Fishing in Nisqually, other streams is a break from lakes

HOOK AND FUR By Bob Brown
Anglers weary of lake fishing and desiring a change of pace will have an opportunity to start stream fishing next Saturday. Canyon Creek in Clark County will open May 25 and so will Bird, Outlet and Spring Creeks in Kittitas County. Locally, the Nisqually River will open to fishing on the same date from Alder Reservoir upstream including the Little Nisqually, Mineral Creek and North Fork Mineral plus all other tributaries of Alder Reservoir. The daily limit in all waters is two trout. The minimum size is 20 inches. Under recently adopted permanent rules, effective the first Saturday in June the daily limit in Skate Creek and Tilton River was reduced to two trout. All cutthroat must be released. Also, Skate Creek and Tilton River will no longer be planted with hatchery rainbows. Rainey Creek, located near Glenoma is scheduled to be planted with 2,000 catchable-size rainbows with a daily limit of five fish. All cutthroat must be released. Rainey Creek is scheduled to open the first Saturday in June.-á -á During the week, May 13-18, Tacoma Power employees recovered 456 spring chinook adults, 51 jacks, 52 winter steelhead and 18 summer steelhead during five days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator. Also, Tacoma employees released 189 chinook, 16 jacks and five winter steelhead into the Cispus River above the mouth of Yellow Jacket Creek and 81 spring chinook, 25 jacks and two winter steelhead into Lake Scanewa above Cowlitz Falls Dam. Sturgeon fishing hasn't been super great in the lower Columbia. Department of Fish and Wildlife fish samplers checked 62 sturgeon anglers (including 19 boats) last week with six legal kept. All of the legals were caught by boat anglers from Vancouver to Cathlamet. The Dalles and John Day pools have both been slow for legal size fish. Melissa Dexheimer of the WDFW's Vancouver office reported for the week of May 13-19, anglers targeting pikeminnows caught 6,737 fish. Catching was excellent in The Dalles area were 295 anglers caught 2, 637 pikes Fishing was also good at Kalama, Vernita, Boyer Park and Beacon Point. To date, a total of 16,055 pikeminows have been caught, plus 15 tagged fish. The Bonneville Power Administration, sponsor of the Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward fishery will pay anglers $500.00 for each tagged pikeminnow caught.

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