WDFW Sport Sampling Results:
March 20-26, 2006
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Latest
Southwest Washington |
Salmon/Steelhead -
Cowlitz River - Some hatchery winter run steelhead and spring chinook are being caught from the barrier dam downstream. During the past week Tacoma Power’s Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator recovered 65 adult steelhead and six adult spring chinook salmon during three days of separator operations.
Tacoma Power employees released 48 adult steelhead and six spring chinook adults into the upper Cowlitz River at the Day Use Park on Lake Scanewa. In addition, they recycled three adult steelhead downstream to the Barrier Dam boat launch, and they released a total of 18 steelhead into the Tilton River at Gust Backstrom Park in Morton, Washington.
River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 5,090 cubic feet per second on Monday, March 27. Water visibility is over nine feet.
Lewis River - Some spring chinook are being caught from the hatchery to the mouth.
Wind River and Drano Lake - Light effort and no catch observed. Bonneville Pool water level has been more up than down.
Klickitat River from the Fisher Hill Bridge downstream - Opens to fishing for hatchery spring chinook and hatchery steelhead beginning April 1. Open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays only. Daily limit 1 salmonid.
White Salmon River - Effective April 1, only hatchery chinook and hatchery steelhead may be retained. Daily limit 2 salmonids.
Lower Columbia from the I-5 Bridge downstream - Last week we sampled 1,450 salmonid anglers (including 613 boats) with 162 adult and 1 jack chinook plus 4 steelhead. 83% of the adult chinook caught were kept. 64% of the chinook kept were lower river stock based on Visual Stock Identification.
Boat anglers averaged an adult chinook per every 8.2 rods. Catch was spread throughout the river. In comparison, the boat catch rate was a chinook per every 9.3 rods during the same period in 2005 and one per every 8.5 rods in 2004.
Bank angling continues to be slow.
During March 1-26, the estimated handle of spring Chinook from the mouth upstream to the I-5 Bridge is 953 kept and 215 released fish with 40% upriver in the combined catch. This compares to 1,700 kept and 536 released (46% upriver kept) during March 1-31, 2005.
A total of 510 salmonid boats and 167 OR and 49 WA bank anglers were counted during yesterday's (Sunday March 26) flight. No comparable counts were made last year. A total of 1,176 boats and 824 OR and 376 WA bank anglers were counted from I-5 Bridge downstream on Sunday March 28, 2004.
Bonneville, The Dalles, and John Day pools - Bank anglers are catching some steelhead from Bonneville and John Day pools. No catch observed from The Dalles Pool.
Ringold - From Paul Hoffarth, WDFW Fish Biologist - The Ringold area steelhead fishery (Highway 395 Bridge to old Hanford Townsite) will close 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. There will not be a Spring Chinook fishery at Ringold this year. All Spring Chinook must be released.
During the past week, angler activity at Ringold has been fairly stable at 10 to 20 anglers per day. For the month of March, WDFW has interviewed 147 anglers with a catch of 68 steelhead. Anglers are averaging a fish for each 7.7 hours of effort.
Kalama River - Good flow levels for boat and bank anglers.
A lot of wild winter steelhead were handled on Friday (3/24) and on Monday (3/27) - 233 wild winter steelhead were passed upstream of Kalama Falls Hatchery (KFH) and 35 hatchery winter brood steelhead and our first hatchery summer brood steelhead of the year were recycled to the lower river (Camp Kalama). To date 720 wild winter steelhead have been passed upstream of KFH!!! Catch and release on all wild fish and All Fish above KFH + selective gear regulations.
Sturgeon -
Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam - Continues to be slow for legal size fish.
Bonneville Pool - Bank anglers are catching some legals.
The Dalles Pool - Boat anglers averaged a legal kept per every 4 rods. Slow from the bank.
John Day Pool - Bank and boat anglers were catching some legals.
Walleye and Bass -
Bonneville Pool - Including fish released, boat anglers averaged 1.5 walleye and 0.7 bass per rod. Bank anglers were catching some bass.
The Dalles Pool - Bank and boat anglers were catching some walleye. No effort observed for bass.
John Day Pool - Boat averaged 6 bass per rod when including fish released. They also averaged a walleye kept/released per every 8 rods.
Trout -
Waters planted with rainbows averaging about one-half pound each -
- Horseshoe Lake in Woodland - 2,280 fish on March 21
- Battleground Lake - 2,000 fish on March 22
- Klineline Pond - 1,000 fish on March 20
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