This week in SW Washington fishing the tributaries have begun to be crowded with anglers chasing early steelhead pushing up some rivers in droves. Others are still chasing the few coho that are still around in some systems but we are on the last few days of any around. Razor clamming has been approved for this week and we look forward to another great week of clamming at the coast. Merwin remains very low although rising slowly with Yale taking up the slack for anglers looking for their kokanee.
REMINDER, please verify the regulations before fishing any body of water. AND wear a life jacket.
Lewis Report – The Lewis is flowing around 4,400 this week with the only change coming on Wednesday 12/11/24 when they dropped flows to check carcass counts along the banks of a lower river. Steelhead are just starting to return and last weekend the locals knew it as the banks of Cedar Creek were lined with anglers chasing early chrome. I talked with several anglers who made the trip up there and while none had any luck there were a handful of anglers pulling in bright steelhead as well as some colored-up coho.
Kalama Report – I talked with Kurtis Youngren who drifted the Kalama last week although he didn’t specify what day. He managed to hook one early steelhead which is fantastic as we usually don’t start seeing catches until around January. Besides Kurtis I talked with a few other anglers who said the banks were packed this last weekend with almost every hole either having someone already in it or someone showing up while they were fishing, nobody else had any positive reports besides Kurtis.
Cowlitz Report – Not much is happening on the Cowlitz right now as the run just hasn’t arrived in any sort of numbers. That isn’t to say there aren’t a few around to catch but it’ll be a grind. Tacoma Power recovered the first two of the year. Angler pressure has been very low this week and I can’t imagine it getting much higher until the steelhead start screaming upriver. I talked with one plunker who had the entire beach to himself with not as much as a trout bite all day long.
Washougal River – I drifted the river with good friend Owen Cobett and a reader named Andy in his raft on Sunday 12/8/24 and it was a fantastic day. Both Owen and Andy hooked a steelhead with Owens being a nice seven or eight-pounder and Andy’s being a small hatchery half-pounder we released. I got several reports of that Sunday being a fantastic day for a lot of anglers leaving with a steelhead, which isn’t surprising as the banks were insanely packed with anglers with almost every bank-accessible spot being already fished by an angler. We talked to the plunkers in the lower river as well but they only had a few bites and no fish landed.
Merwin and Yale Lake – Merwin is still closed as of 12/11/24 as the launch is still two or three feet out of the water and not launchable unless you have a kayak, I suspect by this weekend that should change as the water is coming up although just not very fast. Kayakers have been putting a hammer on the Kokanee while the boats have been off the water with limits being had nearly every trip.
Yale has seemingly taken up the slack for boat anglers looking to get their limits of kokanee over the weekend and while it wasn’t lights out fishing on Yale most anglers left with their limits after a bit of a grind.
Long Beach Razor clamming is approved for this week with really great tides starting on Friday all the way until Tuesday of next week. I know Anglers Unlimited just got a fresh stock of clamming guns and they won’t last long!
Stay fishy,
Seth Kolshinski
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