Cowlitz River Steelhead and King Salmon

We have had nothing but outstanding reports from the Cowlitz river over this past weekend and this week. There has been good catches of Spring Chinook caught by the bank fishermen fishing the Barrier Dam area of the river fishing at the dead line with eggs. Many of the boat fishermen are using their boat for transportation to the island and then fishing from the bank. There have been good numbers of late winter steelhead being caught below the boat launch an a combination of items from eggs, corkies and egg/shrimp combinations and even spoons. The trout hatchery launch area has also been putting out steelhead for both bank anglers as well as the boat guys. The Blue Creek area has been extremely good for the bank anglers fishing corkies at the point. The boat guys working the Clay Banks to Mission and even below I-5 have all been doing well on a mix of steelhead and Spring Chinook. Techniques for the boaters have ranged from free drifting corkies and eggs, to back trolling plugs, to divers and bait and back bouncing have all accounted for good catches.

This fishery should hold up for quite some time.