WDFW Sport Sampling Results: October 31, 2006 Latest Southwest Washington Sport Sampling Summaries [PDF Format] Salmon/Steelhead - Cowlitz River - Anglers continue to catch a variety of salmonids including fall chinook, coho, summer run steelhead, and sea run cutthroats. Most of the fall chinook and some of the steelhead are being released because they're dark. Coho are being caught throughout the river. Overall anglers averaged about ½ fish per rod when including fish released. Tomorrow (October 31) is the last day of the 3 hatchery steelhead daily limit. Eleven winter steelhead returned to Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery last week. Tacoma Power and WDFW employees released 4,225 coho adults and 526 coho jacks into Riffe Lake at Mossyrock Park during the week. A total of 966 coho adults, 78 coho jacks, eight cutthroat trout and 70 summer-run steelhead were recycled to the Barrier Dam boat launch. A total of 85 coho adults, 17 coho jacks, 21 fall chinook adults, two jacks and one cutthroat trout were released into Mayfield Lake at Ike Kinswa Park boat launch during the week. Through October 25, a total of 16,714 hatchery adult coho had returned to the salmon hatchery. Last year, 15,342 of the total hatchery adult return of 34,000 fish had been counted at the hatchery by this time. A total of 1,726 sea run cutthroats had returned to the trout hatchery through October 25. This compares to 459 fish during the same period in 2005. Last year, slightly over 5,500 fish returned to the trout hatchery. River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 3,510 cubic feet per second on Monday, October 30. Water visibility is 12 feet. Lake Scanewa (Cowlitz Falls Reservoir) - Including fish released, anglers averaged about ½ coho per rod. Most of the fish released were wild. Tacoma Power employees transported 620 coho adults and 19 coho jacks to the Cowlitz River at the Lake Scanewa Day Use Site during the week. In addition, they released 274 coho adults and 11 jacks into the upper Cowlitz River at Franklin Bridge in Packwood during the week. WDFW transported one sea-run cutthroat trout to the upper Cowlitz River basin. Kalama River - Bank anglers averaged a coho kept/released for every 2 rods. A total of 506 late stock hatchery adult coho had returned to Kalama Falls Hatchery through October 25. During the same period in 2005, a total of 207 adults had returned. A little over 1,200 fish returned last year. Lewis River - Boat anglers averaged ½ fish per rod while bank anglers averaged one per every 5 rods when including fish released. Catch was mainly coho along with some fall chinook. Through October 25, a total of 1,826 late stock hatchery adult coho had returned to the facilities. Last year, a little over 2,000 fish had returned through the same period. In 2005, a total of 16,200 adults returned to the facilities. Tomorrow (October 31) is the last day of the 3 hatchery steelhead daily limit. Washougal River - Effort and catches are generally light. About 500 late stock hatchery adult coho had returned to the salmon hatchery through October 25. A little over 300 adults had returned by this time last year. Total hatchery return was 3,200 fish in 2005. Klickitat River - Boat anglers are catching some coho. Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam - Effort is waning. Yesterday (Sunday October 29), just 34 boats and 15 bank anglers were counted from Bonneville Dam downstream during the final effort flight of the year. Boat anglers in the Camas/Washougal area averaged a little less than a ½ hatchery coho kept per rod. Bonneville Pool - Boat anglers averaged about ½ coho per rod. Sturgeon - Lower Columbia from the Wauna power lines to Bonneville Dam - Boat anglers from Woodland upstream averaged a legal kept/released per every 4.4 rods based on completed trips. Bank anglers just below Bonneville Dam averaged a legal kept per every 7.2 rods based on mainly incomplete trips. Trout - Riffe Lake - Planted with 647 one pound cutthroats on October 24. Swofford Pond - Planted with 1,120 browns averaging nearly 2/3 pound each on October 24.