and/or 2008. Cowlitz River - Quite a bit of effort observed on the lower Cowlitz from Rocky Point in Kelso downstream last Saturday afternoon. No report on angling success. During last week Tacoma Power and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recovered 145 adult coho salmon, three coho jacks and 217 winter-run steelhead at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator during two days of operations. Tacoma Power employees released 115 coho adults, three coho jacks and 11 winter-run steelhead into the upper Cowlitz River at the Day Use Park on Lake Scanewa and Tacoma Power employees released 16 coho adults and six winter-run steelhead into the Tilton River at Gust Backstrom Park in Morton. Tacoma Power released 201 steelhead adults into South Lewis County Park pond near Toledo, Washington during the week. River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 7,420 cubic feet per second on Monday, January 22. Water visibility is two feet. January 31 is the last day to fish in Blue Creek. In addition, the hatchery steelhead daily limit returns to 2 fish on the Cowlitz River from Mayfield Dam downstream beginning February 1. Bonneville and The Dalles pools - No legals were found in the sample. Walleye and Bass - Bonneville and The Dalles pools - The Dalles Pool boat anglers averaged a walleye kept per rod. No effort for walleye was observed in Bonneville Pool and no effort for bass was found in either pool. Trout - Horseshoe Lake in Woodland - 63 adult winter steelhead averaging ten pounds each were released on Jan. 17. Smelt - Conditions: Commercial landings from the mainstem Columbia River have slowed. The Cowlitz River at Castle Rock is running at 11,700 CFS (normal for this time of the year). The temperature of the Columbia River downstream of the Cowlitz is 39º F and the lower Cowlitz River is 40º F. Water temperatures have now dropped below ideal levels for smelt movement (42 degrees). Catches: Columbia River: Commercial: 435 lbs January 11th (435 lbs/delivery) 280 lbs January 8th (280 lbs/delivery) 1,721 lbs cumulative since mid-December (incomplete - doesn’t include last week’s Oregon landings). Cowlitz River: Sport: May have been a few fish around the first two Saturday's in January. A small group of harbor seals were observed feeding on smelt near Gearhart on the lower Cowlitz River Friday January 19. Light sport effort observed Saturday January 20 afternoon and no catch was observed. However, seals and cormorants were observed in the middle of the river upstream to Kelso. Commercial: 0 lbs January 17th (0 lbs/delivery) 0 lbs January 14th (0 lbs/delivery) 0 lbs Cumulative since January 3 rd.