This week in SW Washington anglers from Drano Lake down to Longview have been having success on the Columbia while the Cowlitz starts to finally heat up as they change the retention rules while the Kalama continues to slow. The Columbia will open again this weekend. Merwin has started to pick up as the bi-annual turnover is finishing up. Bass fishing in the local lakes is becoming better and better with every degree increase in water temp.
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.
This JUST in: The Lewis River will reopen for spring chinook 5/25/24
Flows are holding at 3,700 cfs this week and unfortunately, we go another week without any extension of Chinook fishing. There have been reports of some early summer steelhead being caught but nothing in big numbers yet, a few have started trickling into the hatchery as well.
Lewis River – Five bank rods had no catch.
Kalama Report
Not much happening on the Kalama this week. I stopped at the pull off right below the Fallert Creek hatchery and threw a spinner and twitching jig around late Sunday 5/19/24 morning and saw a few fish roll but no bites for me. I talked with one other angler who had been up and down the river all morning using bobber and eggs and hadn’t had a single take down or seen a fish caught.
Kalama River – Nine bank rods kept one Chinook. 3 boats/9 rods kept five Chinook.
Cowlitz Report
On Wednesday 5/23/24 there was a major change in this year’s retention of spring chinook on the Cowlitz. Effective 5/25/24 retention of just adipose fin-clipped spring chinook will be allowed, a change from the double clip rule.
Last week, Tacoma Power employees recovered 546 spring Chinook adults, 240 spring Chinook jacks, 25 winter-run steelhead adults, and 73 summer-run steelhead adults over five days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator. During the past week, Tacoma Power employees released 234 spring Chinook adults, 140 spring Chinook jacks, and ten winter-run steelhead adults into Lake Scanewa at the Day Use Park and they released 141 spring Chinook adults, 78 spring Chinook jacks, and two winter-run steelhead adults into the upper Cowlitz River at Franklin Bridge. The river flow below Mayfield Dam is 5,100 cubic feet per second on Wednesday, May 23, 2024.
Columbia River
The Columbia River opener was hot and cold depending on location but from reports the closer to Bonneville anglers were the better the fishing was. I fished outside of Camas/Washougal near navigation buoy 50 on anchor. We went 0/3 for the day, losing one right near the boat. We were in 10 feet of water along with ten or so other boats and out of those other boats we watched three of them limit the four people in those boats, the boats anchored in deeper water 15+ feet didn’t get nearly as much if any bites. The bite was hot from daylight until around 11:30 when it seemingly just died out and in the next few hours, we didn’t see one fish caught although we marked a ton of fish passing right next to our Kwik fish. Ian Carter fished out of the mouth of Lewis along with 20 or so boats and didn’t even get a sniff, he also mentioned the turbidity and water flow was messed up.
Columbia River creel reports
Sec 1 (Bonneville) – 207 bank anglers kept 24 Chinook, 16 jacks, released 13 Chinook and one jack. 2 boats/3 rods had no catch.
Sec 2 (Camas/Washougal) – No report.
Sec 3 (I-5 area) – No report.
Sec 4 (Vancouver) – 32 bank anglers kept one Chinook and released one jack. 50 boats/111 rods kept three Chinook, four jacks and released one Chinook.
Sec 5 (Woodland) – 13 bank anglers had no catch. 7 boats/16 rods had no catch.
Sec 6 (Kalama) – 23 bank anglers had no catch. 12 boats/23 rods had no catch.
Sec 7 (Cowlitz) – 12 boats/26 rods kept five Chinook and released one steelhead.
Sec 8 (Longview) – 30 bank anglers kept two steelhead. 9 boats/16 rods had no catch.
Sec 9 (Cathlamet) – One bank angler had no catch.
Sec 10 (Cathlamet) – Two bank anglers had no catch.
Shad
Shad fishing has really started to pick up with anglers reporting catching 20-30 shad near Bonneville a day and while they don’t make the best table fair they are excellent crab bait as well as catch and release sturgeon bait. Beckham Schill has been fishing a little closer to home near Camas/Washougal off steamboat landing with good success as well and with counts only in the four to five thousand it should only get better.
Pikeminnow
The Pikeminnow program continues to bring in tons of fish weekly with the average caught per angler is 14.5 on 5/19 with 973 turned in at the Washougal station. Reminder your first two hundred fish are eight dollars each above two hundred it changes to ten dollars per fish. Periods of low light have been most successful for people. Per WDFW “You can catch Northern Pikeminnow almost anywhere on the Columbia River. Northern Pikeminnow congregate in rocky areas with fast current near dams, islands, stream mouths, points, eddies, rows of pilings, and ledges or bars in the river. Most fish are caught in 7 to 25 feet of water”.
Drano Lake/Wind River
Both tributaries have yet to show any real signs of slowing down this year even with dam counts falling over previous weeks as tons of fish continue to be caught in both systems. Trolling prawn spinners paired with a 360 flasher or Pro Troll flasher have been killer, chrome and green being a favorite color for spinner blades and flashers this year but if the bite is slow don’t be afraid to switch to something completely different.
Wind River – One bank rod had no catch. 106 boats/367 rods kept 99 Chinook, 23 jacks, released one Chinook and three jacks.
Drano Lake – Two bank rods had no catch. 99 boats/340 rods kept 108 Chinook, six jacks and released one jack.
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
No recent trout plants but Kress continues to be fishing well for trout and bass. Trout have been biting on worms, PowerBait, and wax worms.
Horseshoe lake
Trout are still being caught in healthy numbers and with a recent plant of 2,500 that should continue well into June, I talked with Rober Day at Anglers Unlimited who said the trout have been congregating near the boat launch as they were released there and have yet to spread out. Worms, trout marshmallows, and mouse tails are what he says the anglers are using.
Battleground and Klineline lake
Neither lake got planted recently but both continue to fish well for planted trout. Wax worms have been working especially well under a bobber for Carson Shmiers and his son at Battleground Lake.
Lacamas and Round Lake
No recent trout reports but during this time of year the trout really start to spread out across the lakes and anglers will have success from anywhere in Round Lake all the way to the NW side of the lake. Bass fishing is getting better as the water warms up, round lake has historically always had a better bass population but as it is a non motorized area of the lakes it’s only fishable from the bank without a Kayak.
Merwin Lake
Merwin’s turnover has FINALLY started to settle and the fishing is getting better with anglers picking up more fish but most have seemingly been juveniles and not many adult kokanee caught lately. One report coming from Bob Alcantara who fished Tuesday 5/21/24 said “Much like last week a slow pick. Again lots of squawfish and little kokanee. I did pick up some keeper fish and 1 bleeder I needed to keep. At 0900 with 5 in the cooler and 5 released I headed back to the ramp”.
Yale Lake
Yale has been fishing much better than Merwin this week as it hasn’t had much of a turnover compared to Merwin. Reports this week say limits have been taken but the fish have been smaller than the usual Merwin fish.
Long Beach
Griffin Soule spent this last weekend out on the beach surf perch fishing with a group of people and reported struggling way more than they expected to. Saturday they only landed one fish in three or so hours of fishing and going into Sunday it didn’t get much better with his group only landing three fish in three or four hours of fishing. They were the only group fishing that they saw over the weekend.
Stay fishy,
Seth Kolshinski
Read this week’s Oregon fishing report.