Anglers fishing for hatchery steelhead have been doing well on the lower Columbia River and several tributaries. During the first week of July, boat anglers fishing below Bonneville Dam averaged half a steelhead per rod, while bank anglers took home a fish for every 4.6 rods. Those fishing near the trout hatchery on the Cowlitz River did even better, reeling in a hatchery fish per rod.
"We're nearing prime time for hatchery steelhead fishing below Bonneville," said Joe Hymer, a WDFW fish biologist. "The catch is increasing and shifting to upriver fish, which are a little smaller but bright as a chrome hubcap."
Hymer reminds anglers that the catch limit for steelhead has been increased to six hatchery fish per day on the Cowlitz and North Fork Lewis rivers, where hatcheries have met their broodstock requirements. Three rivers - the Cowlitz, Kalama, and Lewis - have also reopened for retention of hatchery-reared chinook salmon, although steelhead now make up the majority of the catch in those rivers.
Hymer reminds anglers that wild steelhead - identifiable by an intact adipose fin - must be released throughout the Columbia River Basin. "Some anglers have asked why there is a box for wild steelhead on their catch record card if they can't retain them," Hymer said. "The answer is that wild steelhead can be retained on a dozen rivers in Washington - most of them on the Olympic Peninsula - but none of them are in this region of the state."
Both catch and effort above Bonneville Dam were light for hatchery steelhead through the first week of July, but that is likely to change in the next few weeks, Hymer said. He noted that a third of a million upriver steelhead are expected to return to the Columbia River this year, and the tally at Bonneville Dam has been increasing day by day.
"The water has been fairly high and cold, which might slow the fish from turning into the Bonneville Pool tributaries to cool off," Hymer said. "But with more than 2,000 fish now passing Bonneville in a day, the action should start picking up soon."
