This week in SW Washington we have water levels coming down and the Columbia clearing up all while chinook numbers are increasing over Bonneville and into the tributaries. Tributary steelhead are still going strong in rivers that receive a later returning stock like the Cowlitz and Lewis River wilds. Merwin is still fishing well for the regulars but others seem to be struggling to put a limit on the boat. Local lakes and ponds are starting to produce good numbers of trout with recent plants of rainbows.
REMINDER, please verify the regulations before fishing any body of water. AND wear a life jacket.
Lewis Report – The Lewis is flowing at 6,000 cfs this week down from 10,000 last week. The fishing has been pretty good this week with a ton of steelhead and a few chinook being caught here or there. I stopped by Sunday morning and talked with a group of bank anglers fishing at Cedar Creek who had landed two steelhead and lost a chinook right at the bank. Boats seem to be putting on a clinic this week as I talked with several guides who have been putting ten-plus steelhead in the boat a day. Boats that have been focusing on chinook have been doing well as well but not putting limits on the boat yet.
Kalama Report – The Kalama has definitely slowed this week as finding a report has been super difficult. I talked with one person who went out and fished the upper canyon on Sunday 3/30/25 but had no luck nor did he see anyone else fishing.
Cowlitz Report – Last week, Tacoma Power employees recovered 737 winter-run steelhead adults, three spring Chinook adults, and one cutthroat trout adult over five days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator. During the past week, Tacoma Power employees released 66 winter-run steelhead, one spring Chinook, and one cutthroat trout into Lake Scanewa near Randle and they released 62 winter-run steelhead into the Tilton River at Bremer Bridge. Tacoma Power released 34 winter-run steelhead at Franklin Bridge in Packwood. River flow below Mayfield Dam is 9,470 cubic feet per second on Monday, April 3rd, 2025.
Columbia River
Ridgefield area – Fishing remains slow out of Ridgefield down to Woodland on both the WA side and OR side. A few fish are being picked up here or there but nothing consistent.
Vancouver area – The I5 area has also been fishing very slowly this week. I talked with several anglers who decided to troll the section just below Glass Beach with no luck seeing no nets fly all weekend.
Bonneville area– I plunked near Bonneville Saturday 3/30/25 and saw one fish caught for the 50 or so rods lined all up and down the banks. We had one really solid takedown but it did not stick.
Merwin and Yale Lake – Merwin has been fishing great for those in the know this week although some anglers report struggling due to the lower water conditions last week. Seems that the fish are continuing to get bigger which is a good sign heading into the spring!
Local lakes and ponds – Lakes have continued to get planted again this week and almost all of Clark County is scheduled for more trout plants through the first week of April. I stopped by Lacamas Lake on Saturday 3/30/25 where there was a group of anglers fishing on the dock at the Lacamas Lake Lodge dock who had a stringer of around four trout. Battle Ground Lake is also producing a large number of fish almost anywhere on the lake.
Bottomfish – No report on the Jetty’s this week.
Stay fishy,
Seth Kolshinski
Read this week’s Oregon fishing report.