Salmon/Steelhead
Cowlitz River – Bank anglers at the barrier dam are still catching mini-jack spring Chinook while anglers near the Trout Hatchery are catching some steelhead.
Last week Tacoma Power recovered 355 summer-run steelhead, 131 spring Chinook adults, 23 jacks, 280 mini-jacks, one fall Chinook jack, one chum salmon, one sockeye salmon and nine cutthroat trout during five days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator.
During the past week Tacoma Power employees released 127 spring Chinook adults, 22 jacks and one fall Chinook jack into the Cispus River above the mouth of Yellow Jacket Creek, 150 spring Chinook mini-jacks into Riffe Lake at Mossyrock Park, and recycled 59 summer-run steelhead, one chum and one cutthroat trout downstream to the I-5 boat launch.
River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 2,630 cubic feet per second on Monday, August 12. Water visibility is 14 feet.
Wind River – Boat anglers are catching some steelhead.
Drano Lake – Boat anglers are catching steelhead and some fall Chinook. Just under 40% of the steelhead caught were hatchery fish.
Buoy 10 – Fishing for Chinook is improving with nearly a fish per boat average at times. Coho catches remain light.
Daily sampling summaries can be found at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/creel/buoy10/.
Lower Columbia mainstem below Bonneville Dam – Last week we sampled 3,171 salmonid anglers (including 542 boats) with 90 adult and 11 fall Chinook and 961 steelhead but no coho or sockeye. 449 (47%) of the steelhead were kept; 511 wild fish were found in the unexpanded sample.
In addition, 88 (98%) of the adult fall Chinook were kept.
A total of 534 boats and just over 700 bank anglers were counted during last Saturday’s effort flight count. Over 80% of the bank effort was found on the Washington shore while just over 100 boats were observed at the mouth of the Cowlitz.
Bonneville and The Dalles pools – Anglers are catching steelhead but the majority of the fish were wild and had to be released.
Hanford Reach – WDFW staff conducted the first creel survey of the Hanford Reach fall Chinook fishery on Friday, August 9. Staff interviewed 11 boats (22 anglers) and 4 bank anglers that kept 3 adult Chinook and 1 jack and released 2 jacks. For the week of August 5-11, an estimated 33 adult Chinook and 11 jacks were harvested.
Sturgeon
Lower Columbia mainstem from the Marker 82 line downstream – We sampled 10 sturgeon anglers (including 3 boats) from the Longview to Kalama area with 14 legals released.
The Dalles Pool – Boat and bank anglers caught some legals. Through July, an estimated 102 (34%) of the 300 fish guideline had been taken.
Walleye and Bass
Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam – We sampled 3 walleye boats/5 anglers in the Camas/Washougal area with 2 fish kept and 12 released.
The Dalles Pool – The few bass boats sampled averaged over 10 fish kept/released per rod while it was much slower for the walleye boats.
Trout
The new Statewide High Lake Stocking Report can be found at: http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/01489/2013_high_lake_stocking_statewide.pdf
