Anglers were recently still picking up spring Chinook in a number of area rivers, but interest in fisheries for sturgeon, shad, hatchery steelhead, trout and bass is increasing. On May 24, an aerial survey team counted 411 boats fishing the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam for sturgeon and 275 bank anglers fishing for shad.

Boat anglers surveyed at the Deep River and Knappton ramps averaged one legal-size sturgeon for every six rods that week – up slightly from last year. According to those surveyed, half of the fish they hooked were keepers. Bank anglers also caught some legal-size sturgeon between Knappton and Chinook, as did boat and bank anglers fishing upriver to Marker 85 and in the Bonneville Pool.

“The water is warming up and the bite is improving,” said Joe Hymer, a WDFW fish biologist. “There’s a good reason why more boats and anglers are fishing for sturgeon.”

Hymer reminds anglers that a legal-size sturgeon caught between Buoy 10 and the Wauna powerlines must measure 45 to 60 inches from the tip of the fish’s nose to the tip of its tail. From the Wauna powerlines upriver to Marker No. 85, sturgeon may be retained if they measure 42 to 60 inches – but only if they are caught Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

That size limit also applies from Bonneville Dam to The Dalles Dam, where sturgeon may be retained seven days per week. 

Anglers fishing for shad, on the other hand, don’t have to worry about either size limits or daily catch limits. Although this year’s shad run has been slow to arrive, more than 10,000 passed Bonneville Dam on May 25, which Hymer sees as a sign of better fishing in the days ahead.

“Shad fishing should pick up in a couple of weeks,” he said. “These fish weigh three to four pounds apiece and put up a good fight, so it’s not surprising that more anglers are fishing for them.” Tips on catching and preparing shad are posted on the WDFW Web site at (wdfw.wa.gov/outreach/fishing/shad/shad.htm).

Meanwhile, anglers continue to reel in spring Chinook salmon and hatchery steelhead from tributaries to the Columbia River above and below Bonneville Dam. On the mainstem Columbia, however, steelhead retention below the I-5 Bridge remains closed – as do all mainstem salmonid fisheries – to conserve upriver spring Chinook.

Wildlife viewing: News that this year’s shad run is late to arrive (see above) may come as a surprise to anyone who has looked through the fish-viewing windows at Bonneville Dam lately. On May 25, nearly 11,000 of them – most weighing 3 to 5 pounds – were counted at the dam, far exceeding the number of all other species passing up the fish ladder combined. If the past is any indication, the parade of shad past the fish window will grow to 70,000 or 80,000 per day. (After WDFW prepared this report, shad counts actually dropped substantially, for example totaling just 2,439 fish on June 1.)

While sometimes considered the Rodney Dangerfield of fish (“they don’t get no respect”), shad actually have a very colorful history. Averaging three to five pounds, shad are credited with sustaining General George Washington’s troops at Valley Forge during the War of Independence. In 1871, an entrepreneur named Seth Green loaded 12,000 young shad from the Atlantic coast into milk cans and transported them to Sacramento to start a new fishery. The fish thrived and began showing up in the Columbia River a decade later.

Shad are the largest members of the herring family, which also includes Pacific sardines. Their backs are metallic blue to green in color, their bellies white with a saw-like serrated edge along the midline. Like salmon, shad are anadromous, entering freshwater rivers to spawn. Unlike salmon, they do not necessarily die after spawn and many return to spawn annually. Females bear more than 50,000 eggs, sometimes as many as several hundred thousand.

Shad will be on display through June at the Bonneville fish-viewing window at the Washington Shore Visitor Complex. To get there, take Washington State Highway 14 east to Milepost 40 (about 5 miles from Stevenson) and turn into the Bonneville Dam visitor center. The visitor center is the glass building at the end of the powerhouse.