I'm just aching to go somewhere this weekend without making a trip to the OP. Karen at the campground told me that anglers are doing pretty well on the "late run" near the dam. Is this true? I didn't think that the dam planted steelhead. If so, what should I put in the arsenal?
Thanks
Cuthroat

I believe (and I most certainly could be wrong!) that the Friends of the Cowlitz does a plant of "spring steelhead". Before the dams went in there used to be a native run of this type - enter the river in March and April and spawn pretty quickly. I'm sure that somebody more knowledgeable can add a lot to my reply.

In the past several years, Friends of the Cowlitz have only planted summer run steelhead to be imprinted to Mayfield Dam. Most of those retuning fish will end up at the Barrier Dam. WDFW wouldn't let them plant the late stock of winter run steelhead. The stocks that are retuning now to the Barrier Dam area are mainly March run wild steelhead, or steelhead that are specially marked with right ventral fin clipped.

The right ventral fish must be released if caught below the Mayfield Dam, but may be legally kept if caught above the Mayfield Dam (check regs). There is a few old looking winter runs also being caught too. I caught one yesterday, and it was getting pretty dark. The fish already had 2 punch holes in its right gill plate, indicating that it has been recycled at least 2 times before.

They (WDFW) are currently changing their priority from early returning steelhead to mainly the March timed run of fish. This was all part of the rotten settlement agreement that WDFW, NMFS, USF&WS, Sport fishing Guides of Washington, Trout Unlimited and American Rivers all sign onto.

In the next couple of years from now, you will find that you won't be catching anymore early run winter steelhead in the Cowlitz. Thanks to these guys, the Cowlitz will never be the same again. No more will there be the fishing that you once saw during December-January. Thing will be a changing, and not for the better!

Cowlitzfisherman
Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????

FCTS,

As CFM said, there are late timed winter steelhead wanting to migrate upstream of the dams that are showing up at barrier dam. Some are wild fish with no clipped fins. We're allowed to play them for a few minutes and then release them to continue their spawning migration. Then there are some late timed hatchery winter runs that are ventral fin clipped. I'm not sure why they have to be released in the lower river but can be retained in the upper river. Maybe to give those Randle and Packwood anglers some fish to keep, and those that don't get caught are apparently supposed to augment the spawning escapement. Hope it works.

I heard that last year the steelhead hauled to the upper river were about half wild and half late winter hatchery steelhead. I don't know how effective that mix will be, but they are starting to get quite a few wild steelhead smolts at Cowlitz Falls Dam in the spring. It would be nice to know if these ventral clipped fish are contributing to production (and recovery of ESA listed steelhead).

CFM commented about the early winter hatchery production being reduced in the future. That is true, but it doesn't have to mean that the adult return will be reduced correspondingly. The Cowlitz hatchery steelhead have a notoriously poor survival rate. The state raises about a million hatchery smolts to get the returns that have occurred in recent years. Improvements that are planned for the hatchery system have the potential to maintain equivalent adult returns from fewer smolts by improving the quality (mainly improved health) of the hatchery smolts.

Overall, your fishing opportunity on the Cowlitz should remain the same or even improve with the presence of significant populations of wild salmon and steelhead in the Cowlitz mix. If you go fish there, let us know how you do.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.