Mark Yuasa covers fishing and outdoors in the Pacific Northwest.
March 20, 2013 at 9:08 AM
Effort and catch slowly building for Lower Columbia River spring chinook
Here is the latest word on the spring chinook fishery by Joe Hymer, a state Fish and Wildlife biologist in Vancouver:
Last week on the Lower Columbia, anglers made 8,588 trips and caught 302 adult spring Chinook (244 kept and 58 released). Based on Visual Stock Identification (VSI) sampling, the March catch has been comprised of 70% upriver spring Chinook compared to 33% in February.
From Feb. 1-March 17, 2013 an estimated 21,000 angler trips have produced 424 adult Chinook kept and 116 released. The 2013 pre-season expectations for the entire season were 6,100 adult Chinook kept (all stocks) from 63,500 angler trips.
Catch rates and stock composition are nearly identical to this time in 2012 though effort is down this year. Through March 18, 2012, there were nearly 30,000 angler trips made with 582 Chinook kept of which 389 were upriver stock based on VSI. In addition, 180 Chinook were released.
(Photo by Mark Harrison, The Seattle Times Staff Photographer)
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About the author
A Seattle native, Mark Yuasa is a lifelong angler who grew up near the banks of Lake Washington and has been covering fishing and outdoors for more than 21 years for The Seattle Times. Read his regular fishing report every Thursday and the outdoor notebook every Sunday.
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