Hello,
I was planning on hitting the Cowlitz river Wednesday (tommorrow) and checked the river flows. I see the flow rates dropped to 7500 cfs during the weekend and then were bumped back up to 9500 cfs Monday morning. I'd heard that Tacoma was doing that to provide anglers fishing opportunities (not very fair to us weekday fishermen!). Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone has fished the higher weekday flows and how they did? I have a river boat so can drift, anchor, or plug. But I'm taking my brother who doesn't go fishing very often and I don't want to waste his time on a blown river. So your help is appreciated. Thanks!

Mike,
We fished Blue Creek a couple weeks ago at 14,000 , Fish were caught, but it wasnt very accomidating. From the bank you should have no problem at 10,000, dont know much about boats as I am just a poor man
Tight Lines
RL

the river has good visibilty and the fish are there.the higher the flow the tougher it is to catch them in the river.if you can change with the river flows you can catch fish there.scott

I heard Tacoma lets more water out of Mayfield Dam during the week when electricity prices are higher. They save water over the weekend when demand is lower (fewer businesses open) and electricity prices are lower. If they had more water behind the dam it wouldn't matter and the water level would be more consistent. Although the draught is officially over, the lake is still down a bit with resulting weekend water conservation.

It was high today but fishable. My brother and I got skunked but saw several caught. What a crush of boats on the water! We elected to anchor at the clay banks and let the side drifters do all the work. It was a relaxing morning.

Fished the Cowlitz on Sunday and boon-dogged with the 40 other sleds (I counted at least that many), caught one steelhead and then decided that enough was enough. Took the river to the Barrier dam and played with the mostly dark silvers until almost dark.
I had forgotten what a zoo the Cowlitz can be after fishing it about a month ago at Blue Creek when all the guys were doing the Barrier dam thing. I was complaining when 7 or 8 boats were doing the drift. Didn't help when in Saturdays Tribune they stated the fishing was "Phenomenol, with near 100% limits. What a Joke!
Time to put the sled away and start bankin or driftin some of the "other" smaller rivers.

40 sleds on the weekend?!? I think 20-25 on Wednesday. It was pretty amazing to see. Like I said, my brother and I didn't want to enter the fray and just anchored up. Which is what I intend to do this Saturday with a friend. Either that or move on down the river.

Forget the boat hit the hole at Blue Creek at 8:30PM on 12/11 left at 3:30AM the next hit 14 took home 4

I floated the river a few weekends back and pulled up on the gravel bar opposite the clay banks. I saw quite a few fish bonked while there. After talking to a few people I had heard fishing was still good during high water, but pretty much only any BC. I also noticed that the small gravel/sand bar opposite the bankies (at the confluence) was void of people. Has anyone fished from this bank? Is it legal...or does it just piss the bankies off too much to be worth the trouble.
JMS