I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and gets some fishing time this week. This week in SW Washington we have a massive rain storm incoming and the rivers are going to rise and get really colored up heading into the weekend making some rivers nearly unfishable although not impossible. Some tributaries in SW Washington have been on fire and nearly guaranteed a steelhead while others are still waiting for more fish to move into the system. Merwin is now un-launchable again as it drops below 229 feet. Check out the Wet Net Outdoors podcast this week as Doug and I recorded an episode last week that comes out this Friday!
REMINDER, please verify the regulations before fishing any body of water. AND wear a life jacket.
Lewis Report – Water levels have again risen to 12,000 cfs from 10,000 cfs and while those levels aren’t impossible to fish it makes it very difficult. I spent around an hour looking around to figure out why the river levels are so high. I only talked to one angler this week who spent some time plunking near the hatchery with no luck. He said there wasn’t much bank to fish from and he luckily got there before anyone else to be able to cast his rod out. No boat effort was reported this week.
Kalama Report – The river is actively coming up as of 12/25/24 and rising quickly and should be blown out by Saturday when the rain is supposed to stop. I received a few reports this week with a few friends drifting the river with no luck but per them, almost all other boats they talked to had at least one. The water seemed to be lower than it had been for a while, which Austin Jones thought was the reason for the lack of fish around.
Cowlitz Report – Last week, Tacoma Power employees recovered 2,142 coho adults, 153 coho jacks, seven summer-run steelhead, eight cutthroat trout, and 11 winter-run steelhead adults over five days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator. During the past week, Tacoma Power employees released 1,441 coho adults, 31 coho jacks, and two winter-run steelhead into Lake Scanewa. They released 137 coho adults and four coho jacks at Franklin Bridge in Packwood. Tacoma Power released 163 coho adults, 27 coho jacks, and one cutthroat trout into the Tilton River at Bremer Bridge and they released 217 coho adults and 31 coho jacks into the Tilton River at Gust Backstrom Park in Morton. The river flow below Mayfield Dam is 7,760 cubic feet per second on Wednesday, December 25, 2024.
Washougal River – The Washougal is holding pretty steady at 7.0 feet on Wednesday 12/25/24 as the snow level is low enough that the streams on the hills that feed into the river aren’t filling up with water as it is snowing instead of raining. I drifted the river with Owen Corbett on Monday 12/22/24 from road mile three down to the old bowling alley and during the entire drift, we caught one trout and had one takedown on a plug. We must have talked to 100 bank anglers and the only successful report came from a plunker near the bowling alley who had gotten one early that morning.
Elochoman River – Like all other systems, the river is moving up rapidly and this river is very fast to turn to the color of Chocolate milk. I spent a lot of time here this week and the fishing has been fantastic, to say the least. I fished Saturday 12/21/24 with my father walking the bank where we went two for five with nothing seemingly working better than another as long as it was under a bobber. We also witnessed almost everyone else at least hooking another fish. We probably saw 20 or so of them hooked throughout the day.
Merwin and Yale Lakes – Merwin is actively coming down and fairly quickly, to say the least. It is currently at 228 feet per USGS and while some people are risking it by launching their boat I have found my trailer will fall off the end of the launch at anything below 229. Fishing was good until it became unable to launch again. Hopefully, this rain brings it up and I can have a full report next week.
Long Beach – Approval on the Razor clams for this week came on Monday night but it looks like it’ll be a rainy one. Dec 28,
Saturday, 4:58 p.m.; 0.0 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis
Dec 29, Sunday, 5:36 p.m.; -0.4 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks
Dec 30, Monday, 6:14 p.m.; -0.7 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks
Dec 31, Tuesday, 6:51 p.m.; -1.0 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis
Jan 1, Wednesday, 7:29 p.m.; -1.0 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis
Jan 2, Thursday, 8:08 p.m.; -0.8 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks
Jan 3, Friday, 8:48 p.m.; -0.3 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks
Stay fishy,
Seth Kolshinski
Read this week’s Oregon fishing report.