Your relatives might ultimately scatter your ashes over Puget Sound if you answered sturgeon, shad, steelhead and salmon. Beginning with the most abundant, if a bucket of shad strikes your fancy, it's time to head for Bonneville Dam. Last weekend, anglers just downstream checked by state samplers averaged more than four each. During big run years, the daily count can surpass 100,000, but current levels are plenty for good fishing.
Water flows on the big river are up, which has slowed catches somewhat.
But those spending some time are having no problems taking plenty of shad, the largest member of the herring family at 3-7 pounds. Flows have been high, but water clarity this week has been holding at an adequate four feet. In the coastal region, the Sol Duc and Wynooche, the latter crowded, have been the best bets. Down south, a batch of fresh summer-runs appeared at the Blue Creek drift on the Cowlitz on Tuesday, and fair fishing is being reported in the Kalama and Lewis. The main Columbia itself has been fair, at the sand bars near Longview and upstream at Ringgold.