Hopefully, everyone has an amazing Halloween weekend fingers crossed for no rain on Tuesday. In SW Washington fishing news rain is pulling coho up the tributaries wave by wave and the last bit of bright chinook are passing through. The tributaries have continued to be hit or miss as some days there are limits to be caught and others are as slow as it can be. The Columbia continues to slow which is to be expected for this time of the year. Lakes and ponds fishing is all but over until the early spring when trout fishing starts coming back to life.
REMINDER, please verify the regulations before fishing any body of water. AND wear a life jacket.
Lewis Report
The river is flowing at 2,600 CFS until November first as that is the minimum flow until the first, the forecast isn’t calling for any extreme amounts of rain, so I doubt we see any major climb before November. I fished near Johnson’s Creek this week and it was very very slow, I didn’t see a single fish hooked or boated there was darker fish jumping and I saw very few bright fish around. I talked to one angler, and he said the river has been extremely hot and cold, some days he had been getting his limits and other days he couldn’t buy the bite. He also said Friday 10/20/23 he saw thousands of bright fish moving up the river, but they were very skittish and wanted nothing to do with biting any lure or bait.
Kalama Report
Shawn Chase reported this by commenting on the last report for the Kalama as well “The Kalama Weir has been out for about a week or so and when I fished it Oct. 21 the lower river was jam packed full of people with a large group at Modrow Bridge and another at the Pumphouse. I didn’t see anyone catch anything. We fished upriver into the Canyon and caught a couple of nice trout but did not hook into any Salmon.” The weir was taken out on the 19th, the day the last report was put out which was a little unfortunate timing wise.
Cowlitz Report
Last week, Tacoma Power employees recovered 3,191 coho adults, 2,248 coho jacks, 112 fall chinook adults, 12 fall chinook jacks, 83 summer-run steelhead adults, and 667 cutthroat trout over seven days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator.
During the past week, Tacoma Power employees released 199 coho adults and 406 coho jacks at Franklin Bridge in Packwood and they released 1,481 coho adults, 1,065 coho jacks, and five cutthroat trout into lake Scanewa at Scanewa Day Use Park. The river flow below Mayfield Dam is 3,460 cubic feet per second on Monday, October 23, 2023. Water visibility is 11 feet and water temperature is 54.3 F. River flows could change at any time so boaters and anglers should remain alert for this possibility.
Washougal Report
The Washougal continues to fish well even with the higher water this year, Beckham Schill has been fishing up and down the river catching a large number of coho. He has found his best success near the hole called the cop shop using twitching jigs and eggs.
Klickitat Report
The river has been kicking out a good amount of coho lately though I haven’t heard too much, a good buddy of mine was up there this previous weekend and had said he got a fish early in the morning and had seen one or two others before he left but he was only around for an hour or two. Klickitat River below Fisher Hill Bridge – 33 bank rods kept one chinook, 10 coho and released two chinook.
Klickitat River above #5 Fishway – 1 boat/2 rods had no catch.
Columbia River
Not too much to report here, fishing pressure has seemingly died which is no surprise with the dam counts falling to just a few hundred chinook and coho a day. There are still fish around so if you decide you want to go out and troll I would stick to river mouths as that will be your best shot at a coho or a chinook.
Creel Reports for the Columbia read as the following-
Sec 1 (Bonneville) – 47 bank anglers kept three chinook, one chinook jack and two coho. 7 boats/20 rods kept six chinook, one chinook jack, four coho and released two chinook and one coho.
Sec 2 (Camas/Washougal) – 21 boats/41 rods kept six chinook, two coho and released two chinook jacks.
Sec 3 (I-5 area) – No report.
Sec 4 (Vancouver) – 5 boats/8 rods kept four chinook, four chinook jacks and one coho.
Sec 5 (Woodland) – No report.
Sec 6 (Kalama) – 18 bank anglers had no catch. 2 boats/2 rods had no catch.
Sec 7 (Cowlitz) – No report.
Sec 8 (Longview) – No report.
Sec 9 (Cathlamet) – No report.
Drano Lake
Drano has slowed to a stop as most anglers have moved on with the counts over Bonneville so low and not many fish stopping in here. If you wanted to head up the gorge to fish this week leave the boat at home, or pull the drift boat out, and head to the Klickitat. Six bank rods had no catch. 32 boats/110 rods kept 32 chinook, two chinook jacks, 37 coho, one coho jack and released five chinook, two chinook jacks, three coho and one steelhead.
Warm Water Lakes and Ponds
With the water temperature falling fast with these colder days and even colder nights the local lake anglers have put their poles away until early spring when the trout start moving around and feeding.
Chehalis River
I have seen tons and tons of reports about the coho this year, I don’t know much about this system but with all of the successful reports I have seen the last few days it has made me seriously consider a scouting trip this weekend. Most reports I have seen have been talking about the effectiveness of twitching jigs on this system, if you have any information on this river, please shoot me an email at Kolshinskiseth@gmail.com as I would love to know more.
Ilwaco and Long Beach
Razor clamming has opened for five days this week though not all beaches are open for every dig, so diggers are encouraged to make sure their intended destination is open before heading out. The optimal digging occurs between one and two hours before the listed time of low tide. Posted below are the dates, tides, and locations for the opening days.
Oct. 27, Friday, 6:18 p.m.; -0.4 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks
Oct. 28, Saturday, 7:03 p.m.; -1.0 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis
Oct. 29, Sunday, 7:46 p.m.; -1.3 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks
Oct. 30, Monday, 8:29 p.m.; -1.3 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis
Oct. 31, Tuesday, 9:12 p.m.; -1.0 feet; Mocrocks
Stay fishy,
Seth Kolshinski
Read this week’s Oregon fishing report.