Just wondering when the winter run stop trickling in? Thanks!

i was wondering when they were going to START trickling in

A few years ago!

I heard from a fella while fishining for chum that the fish were just showing up in decent numbers. Perhaps that is not the case?

Dude,

It is slower than mollasses out there! I went out there Sunday morning along with about 100 other guys and only seen maybe 8 fish on.

I fish the point and when I walked out at 1:00 I only seen maybe 1-2 fish on the bank

UMMMM I guess we just got lucky. My dad and I went 4 for 7 on Jan 06....

heard some babble that the state has been tring to spread out the run timing so we wil not really see a large "peak" just steady fish coming in. heard that from the fish checker and someone up at the fish country store.

Read an article this evening on the Cow... Bumped to number 2 in the State- Bogey numero uno now.

Things sure have changed since I started fishing for Steelies... Green #1- Pew #2.

What happened?

Your seeing the effect of the screwing we got during the dam relicensing. Remember Cowlitzfisherman. He warned us. The winter run we knew is gone.

Driftwood,
Unfortunate,but very true.
Its a shame we no longer have is knowledge on this board.

He may be back, I saw his name a few days ago in the "recent anglers" list. Though we had our differences I enjoyed his "pot-stirring" ability.

He's definitely good at that.Not just on this board or others either.Its hard to find somebody with the knowledge he has.Hopefully he and Bob were able to mend fences.

His post about fishing silvers on the Cow with jigs was one of the best I have read.

The winter run is definatly not what it used to be on the Cow. But for the last couple of years I started fishing it for summer runs and wow, the fish pour in around June and are thick until the end of Aug. They have even been raising the limit to 3 fish. Whatever happened to the Friends of The Cowlitz group?????

Sounds like some of you guys miss ole CFM.He is now a moderator of a politics forum another popular fishing site.And he is still up to what he always was.Trying to share the facts with those willing to listen.

Don't get too excited about summer-runs on the Cowlitz. The smolts released 18 months ago to return this summer were 1/3 of the smolts released for the run that returned this past summer. That means returns and fishing will be 1/3 as good in summer 2005 as it was in summer 2004. But hey...the fishing for wild fish will more than make up for the deficit...not. Another example of our fish managers abandoning sport fishers.

Mr. Ridgeway,

What should your fish managers do for sport fishermen?

They manage fish. For the most part, they don't manufacuture them, most particularly on the Cowlitz. The number of steelhead available on the Cowlitz are the combined result of the number of hatchery smolts reared and marine survival. Your fish managers have limited control over the first of those variables and no control over the second.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

salmo,I'm calling BS on your post,the Cowlitz should return to the hatchery fish factory it used to be. Letting the power companies continue business as usual without fish mitigation is crap! I love wild fish but lets be real on this system they are virtually nonexistant. Unfortunately its probably too late to get the funding from the power companies to get the Cowlitz back to herself.

I agree with Skydriftin'. A good percentage of the spawning grounds are either covered up by dams or inaccessable because of the dams.
The Cowlitz should be a Hatchery Machine. It may have been a short run Thanksgiving-Jan 15 or so, but it was a great run.
It would be nice to concentrate the wild fish efforts on river systems that still have good habitat like the Satsop, etc. It is a waste of money to try and bring a lot of wild fish back to rivers like the Cowlitz. The power co's are now using the "wild" fish policies to cut down on the hatchery fish.

Here is some info regarding the state of affairs on the Cowlitz. The info is about 6 months old so the info may need to be updated


http://www.steelheader.net/ubbthreads/sh...5/o/all/fpart/1