This week in SW Washington spring is showing its signs with a 70 plus degree weekend headed our way. Steelhead continues to fish amazingly in local tributaries and spring chinook have started showing up. Spring chinook action picking up on the Columbia for the anglers who braved the rain, wind, and cold for the last few days. Merwin has started to turn around finally as water temps start to climb. Big changes are coming at Anglers West now Anglers Unlimited in Woodland, WA.
REMINDER, please verify the regulations before fishing any body of water. AND wear a life jacket.
Lewis Report
The river has slowly dropped down to 3,000 cfs from 6,000, with the upcoming weather we could see the river drop down to minimum flows which is good since it is predictable but some like the higher flows. As we inch towards spring chinook the system is sort of in between seasons as the last of the steelhead are making their way into the hatchery and collection area while spring chinook are just starting to enter the system. Curtis Youngren continues to fish the river and is the only person I know constantly picking up fish but he is spending all of his time above Cedar Creek near the dam as he has found much more fish, him and a recent fish are pictured in the header. Going below Cedar Creek spring chinook should start showing up in weekly escapement any week now.
Creel Reports have returned!
Lewis River – Four bank rods had no catch.
East Fork- The river closes/closed depending on when you are reading this, Friday March 15th of this week. River color looked great all week and with the rain stopping the river is starting to fall just before the closure giving us one last day of pristine catch and release steelhead fishing. It will reopen May 26th 2024 for catch and release summer steelhead.
Angler’s Unlimited
Angler’s West in Woodland WA is under new ownership and has made some serious changes to the store. The biggest addition is a new bait window that will be opening this Saturday at 3:30 am until 7 am daily. I write this as they are going to be a very SW Washington based fishing store, the new owner has grown up and fished SW Washington a majority of his life and is stocking what we as anglers need/want. When I walked in to meet the new owners last Thursday 3/7/24 the first thing that caught my eye was the wall of spin glows, they have things in stock that I have not seen anywhere else. They also support a large bait fridge stocked with fresh sand shrimp weekly. Ian and I are in talks of doing some seminars there if people are interested.
Kalama Report
The Kalama continues to fish well and has maintained a great color and water level over the past week or so of rain SW Washington has received, with dryer weather in the forecast and no snow on the hills the river should be on a drop. Reader Shawn Chase was out on the river Saturday 3/9/24 and landed a chrome winter on bobber and eggs! One of the reasons I love this river so much is the steelhead and the spring chinook run melting into each other. We are just waiting until more springers show.
Cowlitz Report
Last week, Tacoma Power employees recovered 184 winter-run steelhead adults over five days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator. During the past week, Tacoma Power employees released 15 winter-run steelhead adults into Lake Scanewa at the Day Use Park and 15 winter-run steelhead adults into the Tilton River at the Bremer Bridge release site near Morton. River flow below Mayfield Dam is 5,160 cubic feet per second on Monday, March 11, 2024.
Cowlitz River I-5 Br downstream – 68 bank rods kept four steelhead and released two steelhead.
Cowlitz River Above the I-5 Br – Four bank rods had no catch. 6 boats/17 rods kept eight steelhead.
Washougal Report
Alike the East Fork the Washougal closes March 15th until late May and most anglers have not had any luck as of recent weeks. WDFW has done their absolute best to make the winter strain of steelhead return from mid-December to February to protect the wild population which WDFW says return starting In March and going until the end of April into May. This will be the last Washougal report until June when the summers start to return.
Columbia River
With a beautiful weekend ahead of us many people are going to be flocking to Columbia to start their spring chinook season including me. There are some reports of plunkers getting a few off Martin’s Point but it has been scarce. The Columbia is still very low so that could be a part of the issue. Water temperature is sitting right around 44F which is way better than the previous year (39 degrees on 3/14/23) and the dam counts show that there is a way larger number of early springers compared to last year and I think that is 100% related to the temperature of the water.
Columbia River Creel Reports
Sec 1 (Bonneville) – Three bank anglers had no catch.
Sec 2 (Camas/Washougal) – 1 boat/2 rods had no catch.
Sec 3 (I-5 area) – 1 boat/2 rods had no catch.
Sec 4 (Vancouver) – Five bank anglers had no catch. 9 boats/12 rods had no catch.
Sec 5 (Woodland) – Nine bank anglers had no catch. 6 boats/10 rods had no catch.
Sec 6 (Kalama) – 11 bank anglers had no catch.
Sec 7 (Cowlitz) – No report.
Sec 8 (Longview) – 38 bank anglers had no catch. 2 boats/2 rods had no catch.
Sec 9 (Cathlamet) – 1 boat/1 rod had no catch.
Sec 10 (Cathlamet) – 2 boats/5 rods had no catch.
Warm Water Lakes and Ponds
Kress Lake
The lake received around 15 steelhead over the past week, but fishing has been mediocre at best for the steelhead and trout. This weekend should really help to warm the lake up and get these trout moving around.
Klineline Lake
Klineline has been fishing great in recent weeks, nearly shooting fish in a barrel. It will be packed this coming weekend with anglers and young children with the nice weather. The lake was also just stocked with 1,600 cutthroats which are way more likely to take a spinner as they are just a little more aggressive than the rainbows.
There is a kids fishing derby coming up April 1st held by WDFW, it is a 5-dollar entry fee and that covers all your child’s gear, and in recent years the kids even got to keep their rod and reel. Find more information here!
Horseshoe Lake
No recent plants here, there has not been much pressure on the lake in recent days and I think that’s a testament to how it’s fishing. The majority of trout plants this year should come in March through April, usually around 15,000 are stocked in the two-month span but we have yet to see a plant.
Battle Ground Lake
Like Klineline the Lake has been stocked with 1,600 cutthroats and has been fishing phenomenally. It will not be easy to find fishing spots this weekend. Bass and panfish should start picking up as the weather warms but as of now there is almost nothing going on.
Lacamas Lake
The first trout plant of the year was planted on the 29th of last month though I haven’t been in town in a few weeks to see if anyone is fishing. I will be house sitting in Camas next week at a house very close to the lake so I will be bringing my trout rod to throw a worm or spinner around.
Merwin Lake
Kokanee is FINALLY turning around after nearly all winter being one of the worst seasons in recent years. A big contributing factor to that is the water clarity finally improving after months of a muddy tint due to a large amount of rain and snow melt early in the season and never getting a chance to recover, combine that with the Swift dam being worked on and the lake needing to be at a certain level, and it just made for a messy season. One angler fished Wednesday 3/13/24 and had his limit of ten kokanee in around two hours, nearly all the fish seemed to be in the top 30-foot water column though it was not specified if he caught them on down riggers, snap weights, or freelined.
Ilwaco and Long Beach
We are mid-dig this week as we head into the Ocean Shores Razor Clam Festival, unfortunately Long Beach won’t be open for the warm weekend but people attending the festival will have a beautiful weekend to do so.
I haven’t seen any recent reports of the surf perch, but it is still a great option into late spring.
Stay fishy,
Seth Kolshinski
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