Not knowing the answer,I thought Iwould ask someone who knows. I hope you don't mind. What kind of summer run do you expect for the Cowlitz? The Duck

Duck,

How far of a drive is it to the Cowlitz from Yakima? Just curious. Do you fish the Klick, Drano, and Big White Salmon much?


Sammy

Sammy, yes I do fish the places you named. It's about 128miles to Drano from yakima. The Duck

While I'm nowhere as well-versed on the Cowlitz as CFM I can tell you that it has started much slower than I've ever seen before. I've fished the Cow extremely hard for four summers now. I've put in just as many hours this year as prior years and have only a few fish to show for it. Don't expect a year like last year or the year before. There's fish out there but the numbers are very low for this time of year. The REAL verdict will be at the end of this month. If the fishing hasn't picked up dramatically by the end of June/early July, you can bet that I'll be finding a different river.
Cuttie

Duck In The Fog

I don't know if it will be as good as last year was because that was an exceptional year for summers. My best guess right now is that it will not be that good (I hope I am wrong).

Last year it stated to kick off just about now (and the water was much higher), and I believe we will know its strength within the next 2 weeks if it's going to be good or just an average run. This time last year, the flows were running over 6000 cfs; the flows now are only 4000 cfs. When we get those higher flows, it pulls most of the fish up from the "lower" 25 miles of the river.

I have been fishing this river ever year weekly if not daily for over 18 years now, and I have yet to figure out how "strong" each run will be until it starts. Their really isn't any good science to tell, but when we start getting good numbers in by mid June, it's usually a good sign. So far it has only been so-so, but when and if it does happen, it can be fun! One of the problems that happen when we do get a "great run" of summers, the following year the number of fishermen also becomes "great". When we get that many fishermen, the odds of catching "lots" of fish are then cut into half, just because of the shear numbers of fishermen that are now fishing.

I fished out of the mission boat ramp on Wednesday and was surprised to see that 7 rigs had already lunched and were already out of sight. One rig was also in line at the ramp. Normally you would only have seen 2 or 3 boats in the water by then. I live about 2 miles down river as the crow fly's from the mission boat ramp and I could here boats running up and down the river when it was still dark thirty out!

The guide boats that I know and talked to only had 2-3 fish for 5 guys each of fishing that day. We fished (2 ) from Nolan's Bluff all the way down to I-5 pretty darn hard and we only managed to get one fish. So that's all I can tell you at this time. At this time of the year, you have to play it one day at a time!

Good luck, you may need it!

Cowlitzfisherman