As mid-June rolls around in SW Washington summer salmon and steelhead is picking up in the mainstem Columbia as well as all the local tributaries. Cowlitz, Kalama, and the North Fork Lewis are all still providing spring chinook for anglers although successful reports have been few and far between. Bass fishing in local lakes as well as the Columbia has been catching steam. Shad fishing continues to be a great option for all ages as dam counts skyrocket.
REMINDER, please verify the regulations before fishing any body of water. AND wear a life jacket.
Lewis Report
The NF Lewis is currently flowing at 3,000 cfs a slow drop from 6,000 cfs the previous week, even with an upcoming rain storm I can’t imagine an uptick in flow as it is predicted to be less than a half inch of rain. A good friend of mine Gavin Kielt went down the river in his drift boat Saturday 6/8/24 and spent most of the day back trolling bait and diver as well as 3.5 mag lips while he didn’t hook up to any he had several aggressive take downs. I haven’t received any reports of successful steelhead trips yet from above the forks but the hatchery is starting to see them slowly trickle in. Spring chinook are still around but not in any sort of large numbers, I talked with one angler when I was loading up at the launch in woodland on Saturday who had been fishing the forks and had landed a chinook as well as a summer steelhead.
Lewis River – no creel report this week
Kalama Report
The Kalama is currently flowing at 354 cfs and is getting lower and lower by the day as we start getting into the summer flows. There are some rain showers incoming for this weekend but the amount incoming shouldn’t be enough to raise the river much. A good friend Curtis went out Monday 6/10/24 for a early summer steelhead fishing trip/late spring chinook trip and after 6 hours of fishing and a full drift with no bites they gave up. They fished bobber and eggs as well as back trolling plugs. As of 6/12/24 the Kalama has returned to permanent rule of a daily limit of six including no more than two adults.
Kalama River –One bank rod had no catch.
Cowlitz Report
Last week, Tacoma Power employees recovered 290 spring Chinook adults, 169 spring Chinook jacks, three winter-run steelhead adults, and 66 summer-run steelhead adults over four days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator. During the past week, Tacoma Power employees released 161 spring Chinook adults, 110 spring Chinook jacks, and one winter-run steelhead adult into Lake Scanewa at the Day Use Park and they released 68 spring Chinook adults and 38 spring Chinook jacks into the upper Cowlitz River at Franklin Bridge. As of Friday, May 31, 2024, Tacoma Power has recycled a total of 265 summer-run steelhead and 96 spring Chinook adults this season to the I-5 boat launch in Toledo. River flow below Mayfield Dam is 10,200 cubic feet per second on Monday, June 12th, 2024
Washougal River
The Washougal has started to pick up and surprisingly the Washougal has seen more summers return to date than the NFL and Kalama have combined. Owen Corbett and his father have been fishing the lower river and have had limited success, on Tuesday 6/11/24 afternoon Owen lost a nice one just below “cop shop” on a bobber and coon stripe shrimp.
Columbia River salmon/steelhead report
With sockeye, steelhead, and chinook numbers over Bonneville continuing to climb, fishing has gotten better and better and with the sockeye opener coming Father’s Day 6/16/24 summer fishing is looking great for June. I fished wobblers on anchor just below the mouth of the Lewis both Saturday and Sunday 6/9/24 and while I didn’t have any luck nets were flying both days to the left and right of me. While fishing wasn’t a total beat down of a fish caught every few minutes there was a steady bite from high tide all the way until low tide. Ian fished just off of Bachelor Island and landed a jack chinook on a coon shrimp. Ben Mulcahey plunked off of Glass beach below Who Song and Larry’s with a group of his family and friends, in the five hours they were there they had one bell ringer between eight rods. They were all using a variety of colored spin glows in a triple rig set up tipped with his home cured coon shrimp. Tanner Tyler has spent some time fishing near Bonneville on anchor with wrapped Kwikfish and on Sunday he and Jed Thompson went 0/3 on takedowns in 35 feet of water.
Shad
Shad fishing has been on fire up and down the coastlines of both WA and Oregon, plunking or anchor fishing Dick Nites bellow Bonneville in 10-20 feet of water has been the go to for me for years and years but even more productive at times is throwing shad darts near Bonneville as I have had days reeling in shad as fast as I can cast up there. While in my opinion they aren’t the tastiest fish they make great crab and/or sturgeon bait.
