Steelhead fishing record set on Lower Columbia

FISHING — Steelhead anglers continue the record-setting success at catching the returning sea-run fish in the Columbia river below Bonneville Dam.

The fishery developed big time last year as unusually high, cool flows turned anglers on to turned-on fish.

Here’s the report for July 2012 just posted by Joe Hymer of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in Vancouver.

Total of 20,451 steelhead were kept and released from the lower Columbia mainstem below Bonneville last month. The previous record for any single month was 18,516 in August 2011.