It’s official: Steelheaders set catch record on lower Columbia

FISHING —  Record and near record steelhead catches from the Lower Columbia mainstem sport fishery last month have just been reported by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife:

New record steelhead harvest for the month of July.  An estimated 8,549 steelhead were kept last month.  The old record was 8,200 steelhead taken home in 2009.

Last month’s 15,897 total steelhead handled (kept and released) missed the record by just 37 fish (15,934 in 2009).

MEANTIME , more than 23,000 steelhead have run up the Snake River and climbed over Lower Granite Dam . And they’re coming at the rate of about a thousand a day.