Hunting Washington Forum

Other Activities => Fishing => Topic started by: SuperDave on April 07, 2011, 08:52:41 AM

Title: Columbia extension
Post by: SuperDave on April 07, 2011, 08:52:41 AM: The state has opened the lower columbia back up for one week begining tommorow! May have to give it a try!
Title: Re: Columbia extension
Post by: wildmanoutdoors on April 07, 2011, 08:57:07 AM: Dam counts suck still. Another week of too early. Lol
Title: Re: Columbia extension
Post by: bullcanyon on April 07, 2011, 09:24:53 AM: Hope this don't bite em in the but. Would of thought they'd wait until a few more passed the dam. Cart before the horse pays better.
Title: Re: Columbia extension
Post by: wildmanoutdoors on April 07, 2011, 09:29:23 AM: I think we will have a good run. They are being very careful so we don't go over quota like 2 years ago. Opening it in March until April 5th was dumb as its never been good that early. It got allot of people there though. But I'm still waiting for an opener in mid to late April as the run gets later and later every year.
Title: Re: Columbia extension
Post by: wildmanoutdoors on April 07, 2011, 09:38:54 AM: Spring chinook salmon fishing in the lower Columbia River will reopen for eight days beginning Friday, with a fair chance angling will continue beyond April 15.

The Columbia River is high and dirty.

"It's a tough and meager fishery until we see conditions improve and that will only happen over time,'' said Randy Woolsey, a member of the bi-state Columbia River Recreational Advisory Group.

Fishing closed, as scheduled, on Tuesday. State biologists tallied the catch and determined that 51 percent of the allocation of upper Columbia spring chinook remains.

Sportsmen kept 5,800 total chinook through Monday. Their share of upper Columbia fish was 4,700 handled with 3,820 either kept or killed during release, said Robin Ehlke of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

That leaves a balance of 3,930 upper Columbia chinook available for sports fishing downstream of Bonneville Dam.

Streamflow in the lower Columbia has skyrocketed from 250,000 cubic feet per second to almost 400,000 cfs in the past few days. Normal is about 177,000 cfs. Water clarity has dropped from 4 feet on Friday to 2 feet on Wednesday.

Those conditions make for very poor catches.

"We may be on kind of an elephant hunt,'' said Ed Wickersham of Ridgefield, government relations chair of the Coastal Conservation Association.

Biologist Jimmy Watts of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said there is no chance the sport fleet will exceed their 3,930 upper Columbia salmon balance in the eight days.

Washington and Oregon will meet again at 2 p.m. April 14 to review catches and consider a second extension.

"Our intent is to continue the fishery if possible without a delay,'' said Guy Norman, regional director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Only 338 spring chinook have been counted at Bonneville Dam. The forecast is for an upper Columbia run of 198,000, but less than 1 percent traditionally has passed Bonneville by this date.

Stuart Ellis of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission asked the states to not reopen sport fishing until the count at Bonneville improves.

The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting the river will drop some, but those projections are as uncertain as the weather, said John North of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Harry Barber of Washougal, also a CCA member, said there already have been large releases of water from the Snake River dams.

"We're going to have high flows and we're going to have to deal with it,'' Barber said.
Title: Re: Columbia extension
Post by: Bone_Collector on April 07, 2011, 03:07:24 PM: Sorry but this is very poor management on the departments end. why not let fish pass over the dam first so they can see what kind of run is going to develop. Every year the lower river goes over their ESA allowed impact which causes the upriver fisheries to suffer. Does not seem like they care about the fish.

Bones
Title: Re: Columbia extension
Post by: carpsniperg2 on April 07, 2011, 11:40:07 PM: Intresting! they said they would not open it back up. Might have to bug my buddy down there again :chuckle:
Title: Re: Columbia extension
Post by: fishcrazy on April 08, 2011, 04:58:00 PM: I wish they would leave the river closed until the second week of April. A guy could go fish it and have a chance at takeing home fish. When they close it so early it takes many more trips for a guy without a gill net to put just a few in the freezer.

2 weeks in April would be better than the previous 3 months combined!!

Kris
Title: Re: Columbia extension
Post by: SuperDave on April 11, 2011, 09:04:49 AM: Looks like the numbers are improving over the dam, might be a good week to go!!
Title: Re: Columbia extension
Post by: carpsniperg2 on April 11, 2011, 05:27:37 PM: Agree, if you look at the last 3 years the 1k+ days start by the mid to end of this month. Its getting better every day.
Title: Re: Columbia extension
Post by: Fishnclifff on April 11, 2011, 05:34:17 PM: The river is high and dirty. Visibility 2 ft at best.
Saw 2 hatchery fish and a native landed at Steamboat in Washougal on the dock.