WDFW Sport Sampling Results: May 20, 2007 Latest Southwest Washington Sport Sampling Summaries [PDF Format] Salmon/Steelhead Cowlitz River - Last week Tacoma Power recovered 346 spring chinook adults, 82 jacks, 55 winter-run steelhead and 18 summer-run steelhead at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator during five days of operations. River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 5,090 cubic feet per second on Monday, May 21. On Wednesday, May 23 flows will be increased to approximately 6,200 cubic feet per second for a 12-hour period. Kalama River - Bank and boat anglers are catching spring chinook and a few summer run steelhead. Lewis River - Effort and catch has slowed slightly on the North Fork. Including fish released, boat anglers averaged nearly a fish per every 2 rods while bank anglers averaged one per every 4 rods. Wind River - Spring chinook are spread throughout the system. Effort has been light. Both Bonneville Pool levels and Wind River flows have been low. Drano Lake - Boat anglers averaged a spring chinook per every 3 rods when including fish released. About 40% of the catch are jacks although a couple fish in the 30 pound range were caught. Slow from the bank. Klickitat River - Effort and catch have been generally light. Bank anglers on the lower river are catching some spring chinook and summer run steelhead. Lower Columbia from the Rocky Point/Tongue Point line to the I-5 Bridge - Last week we sampled 314 salmonid anglers (including 87 boats) with 12 adult and 4 jack spring chinook and 15 steelhead. Chinook were caught by boat and bank anglers from Cathlamet upstream. 9 (75%) of the adult chinook caught were kept. Based on Visual Stock Identification, the catch was split evenly between lower river and upriver stock. All the steelhead caught were kept. The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) met today and updated the upriver Spring Chinook run. TAC concluded that the run was tracking to meet the preseason forecast of 78,500 fish. Sturgeon Ports of Chinook and Ilwaco - Anglers on charter boats averaged a legal kept per every 3 rods while private boaters averaged one per every 6 rods. Catches have picked up in recent days. Overall, about 1 in every 3 fish landed was a legal size fish. Rest of the lower mainstem Columbia upstream to Marker #85 - Boat anglers averaged a legal kept per every 4.5 rods. Catch was spread throughout the river. Bonneville Pool - Bank anglers are catching some legals. Slow for legal size fish from boats. John Day Pool - No legals were observed in the catch. Catch estimates for the sturgeon sport fishery in the John Day pool remain at low levels and no action is needed at this time in order to remain within catch guidelines. Therefore, the Joint State Hearing scheduled for tomorrow has been canceled. Walleye and Bass Bonneville Pool - Boat anglers averaged 1.5 walleye and 10.5 bass kept/released per rod based on a small sample. Bank anglers averaged over 2 bass per rod. John Day Pool - Including fish released, boat anglers averaged a walleye and 10 bass per rod. Bank anglers were catching some bass. Trout Plants of catchable size rainbows May 10-14: Battleground Lake - 2,110 Kidney Lake near North Bonneville - 2,500 Horsethief Lake near Lyle - 3,000 Little Klickitat River - 800 Maryhill Pond - 646 Spearfish Lake near Dallesport - 1,688 Shad Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam - Including fish released, boat anglers averaged nearly 9 shad per rod. Bank anglers in Camas/Washougal averaged nearly 3 per rod. No bank anglers near Bonneville Dam will be sampled until the summer chinook fishery begins in mid June. Daily shad counts at Bonneville Dam have been around 40,000 fish each of the past few days.