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Steelhead Moving Stronger at Bonneville Dam, Trickling Up Lower Granite by Rich Landers Spokesman-Review, June 26, 2012

FISHING -- The light at the end of the tunnel looking downstream is the gleam of steelhead running in decent numbers over Bonneville Dam.

The curve is going up sharply as about 500 fish a day are swimming from the ocean and over the first dam on the Columbia River.

Next stop for many of those fish is the Snake River, where a few fish already are trickling over Lower Granite Dam -- the last dam before they enter the Lewiston area, including the mouth of the Clearwater and the Grande Ronde River. The black line on the Lower Granite fish count should start going up any day.

With tributary water temperatures staying cool longer than normal again this year, anglers may want to rig up with slightly stronger line when they're fishing for summer smallmouth in the Ronde, if you know what I mean.