This week in SW Washington after a slow and busy weekend at Drano Lake and the Wind River spring chinook fishing has picked back up even as dam counts start to fall. After a compact hearing on Wednesday WDFW has allocated ten days of fishing on the Columbia spread out over the next month. Tributaries are still fishing good with a few anglers finding early summer steelhead mixed in with the chinook. Merwin’s bi-annual turnover is still throwing the bite off.
REMINDER, please verify the regulations before fishing any body of water. AND wear a life jacket.
Lewis Report
Currently the North Fork, East Fork, and main stem of the Lewis is closed for retention or fishing for spring chinook until August 1st. Retention of hatchery steelhead remains OPEN.
The river is holding at 4,000 cfs after coming down from 5200 over the weekend, I would forecast the river continuing to come down to minimum flows over the next week barring any surprise large amounts of rain. I was driving by the golf course Tuesday 5/14/24 and decided to stop in and there was one bank angler plunking for summer steelhead he had no action over the past few hours he had been fishing, when asked if he had seen any boat traffic he said “if you count inflatable tubes and paddle boards”. There are a few summer steelhead starting to show up but nothing yet in large numbers.
Lewis River – No creel report this week.
Kalama Report
The Kalama is flowing at 400 cfs down from 700 cfs last week. The river should start to become really clear this week as flows continue to come down further and further, downsizing bait size/lure size as well as what pound test you use would be a good idea especially if usual methods don’t work. Shawn Chase fished Saturday 4/11/24 morning and hooked and lost one chinook near the deadline, he also talked with eight anglers and nobody else had hooked a fish.
Kalama River – 18 bank rods kept one Chinook. 21 boats/54 rods kept 16 Chinook, two jacks, released one Chinook and one steelhead.
Cowlitz Report
Last week, Tacoma Power employees recovered 274 spring Chinook adults, 90 spring Chinook jacks, 85 winter-run steelhead adults, 52 summer-run steelhead adults, and one cutthroat trout over five days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator. During the past week, Tacoma Power employees released 138 spring Chinook adults, 74 spring Chinook jacks, and 24 winter-run steelhead adults into Lake Scanewa at the Day Use Park and they released seven spring Chinook adults, four spring Chinook jacks, and five winter-run steelhead adults into the upper Cowlitz River at Franklin Bridge. River flow below Mayfield Dam is 5,180 cubic feet per second.
Cowlitz River I-5 Br downstream – 63 bank rods kept six steelhead. 1 boat/3 rods kept one jack and released one Chinook.
Cowlitz River Above the I-5 Br – 11 bank rods had no catch.
Columbia River
After a mid season update Wednesday 5/15/24 morning the Columbia river below Bonneville will reopen this coming Friday through Sunday 5/19/24, other dates are 5/25/24-5/27/24 and 6/12/24-6/15/24. With dam counts falling but still in the two thousands the fish should be very good especially near Bonneville.
Drano Lake/Wind River
I fished Saturday 5/11/24 at the mouth of the Wind River and to say it was slow would be an understatement, I talked with several guides that had fished all morning and had one maybe two fish in the boat by lunch, limits were not easily had compared to previous days. We went zero for four takedowns, three just never stuck and one broke us off. All the takedowns we got came from a prawn spinner and a straight chrome Shortbus 360 flasher.
Wind River – 158 boats/534 rods kept 221 Chinook, four jacks, released two Chinook and one jack.
Drano Lake – 17 bank rods released one Chinook. 161 boats/581 rods kept 207 Chinook, four jacks and released three Chinook.
Warm Water Lakes and Ponds
2024 WDFW trout derby
Every year WDFW holds a trout derby which started at the end of April for all of Washington in which they offer over 800 prizes with a combined value of 42,000 dollars. Find more information here!
Kress Lake
Trout are still being caught in large amounts as well as some bass that are starting to get more aggressive as the water warms up. Powerbait, worms, and trout marshmallows have been the go to bait for the stocked trout, while soft plastics especially crawdads, grubs, and sankos have all worked well for bass.
Horseshoe lake
No recent plants this week but the banks were lined with anglers Sunday 5/12/24 with swimmers and fisherman as the beach was pretty full. I didn’t talk to anyone who had any luck but there were a few anglers still fishing among the swimmers.
Battleground and Klineline lake
With all the swimmers in the water over the weekend there wasn’t a single fisherman at either lake but swimmers lined the banks and water with kayaks, paddle boards, and inflatable tubes when I stopped by both lakes mid morning Sunday 5/12/24.
Lacamas and Round Lake
No recent trout plants but Mason Granzow has started to pick up a large amount of bass all around the lakes on soft plastics, live worms, and some hard baits. Moving around as much as possible seems to be the key for him.
Merwin Lake
There was a kokanee derby held Sunday 5/12/24 and according to Victor Leatzow report if it was a Pikeminnow derby it would have been a lot closer. His group went seven for ten fishing from daylight to 11:30 with most bites coming from daylight to 9 am, they were finding their fish anywhere from 5 feet to 40 feet with no consistency. The bi-annual lake turnover is still not quite over as the lake should be much more productive than it is. I can’t say when it’s going to be over but it could settle any day now.
Long Beach
Nothing to report on the Jetty fishing or bottom fishing this week but it should start to get better and better as we roll into summer time.
Surf perch fishing continues to be a great option for those looking to get away from the crowds of spring chinook fishing. There is a derby coming up on Saturday 5/18/24 with a grand prize of 200$ there is an entry fee to enter email Surfperchderby@gmail.com it isn’t too late to register! The fishing has been great with most anglers catching six to ten perch in a matter of a few hours.
Stay fishy,
Seth Kolshinski
Read this week’s Oregon fishing report.