(Bonneville) – 50 bank anglers kept 214 shad. 6 boats/19 rods kept 346 and released 94 shad.
(Kalama) – 2 boats/2 rods had no catch.
(Longview) – 5 boats/9 rods kept 63 shad.
Sturgeon
With the annual return of the Columbia the sturgeon move up towards Bonneville following and feeding off of the few that die off which makes for some great fishing from Vancouver all the way up to the fishing deadline at Bonneville dam. Shad gills make some of the best shad bait this time of year but all other parts of the shad work just as well, along with sand shrimp, herring, and good ole fashion earth worms.
(Kalama) – 1 boat/2 rods released one legal and two oversize sturgeon.
Columbia River creel reports
(Bonneville) – 217 bank anglers kept 22 Chinook, 10 jacks, released 14 Chinook and one steelhead. 4 boats/7 rods had no catch.
(Camas/Washougal) – 16 boats/28 rods kept one Chinook.
(I-5 area) – No report.
(Vancouver) – 101 bank anglers kept seven Chinook, released four Chinook and one steelhead. 19
boats/31 rods kept four Chinook, one jack, released one Chinook and one steelhead.
(Woodland) – 47 bank anglers released one steelhead. 14boats/31 rods released one Chinook and one steelhead.
(Kalama) – 64 bank anglers kept five Chinook, one jack and released two Chinook. 3 boats/6 rods kept one Chinook.
(Cowlitz) – 5 boats/11 rods had no catch.
(Longview) – 145 bank anglers kept one Chinook, 19 steelhead and released two steelhead. 63 boats/139 rods kept 13 Chinook, two jacks, 37 steelhead, released four Chinook, two steelhead and two sockeye.
(Cathlamet) – 20 bank anglers kept three steelhead. 7 boats/16 rods kept two Chinook, one jack and three steelhead.
(Cathlamet) – Eight bank anglers had no catch. 2 boats/5 rods kept one Chinook.
Drano Lake and Wind River
The season is pretty much over for spring chinook at Drano and reports out of the Wind have been that there is next to no fish around. Some spring chinook and summer chinook will continue to stop in at Drano due to the colder water temperatures compared to the Columbia but not in large numbers.
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!
Horseshoe lake
I stopped by Sunday afternoon to talk with any anglers fishing, one angler was casting a spinner while I talked with him and hadn’t seen a fish caught in the hour or two he was there. Bass should be getting better as they start to get on their beds and become much more protective.
Battleground
Trout fishing historically dies off very quickly this time of year, I talked with Nick Gillen who fished from his Kayak for bass Monday 6/10/24 afternoon and while he didn’t get anything he watched a few bank anglers catch some bass but he didn’t think he saw any trout caught.
Lacamas and Round Lake
Both lakes are fishing well for all species of warm water species. Trout fishing has been slow for some but for Beckham Schill who has switched to just earthworms doesn’t have the same problems, bobber fishing the area between the lakes with moving water has worked best for him. Under the docks and fallen trees the panfish have started to wake up and the fishing has been great, small hooks with a piece of earthworm or a crappie jig fished under a bobber or just vertically jigged works amazing here.
Merwin Lake
Fishing remains poor at Merwin for another week, I remain dumbfounded on how we are well into June and the kokanee fishing has never picked back up. Most reports are saying they are picking up a large number of pike minnow with a few smaller kokanee mixed in. They haven’t been schooling up this year according to one angler I talked with, and he has had most success spreading all of his rods out at different depths and lengths away from the boat. Gone Catchin with Cameron Black caught a beautiful tiger musky over the weekend and while I don’t have in depth details about where and how it is nice to see some success up there as I didn’t get one report of a successful trip in 2023.
Yale Lake
Yale continues to fish well but as per usual the fish have been much smaller than the Merwin lake average. Michael Johnston fished 7/11/24 and had an amazing day catching and releasing over 30 kokanee while they picked and chose their keepers. The fish were loving pink baits and lures with most success coming on pink hoochies, pink corn, and pink maggots. Mark Stayl also fished 7/11/24 and had his limits of Kokanee before the sun had fully shined on the lake.
Stay fishy,
Seth
There is A LOT more for SW Washington Members here, including Ian Carter’s monthly update.And SW Washington members can find our complete Columbia River reports here. Check out Seth’s YouTube videos here as well, as he starts to post more!
Read this week’s Oregon fishing report.