Fall salmon fishing in SW Washington is here! With the opening day of fall chinook fishing upon us and some really good numbers showing in local tributaries it could be one of the best openers in a long time. Steelhead on the Columbia closed as of 8/1/24 with no extension in sight, but tributary fishing is still going strong in most SW Washington tributaries. Merwin continues to provide limits to anglers after a slow spring. Trout fishing in local lakes and ponds is all but over but the bass and crappie fishing has started to really come alive.
REMINDER, please verify the regulations before fishing any body of water. AND wear a life jacket.
Lewis Report – Flows have continued to drop and are now at the lowest they will be all year at 1,200 cfs making the river driftable and still run-able with a jet but getting very skinny in some areas please proceed with caution. Steelhead and fall chinook fishing have both been good with more than a few Chinook moving into the system. I fished near cedar creek Saturday and Sunday catching two steelhead both days along with two wild Chinook on Sunday 7/28/24.
Kalama Report – The Kalama is starting to get very low becoming non driftable in either a drift boat or a raft. This will probably be the last week of summer steelhead fishing as the weir is in and operating meaning any fish above the baseball park will soon enter the hatchery and the river will go quiet.
Cowlitz River – Plenty of steelhead still being caught up and down the Cowlitz, plunkers have been doing just as good as the boat anglers.
Washougal River – The Washougal has been a really good upriver but the lower river area has nearly died off as the run is seemingly coming to a close. Unfortunately fishing above the weir is closed, locking away where all the fish were being caught as of a few days ago.
Sturgeon – Sturgeon has seemingly slowed this week with next to no reports either that or anglers have turned their attention to the upcoming fall salmon season.
Walleye – Can never get very steady reports on walleye fishing but from the very few reports I have seen this last week or so it is really starting to pick up.
Drano Lake – Drano is really starting to heat up with the excitement of fall chinook in the air. This is a really great fishery in the fall. I have had 10+ fish mornings here and those days aren’t a rare occurrence.
Warm Water Lakes and Ponds – Nearly every lake had the same report this week. Bass fishing has been really good with top water finally being a viable option especially during the morning and evening.
Merwin Lake – After a long spring of slow fishing the summer fishing has turned red hot! I have received multiple reports of limits before 10 am. Rick Backous went out Wednesday 8/31/24 and had an amazing day saying “I did not have a chance to finish a cup of coffee, the kokanee were keeping me busy, not all bites brought fish to the boat but the limit fish was on ice by 7:30.”
Long Beach/Buoy 10 – As of 8/1/24 Bouy 10 is open for retention of hatchery chinook and coho and as I am writing this on opening day the reports have come flooding in with an alright opening day. I talked with Tyler Smith briefly who had landed and bonked one nice one along with another good friend Troy Livingston who had released two tules. There have been a ton of fish on the finder but it has been difficult to get them to commit to anything they put in front of their faces.
Stay fishy,
Seth Kolshinski
There is A LOT more for SW Washington Members here, including Ian Carter’s complete monthly update. And SW Washington members can find our complete Columbia River reports here.
Read this week’s Oregon fishing report.