I've been fishing the Cowlitz for 20 years this November. That may not be as long as some have been on her banks, but it's longer than others have even been fishin'. Yet what I envision to be "the good ol' days" on this river is a time I've never seen, although I dream of it every time I fish it.

I'm sure without looking up any stats to drop that the Cowlitz was once one of the greatest native steelhead runs on our planet, not to mention her salmon and cutts. Along it's hundreds of miles of premier habitat, millions of natural, wild steelhead emerged from the gravel destined to become one of the alpha races of summer and winter run Columbia trib fish, the likes of which people today pay through the nose to fish in yet unadulterated regions of British Columbia. The Toutle, and it's legendary summer runs are actually Cowlitz tributary fish. Resilient enough to bounce back from St.Helens, but one dam would eliminate them.

I can only imagine a fall day floating the upper reaches in what I consider to be the glory days of the Cowlitz - the days when she flourished as one of the mighty wild steelhead rivers of the world.

Then came the dams, and hatcheries, sleds and super-efficient means of harvesting mass-produced fish in the name of sport, and somehow this became "the good old days". These upper reaches are now under impoundment lakes behind mammoth dams and pumped with everything from sockeye to tiger muskie in the name of sport.

I guess glory is in the eye of the beholder.

.02

Juro