This week in SW Washington, we had some more Columbia River dates, which has been wildly successful with many fish being caught up and down the river. Tributary steelhead is winding down, with the Cowlitz being the only option for finding steelhead this week. Tributary chinook has started to pick up as well, with almost all local tributaries providing anglers with chinook this week. Merwin and Yale have been slow this week, although a few anglers are finding near limits.
REMINDER: Please verify the regulations before fishing any body of water. AND wear a life jacket.
Lewis Report – Flows on the Lewis this week have come way down to 3,500 cfs from 6,500 cfs due to the lack of rain. Fishing started to heat up a bit as I talked with several anglers on the river Saturday, 4/12/25, and a few of them had a chinook or two with no steelhead being caught. I didn’t have any luck, but I only fished for around an hour or two. Seemed like most of the fish were being caught above Cedar Creek this week, for whatever reason, the lower river was much slower. I received several reports about sea lions in the river last week, and I ran up and down the river on Saturday and didn’t see a single one from Cedar Creek all the way down below the Island Launch.
Kalama Report – The Kalama has been slow this week, and flows continue to keep coming down with reports coming in from drift boats hitting bottom in multiple areas up and down the river, still no exact flow rate as the one river flow gauge is still down. I talked with several anglers this week who all spent time on the Kalama over the weekend, and the majority of the reports were that it was slow, with a fish or two being caught, but nothing more than a few getting lucky. Angler pressure is at an all-time high, so if you are making the trip, get there early.
Cowlitz Report- Last week, Tacoma Power employees recovered 251 winter-run steelhead adults, two spring Chinook, one summer-run steelhead, and two cutthroat trout over five days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator. During the past week, Tacoma Power employees released 25 winter-run steelhead into Lake Scanewa near Randle, and they released 21 winter-run steelhead and two cutthroat trout into the Tilton River at Bremer Bridge. Tacoma Power released 17 winter-run steelhead at Franklin Bridge in Packwood and 18 winter-run steelhead into the Cispus River near Yellowjacket Creek. The river flow below Mayfield Dam is 8,510 cubic feet per second on Wednesday, April 16, 2025.
Columbia River
Ridgefield area- Quite a few guides have been fishing out of Ridgefield this week, and on my way to work every morning, boats have been pouring into the lake at Lake River. A vast majority of the success this week has again been on the Oregon side, but the Washington side has started to pick up.
Vancouver area- I had heard nothing out of Vancouver this week, so I got off work early on Wednesday and headed down to the waterfront to do some plunking. We got the rods in the water, and it didn’t take but 30 or so minutes before we had a takedown.
Merwin and Yale Lake – Merwin and Yale both have really slowed this week, with a bunch of anglers becoming skeptical of the turnover starting this week. No fish have been seen floating yet, so that is a good sign on the oxygen levels being still high enough for fish survival. A few anglers are still finding near their limits, although it has heavily depended on the day and the angler.
May 10th is the annual kokanee derby at Merwin Lake!
Local lakes and ponds – Trout fishing keeps getting better and better as local lakes continue to get stocked. I stopped by Lacamas on Sunday, 4/13/25, where several anglers had lines in the water along Leadbetter Road. Several groups had trout on stringers in the water. I also stopped at Battleground Lake on Friday, 4/11/25, where there were only a few people fishing and none caught that I could see, but I talked with one angler headed down as I was coming up who had been catching and releasing a large number of trout all week.
Stay fishy,
Seth Kolshinski
Read this week’s Oregon fishing report.
Our Salmonprotectiondevice.com will fix the salmon decline runs forever and restore them to 1990 ish levels
In our dreams. It will never happen. It could but it wont. It’s too complex of a fix. We can’t fix the issues we’ve created. Mother nature is always the Karen of nature. She does what when and how she wants always. It’s often undesirable, beyond any control whatsoever. Man’s decisions are often fatal to fish we’re still guessing. Where’s the Science? Could care less. It’s already responsible for the right wrong things to do. No idea what salmonprotectiondevice.com is about. Idc. You’ve already lost me with your false claim. I don’t believe for1 second you can restore to 1990 levels. Not without a lot of help in a lot of places all at once. Thanks for trying.
Just no sense in getting way ahead of yourselves. Good luck.
More hatcheries….raise millions more salmon to make it like historical levels in 1880. .they are more indengiose than natives. Class action lawsuit for $500,000,000 to force restoration….probably coming this year …get out of the way creepy purists