SW WA, Columbia Gorge Pools, Hanford Fishing Reports (2-1-21)

THE FOLLOWING FISHING REPORTS WERE FORWARDED BY BRYANT SPELLMAN AND PAUL HOFFARTH, WDFW

Preliminary Washington Columbia River mainstem and tributary sport sampling summary January 25-31, 2021

Steelhead: 

Bonneville Pool – No report. 

The Dalles Pool – No report. 

John Day Pool – 1 boats/2 rods had no catch. 

Sturgeon: 

Walleye: 

Bonneville Pool – No report. 

The Dalles Pool – No report. 

John Day Pool – 21 boats/38 rods kept 49 walleye and released 17 walleye. 

Salmon/Steelhead: 

Columbia River Tributaries 

Cowlitz River – I-5 Br downstream – 101 bank rods kept six steelhead. 1 boat/2 rods had no catch.  Above the I-5 Br – 31 bank rods kept two steelhead. 29 boats/88 rods kept 18 steelhead. 

Columbia River Steelhead Fishery Update (McNary Dam to Hwy 395)

On November 1 several sections of the Columbia River including McNary Dam upstream to the Highway 395 Bridge opened for steelhead fishing. The fishery is scheduled to remain open through March 31 (see Emergency Regulation listed below). The daily limit is one hatchery steelhead. Night closure remains in effect. Barbless hooks are required when fishing for steelhead in the Columbia River downstream of the WA/OR border. From Hwy 730 at the WA/OR border upstream anglers can use barbed or barbless hooks for any species except sturgeon (sturgeon: single, barbless, hook & catch-and-release only). In addition anglers may fish with two poles with Two-Pole Endorsement for any species except sturgeon upstream of the WA/OR border.

Fishing remains slow but anglers are picking up a few fish. Boat anglers averaged 10 hours per steelhead in January (38 hours per hatchery steelhead). Bank anglers did very poorly in January averaging 113 hours per steelhead (wild steelhead released, no reported harvest).

WDFW staff interviewed 101 boat anglers (44 boats) and 75 bank anglers in January to estimate catch and harvest. WDFW estimates there were 644 angler trips in January (269 bank, 376 boat) with 38 hatchery steelhead harvested. In addition to hatchery steelhead harvested, 7 hatchery steelhead and 122 wild steelhead were caught and released.  Steelhead were roughly a 50:50 mixture of A-run and B-run.

For the fishery there have been 4,198 angler trips for steelhead with 215 steelhead harvested and 767 steelhead caught and released.