it seems that a lot of people don't seem to notice that there was a big die-off a few years ago coupled with terrible river conditions all winter and most of the summer, that is probably responsible for this year's mediocre summer fishing.

this year's summer run fishing was sub-par, but i think a lot of guys are trying to compare it to the outstanding years of 2003 and 2004. the fishing was never that good in the past, and i don't really forsee it being that good in the future, at least consistently.

the real shame is the loss of the december/january fishery down there. been a long time since you could walk into blue creek at 9am and see 50 fish on the bank. that area is hardly fishable any more due to the back channel that used to be about 15 feet wide opening up about 5 or 6 years ago and growing to the point that it will soon become the main channel of the river. cutting back on plants and spreading them out certainly didn't help, either.

scariest of all, is the impact that this has had on other rivers. the boom years spawned a huge fleet of guide boats, and when the cowlitz faltered, rather than closing shop, they hammered on the chehalis tributaries instead and made them nearly unbearable to fish.