Last weekend I headed to the Cowlitz below Blue Creek, and it was in my opinion unsafe at best. I witnessed both unsafe boating practices, and people with total disregard for anything resembling river etiquette. I am now embarrassed to have gone down there at all. I stayed all of 20 minutes, and couldn't stand it anymore.

Is anyone finding similar situations there, and if so, what can be done about it?

come on, it's not "THAT" bad

The Blue Creek stretch of the Cow is easily the busiest river in Washington. When the fish are in, it will be packed with bankies and boaties.

It just seems when you get that many people in such close quarters, all bets are off, most river etiquette goes out the door, and it's a big free for all. You can expect to be low-holed by guides and non-guides, cut off, zoomed by, lines ran over, and have people cast over your lines when you have a fish on.

Toss in the uppped limits for steelhead plus 2 adult salmon, and that always brings out the best to a river.

As long as you are aware of that going in to it, the Cow is fine. Would be a real shocker to some one, if that's not what you were expecting.

If you want fish, go to the Cow. If you want to fish to have fun, or relax, I'd pick another river.

I'm not saying that's good or bad. That's just the way it is. I have no idea what can be done about it. At least there's a lot of fish to be caught. Can't say that about most rivers.

You are right Parker, all bets are off. Alaska has the Russian River, and we have the Cowlitz.
The best thing we ALL can do is make sure your own boat is safe, and be courteous to others. Heck I even picked up a bankie the other day that was getting spooled.
With that many fish, who cares if you get low holed, you can do it to them on the next run, after all you will be making plenty of runs.
Survey says those fish dont lay in any one perticular spot, so just cast to the other side of da boat if the disrespectful jet-jockey in the 45' Alumaweld decides to stop right off your transom and start doggin'.
Lets just put it this way, the fish have to swim through the lower river to get to B.C. and have to keep going to get to Barrier.
I would write more, but I have to tend to the smoker -- and not one of them came from the Blue Creek run.

I had the best time of my life fishing Blue Creek from the bank last summer. At the beginning it was incredibly intimidating, I'll admit. What I slowly found out is that 99% of the guys down there are great guys. It just takes one person to stir the pot and then everybody gets pissed off. What I've found is that when someone crosses your line or casts over you when you have a fish on to simply forgive them and move on. It can be a great place when everyone is working together. I've made some great fishing buddies down there. Keep at it. Before long, everyone will know your name and you'll see how fun it can be. All of those obstructions make you a better fisherman as well. Good luck!

Nobody goes there anymore, its just too crowded.

Another tidbit of advice that Rooster left out was that you should never borrow gas from the guy in the first house with the nice lawn below Blue Creek. Just make sure you have a full tank when you launch and you'll be just fine.

the only thing you can do is not stoop to those S.O.B's level. there is no written law so they'll continue to be @$$holes and ruin a perfectly good day that you had planned. Everyone knows that when you pull up to the trailhead and see 30+ rigs parked there that it is going to be pretty tight and the tempers will be flairing. Try going at night you won't be the only one but there'll be less people.

It's always tempting to stop at the creek when fishing the Cow. But, I just blew by on my way down river. I was all by myself Saturday in my honey hole catchin' chrome. Again my partner had some lame excuse not to go. I guess I need some new partners. No need to fish elbow to elbow it's a big river. But, if your without a boat and want good odds of a fish or two Blue Creek offers very good odds. Be polite, or just be a bigger A@@hole and you'll do fine.

The biggest problem is that people turn around and take those bad manners to other rivers!!! The cowlits needs fewer fish to weed out the people that only care about numbers and filling their freezers. Thats what the stocker lakes before and reducing a steelhead river to that same mentality is an absolute tragedy..
Thats also why we have to stop this grandy creek steelhead fishing enhancment project dead in it's tracks!!!!
One cowlitz is enough!

If you guys don't like the fishing conditions that currently exist at the Cowlitz then change them! There is one simple way to do that. Join the Friends of the Cowlitz (FOC)! They have spent countless hours in rearing fish (steelhead and Springer's) so that you guys won't have to just fish at Blue Creek or the Barrier Dam. Years ago, the Board of directors of the FOC recognized the zoo type of fishery that exists at Blue Creek hatchery and took action. They took actions to correct the problem and started rearing fish at several different off sites locations along the Cowlitz River, all the way down from below the Trout Hatchery.

This effort paid off big time for the sport fishermen and really gave everyone a great opportunity to catch hatchery fish from Blue down to the mouth of the Toutle. It worked so well, that it put mud on the faces of the trout hatchery managers because 80% of the fish were then being caught way down river from the hatchery. This gave the appearance to many people who were used to going to Blue Creek, be it by boat or by foot, that their just wasn't as many fish retuning to catch, because they were used to catching their fish there. The guides knew what was going on and quickly adjusted to fishing the new areas around the off site rearing ponds.

For years, this action spread out the sport fishery, especially for the much thought after summer run steelhead. Now we are right back to where we were eight years ago because WDFW has cut back the fish that were allotted to FOC's rearing program. I wish that people would not jump to the conclusion and think about the real problem before they make such a statement; "The cowlitz needs fewer fish to weed out the people that only care about numbers and filling their freezers"

Don't worry, Robert Allen3, according to the new settlement agreement that was signed by the non- government organizations, i.e. Trout Unlimited and American Rivers, you will be getting your wish sooner then you think. Now how will that affect you? Well the next time to complain that your favorite "honey hole" on your most favorite secret river is crowded, you will know why! Tacoma Power has predicted that the recreational sport fishery will be increasing by almost 18% in the next several years on the Cowlitz. Just where do you thing that 18% increase of fishermen will be headed for when they realize that "hatchery" production has now been "cut back" into half of what is was 2 years ago? When those "hatchery" fish are gone, what will that extra 18% of added fishing pressure do to those few streams that are left that still have wild fish?

Thanks to groups like FOC and CPR-Fish, we may still be able to continue our recreational sport fishing on the Cowlitz River. Both the FOC and CPR-Fish have just finished spending 5 days in the Pollution Control Hearing Board (PCHB) defending your right to maintain your recreational opportunity to fish the Cowlitz River. Within the next couple of days I will be writing a summary of what has occurred at the PCHB hearing and updating this board on what may be the end to enhanced sport fishing opportunity on the Cowlitz.

Stay tuned!

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

Never really had much said to me a BC before!!! Alot of the hassles down there are meatheads that dont know $hit from apple butter... Some of the locals think they own it too...For the most part it's not all that bad.. TM

Now THAT was funny! I hope yoiu don't mind if I use that one TM.