Cowlitz River Report

[Mystical Legends]

Just a heads up..The Cow is brown with about 6 inches of Viz as of this evening. After leaving it Friday afternoon lookin pretty....the river not me...I was surprised to see it that brown color when I rolled in this morning. We fished anyway with 5 rods and only landed one fish to show for our effort it was a big one but it was ..SLOW. Cancelled for tomorrow, we'll have to see what Tacoma will do with the flows. I think if they drop it a little we may pick up a few more inches of viz and be able to get a few more fish this week.

[Nelly]

Thanks for the heads up Phil!
This is one soakin' ass wet, windy, cold "spring" we have here. I can't believe how much more snow is piling up!
Oh well, at least we'll have plenty of water in the cricks this summer!

[cobble cruiser]

Oh well, at least we'll have plenty of water in the cricks this summer!

Oh yeah! That's what I'm talkin' bout.

Nelly, What do you think? Will we get a summer king season on the Sky this year?

[Nelly]

Hey Cap'n,
I'll know one heckuva lot more after tomorrows North of Falcon throwdown but here is what I'm guessing about this season's key opportunities:

To your question, kings on the Sky from the Wallace to the confluence looks like a solid possibility.

Other broad strokes:
Skagit summer chinook? not a very safe bet but not out of the question either... Skagit springers? Likely but not a done deal
Elliott Bay chinook? For the first time in several seasons we're probably not going to get the urban chinook opportunity due to the low numbers forecast for the Green River.

Currently the model runs used to manage critical stock impacts support our A7 opener on July first and the A9 & A10 opener on July 16th.

Anything beyond that is a shot in the dark which the meeting tomorrow should shed some light on.

[Tally Ho]

Thought I'd throw up a report for all you Cowlitz river fans. First of all, I was out there last Saturday and the fishing seemed a bit on the slow side according to Cowlitz river standards. A buddy and I went 1 for 4. We just couldn't quite put 'em in the bag and the one we did get was slightly keltish so it didn't leave the river. However, yesterday one of our cronies (Scott Howell) came into the office and gave us some encouraging news from wednesday. They mostly stuck to the Blue Creek stretch where there was 6 or 7 guide boats hammering the same drift over and over. You know what they say; "when in Rome"! Scott and his brother proceeded to hook 8 fish freedrifting #12 orange corkies and eggs! He showed me one pic of a really nice 36" buck that ripped down through the hatchery hole, through the rapids and finally landed down at the wall below blue creek! He also said he must have seen 50 steelhead caught that day! Sounds like some good timing to me.

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Cobble cruiser:

Tell Scott that is a great shot of a nice fish with my former Wooldridge boat. Glad to see he is putting it to great use. I was able to christen the new Wooldridge last weekend on the Cowlitz by putting 3 steelies in the box myself.

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[cobble cruiser]

Niiiiiiiiiiice!!!!! and the fish are perty cool too! Way to go. I'll let Scott know!

Thanks Nelly! I'll be out on the Sky fer sure!!!

[Nelly]

I'm betting that the Sky will bounce back from it's chinook no-show from last year. That early closure was the pits! Here's hoping for some stronger summer steelhead too!
The Cowlitz had a pretty strong summer steelhead year in 2010 didn't it?

[Salmonhawk]

I get more than a little bit of tunnel vision with chinook

Oh really?

Those are some great pics guys, glad to see guys catching some fish!

[cobble cruiser]

The ol' Cow is still pumpin' em' out. This is Mark from the shop (One of our welders) putting the hurt on a few! When Marke isn't working or sleeping, he's out fishing. He's got it bad.

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[Salmonhawk]

Good to hear there still catching them down there! Love the photos!