Cowlitz Commute! 13

Nov 30, 2010 by Tom Nelson

If you say "Thanksgiving", I think "Steelhead" and so does Ryan Bennett of Reel Deal Guide Service!

Ryan and I had planned to head down to the Cowlitz one week ago but the snow storm that snarled traffic changed our minds in a hurry. So, we waited a week, got up early on Monday morning following Turkey Day, jumped on I-5 with the rest of the commuters and headed to Blue Creek!

Buoyed by rumors of large, fresh hatchery fish we were pleasantly surprised that the parking lot at the Trout Hatchery was not stuffed to the rafters with rigs! Unfortunately, there was a reason that there was a light turnout on this misty morning.

Ryan Bennett positions the sled for the first drift and we are quickly drifting through some of the most productive steelhead water in the state!

 

 

Big Phil Michelsen increases his odds of hooking steelhead by setting the hook on every rock! This time however, something actually pulls back!

 

Ryan and Phil show off a fine, chrome three-salt hen steelie brimming with eggs and pulling the scale down to over 12 pounds!

 

One of the great things about hitting the Cowlitz is checking out all the different boats! Here's a home made wood sled that definitely caught my eye!

 

The bank anglers were keeping up with the boaters just fine on this day! Here's a couple bank bretheren swapping tips and packing a dandy Cowlitz steelie!

 

Here's where the're all heading: The Cowlitz "Crack Pipe" or hatchery outlet. If you look close you'll see a few steelies bumping their nose up the grate!

 

Ryan Bennett of Reel Deal Guide Service show off a dandy Cowlitz chromer and if you see him out on the water, you can bet you're in the right place!!!

13 comments

Joe on Dec 01, 2010 at 2:49 pm said:

Any steelhead reports from the Snoqualmie or Skykomish?

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rob endsley on Dec 01, 2010 at 2:28 pm said:

Yes we do know!

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Tobeck on Dec 01, 2010 at 2:10 pm said:

Those steelhead videos are up and running now, thanks for letting us know. I'm glad Nelly didn't try to fire up lunch in that wooden sled, we all know how that turns out.

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Drew on Dec 01, 2010 at 9:01 am said:

Thank you for the response. It does seem odd why they don't take them in directly but as long as the fish are in the area, I'm happy. For those who don't know you can check the tacoma power website each monday for the Barrier Dam fish counts to see how many steelhead were counted the week prior. Drew

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Nelly on Dec 01, 2010 at 5:38 am said:

Hey Drew, its cool to see that you're "digging in", finding out some inside info on this fishery. Salmonids imprint on a particular odor profile as smolts and that's the key stimulus that triggers the homing instinct. Those hatchery brats will indeed stick their noses into that hatchery outlet but they will not stick around forever. The urge to merge will take over and upstream they will go. As to the reason they don't allow steelies back inside the trout hatchery? I could only guess but it might just be more convenient to collect adults and spawn them at the salmon hatchery. Great question and good luck!

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Drew on Nov 30, 2010 at 11:28 am said:

I actually called Blue Creek hatchery a few weeks ago and spoke with a hatchery worker. He said that they no longer take fish in through the inlet. All the fish are recovered at Barrier and then trucked to the trout hatchery. However, Since the smolt are released at the hatchery intake these fish should hold around the hatchery drift for a bit before shooting up to Barrier. Anyone wanna shed some light on this?

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Tom Nelson on Nov 30, 2010 at 12:04 am said:

See,..? Robbo is on it! I told him he couldn't go steelheading until his homework is done!

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Robbo on Nov 29, 2010 at 1:58 pm said:

Thanks for the heads up Dylan. I'll dig into the links and fix'em up.

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Tom Nelson on Nov 29, 2010 at 1:07 pm said:

That's a great question Dylan! I will put my best Robbo on it! A while back we had an issue with our video page and the links probably changed. We will look into it and thanks for the heads up!

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Dylan on Nov 29, 2010 at 11:58 am said:

Cant wait to hookup with some chrome steel! Do you guys know why the videos on the steelhead resource line wont play? Wanted to check some of the ones about rigging out???

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ryan schank on Nov 29, 2010 at 10:13 am said:

Somenes a damn good craftsman to build that Robbo!

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Robbo on Nov 29, 2010 at 2:42 am said:

That wood sled is awesome!

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ryan schank on Nov 29, 2010 at 2:29 am said:

Good photos nelly!

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