This week in SW Washington with spring chinook catch rates skyrocketing, anglers are flocking to the open tributaries but just as a few were getting hot the season has ended. The Columbia above Bonneville saw an early closure due to meeting quota early. Trout fishing in local lakes has become very productive in the last week. Merwin’s bi-annual turnover is still in full effect as fishing slows and fish are found left and right floating on the surface.
REMINDER, please verify the regulations before fishing any body of water. AND wear a life jacket.
Lewis Report
Currently the North Fork, East Fork, and main stem of the Lewis is closed for retention or fishing for spring chinook until August 1st though I will still give a report for the last week. Retention of hatchery steelhead remains OPEN.
The North fork jumped up to 6,500 CFS this week from 3,500. The jump in CFS brought some new fish up the river as the fishing was some of the best fishing I have experienced on the Lewis in years. I fished Saturday 4/27/24 and we went 2 for 5 bites back trolling eggs and sand shrimp up and down the river. Sunday 4/28/24 the bite was red hot in the early morning as we landed two wild chinook and lost several other chinook both on jet divers with eggs and sand shrimp. There were a few steelhead being caught as there are a few wild ones around still, but they are all late winters.
Lewis River – 39 bank rods kept four Chinook and one jack. 17 boats/34 rods kept nine Chinook, one jack and released one steelhead.
Kalama Report
The river is way up since recent rains and along with an increase of water flow angler pressure has increased massively. With all of the Lewis River and Columbia closed, anglers have flocked to the river-bank and their boats.
Carson Waldon fished Wednesday 5/1/24 and unfortunately it was my only report this week and he only had one take down for his entire drift. While he didn’t give a ton of info for the report this week, there was as he put it “a line of trucks piled up to the road 45 minutes before the sun came up.” Not exactly sure what boat launch but I’m sure it’s true for 99% of the launches especially since it was a weekday.
Kalama River – 28 bank rods kept one Chinook and released one steelhead. 20 boats/49 rods kept 23 Chinook and released one Chinook and one steelhead.
Cowlitz Report
Last week, Tacoma Power employees recovered 195 winter-run steelhead adults, 121 spring Chinook adults, nine spring Chinook jacks, and six summer-run steelhead adults over five days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator.
During the past week, Tacoma Power employees released 31 winter-run steelhead adults, 17 spring Chinook adults, and one spring Chinook jack into Lake Scanewa at the Day Use Park and they released 31 winter-run steelhead adults into the Tilton River near Morton.
The river flow below Mayfield Dam is 5,120 cubic feet per second on Monday, April 29, 2024. Water visibility is 9 feet and water temperature is 45.1F.
Cowlitz River I-5 Br downstream – 64 bank rods kept three steelhead and released two Chinook and one steelhead. 2 boats/4 rods had no catch.
Cowlitz River Above the I-5 Br – 11 bank rods kept one steelhead. 1 boat/2 rods released one steelhead.
Columbia River
Spring chinook remains closed with no signs of opening. Sturgeon have started migrating towards Bonneville as the water starts to warm but has yet to start getting good. Bass fishing is still slow especially as water temps have remained in the lower 50’s.
Drano Lake/Wind River
Spring chinook above Bonneville closed three days early on 5/30/24 as catch numbers met quota numbers. Drano lake and the Wind River are both still open but as crowded as they can be, as the creel reports state there were 150 boats at Drano on a Monday morning which is the biggest number I have seen for a weekday ever.
Curtis Youngren made the drive from Woodland, WA to Drano with him and a friend and after two hours of driving they fished for a whopping 15 minutes before they both had their fish in the boat.
Wind River – Six bank rods had no catch. 48 boats/103 rods kept 33 Chinook and released four Chinook.
Drano Lake – 13 bank rods had no catch. 150 boats/445 rods kept 141 Chinook and released three
Chinook.
Warm Water Lakes and Ponds
2024 WDFW trout derby
Every year WDFW holds a trout derby starting at the end of April for all of Washington in which they offer over 800 prizes with a combined value of 42,000 dollars. Find more information here!
Kress Lake
Kress received 3,000 rainbow trout on Monday 4/22/24 and should be fishing pretty good for stocked trout as well as panfish and pre-spawn bass but no first-hand reports this week.
Horseshoe Lake
I stopped by Horseshoe both Saturday and Sunday after fishing the Lewis and both days were rain filled yet there were plenty of anglers under umbrellas fishing. I didn’t see any fish caught but I wasn’t there for much longer than 30 minutes both days. The lake received 3,00 trout April 16th and 3,000 April 10th.
Klineline Lake
Klineline received a total of 12,405 April 11th and continues to fish well, mealworms, earthworms, and PowerBait have been working great as fishing continues to be like shooting fish in a barrel.
Battle Ground Lake
Battle Ground Lake received 3,000 trout April 10th although unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to stop by this week, angler Jason Mattson caught two trout Friday 4/26/24 on PowerBait and said many anglers were also catching fish on a consistent basis.
Lacamas Lake
Lacamas received a plant of 4,000 rainbows on 4/25/24 and should be fishing well. Powerbait, Mouse tails and spinners should work well. The water is around 58 degrees per Mason Granzow who went out Monday 5/29/24 and got one small trout on a rooster tail. With cold weather moving in I don’t see the temperatures moving much this week but once they do the trout will start to spread out and move into Round Lake.
Merwin Lake
Merwin continues to be slow as the lake’s turnover is causing the bite to be thrown away. No reports this week, hopefully by next week something has improved.
Long Beach/Razor Clam
No approval this week on next week’s clam dig but it should come any day now check here in the coming days for more information.
May 6, Monday, 5:41 a.m.; -0.7 feet; Mocrocks
May 7, Tuesday, 6:28 a.m.; -1.5 feet; Long Beach, Mocrocks
May 8, Wednesday, 7:13 a.m.; -2.0 feet; Long Beach, Copalis
May 9, Thursday, 7:57 a.m.; -2.1 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis
May 10, Friday, 8:41 a.m.; -1.9 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks (Long Beach Razor Clam Festival)
May 11, Saturday, 9:27 a.m.; -1.4 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks (Long Beach Razor Clam Festival)
May 12, Sunday, 10:16 a.m.; -0.8 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis
Stay fishy,
Seth Kolshinski
There is A LOT more for SW Washington Members here, including Ian Carter’s monthly update.And SW Washington members can find our complete Columbia River reports here. Check out Seth’s YouTube videos here as well, as he starts to post more!
Read this week’s Oregon fishing report.