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Plenty of Fish to Catch Along the Columbia River, and Should Remain Good in Many Places by Mark Yuasa Seattle Times, September 27, 2016

SALMON AND STEELHEAD

Cowlitz River -- 166 boat anglers kept 6 adult fall Chinook, 12 adult and 3 jack coho and 7 steelhead and released 17 adult and 1 jack fall Chinook and 10 adult coho. 235 bank anglers kept 9 adult fall Chinook, 9 adult and 1 jack coho and 9 steelhead and released 36 adult and 5 jack fall Chinook and 5 adult coho.

Last week Tacoma Power employees recovered 951 coho adults, 587 jacks, 750 fall Chinook adults, 37 jacks, 190 summer-run steelheads, 23 spring Chinook adults and 33 cutthroat trout in five days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator.

During the past week, Tacoma Power employees released nine spring Chinook adults, 66 coho adults and 33 coho jacks into the Cispus River upstream of the mouth of Yellow Jacket Creek near Randle, 92 coho adults, 90 coho jacks and 14 spring Chinook adults at Franklin Bridge in Packwood, and 434 fall Chinook adults, 22 jacks, 690 coho adults, 456 coho jacks and ten cutthroat trout into the Tilton River at the Gust Backstrom Park in Morton.

River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 3,240 cubic feet per second on Monday, September 26. Visibility is at 10.5 feet and water temperature is 54 F.

Kalama River -- 88 bank anglers kept 4 steelhead and 4 adult fall Chinook and released 1 steelhead and 7 adult fall Chinook.

East Fork Lewis River -- 10 bank anglers had no catch.

North Fork Lewis River -- 57 bank anglers kept 2 adult and 1 jack coho, 2 steelhead and released 1 sockeye. 8 boat anglers kept 3 adult fall Chinook and released 1 adult fall Chinook and 2 adult coho.

Wind River -- 1 bank angler had no catch.

Drano Lake -- 71 boat anglers kept 24 adult and 1 jack fall Chinook, 11 steelhead and released 14 steelhead.

Klickitat River -- 4 boat anglers kept 4 adult fall Chinook. 36 bank anglers kept 16 adult fall Chinook.

Yakima River -- WDFW Mark Yuasa interviewed 236 anglers with 19 adult fall chinook last week. Anglers averaged 31 hours per fish, a big improvement over the week prior (53 hours per fish).

An estimated 100 adult chinook were caught from 1,086 angler trips last week with a total catch for the fishery of 242 adult chinook from 2,696 angler trips. No coho have been observed in the fishery to date.

Buoy 10 -- No report currently available.

Lower Columbia mainstem below Bonneville Dam -- During last week's Mark Selective Fishery (MSF) below the Warrior Rock line we sampled 279 salmonid anglers (including 61 boats) with 43 adult and 3 jack Chinook, 12 steelhead and 7 adult coho. 9 (21%) of the adult Chinook were kept. Half of the steelhead and two (29%) of the adult coho were kept.

During last week's non-MSF above the Warrior Rock line we sampled 1,112 salmonid anglers (including 409 boats) with 247 adult and 45 jack Chinook, 18 adult coho and 11 steelhead. All but 2 (99%) of the adult Chinook were kept. Thirteen (72%) of the adult coho and five (45%) of the steelhead were kept.

Bonneville Pool -- 9 boat anglers kept 1 adult fall Chinook and released 2 fish.

McNary Reservoir -- This past week 129 anglers from 70 boats along with 88 bank anglers harvested 9 steelhead, 4 adult Chinook, and 1 jack Chinook while fishing for steelhead/salmon between McNary Dam and the Wallula Junction. Based on the data collected, 39 steelhead, 17 adult Chinook, and 4 Chinook jacks were harvested during 865 angler trips this past week.

There have been an estimated 2,119 angler trips for steelhead/salmon in the McNary area through September 25 with a harvest of 64 hatchery steelhead, 24 adult Chinook, 20 Chinook jacks, and 3 adult coho. Twenty three wild steelhead, 6 coho, and 27 Chinook jacks have been caught and released.

Fall Chinook numbers through McNary Dam have begun to decline but steelhead continue to move upstream at better than 2,000 fish per day. Fishing improved this past week and steelhead fishing should continue to improve over the next couple of weeks.

Hanford Reach -- The number of anglers fishing for fall Chinook in the Hanford Reach area rose from 6,718 anglers to 9,943 anglers this past week. Boat counts ranged from 386 to 854 boats per day. Boats continued to average a Chinook per boat (16.5 angler hours per fish). Best fishing was in the Ringold area at 1.7 Chinook per boat. Both Vernita and Snyder averaged 0.9 Chinook per boat.

WDFW Mark Yuasa interviewed anglers from 1,120 boats (2,781 boat anglers) and 121 bank anglers (Ringold access area) with a harvest of 1,027 adult Chinook and 65 jacks. An estimated 3,573 adult Chinook and 225 jacks were harvested this past week.

Through September 25, an estimated 7,350 adult Chinook, 582 Chinook jacks, and 10 coho have been harvested in the Hanford Reach from 23,993 angler trips.

The numbers of fall Chinook moving upstream through the McNary fish ladders has begun to drop off. The current in-season update for the Hanford Reach natural origin (wild) fall Chinook is 127,378 well below the forecast but still a strong return. In-season updates will be calculated weekly through mid-October.

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