Fished the Cowlitz at Blue Creek yesterday from noon to dusk. No Dice. Saw a handful of Steelies caught by sleds and one dark king by a banker. Did however see an incredible acrobatic display by what I assume were silvers. One leaped a good 6 foot out of the fast water. That was the highest I've ever seen a wild fish leap. Any day out on the river is a good day though. I guess days like yesterday are why they call it "fishing" and not "catching."

I usually fish BC pretty hard during the summer but not this year.....other places to catch more fish. It was a pretty sad year there....next years supposed to be more of the same. Glad you had a good day on the river though....just nice to be out somewhere!

Fished the Nasty today and went 1 for 4 on hook ups. Got a decent hen, she was a little dark for the table but not bad for the smoker and the eggs were very nice. Cured them up tonight on some different "cure" I like to use, I still want to try that new Last Supper Cure out and a few other egg recipes, so hopefully they will produce next time out for a nice bright chromer.

Had a nice day on my favorite SW river. Fishing wasn't super hot but it was Ok day on the river. Fish were very picky and not really stacked up in any one given location.

I think we ended up boating 12 fish and keeping 5. Gallon and a half of curing eggies later, I'm a happy camper!

As always, Stlhdr1 put on a show for us. I learn something new about that fishery every time I go down there. Yesterday was no exception.

Went 3-3 swinging today on summer-runs to about 15 lbs.

Also went 3-4 on silvers on the same river.

Some pix from the last few day on the reports page

Hosted two friends from Bakersfield this week. Fished West Point Mon, Tues, & Wednesday. Monday, we brought back a 10 & a 7, Tues (3) all under 5 lbs., and today a six pounder. A fair number of grabs from the surface to 60 ft., but lost alot due to the experience factor. Saw a 16 lber at the ramp on Tuesday. Average 1 fish/boat, though. I wouldn't be suprised if a couple derby fish come from down here. Spoons and whole herring seemed to be doing equally well. Hootchies got booted back into the old box pretty early on. Won't be back out until October. Go get em'!

Wheres the "reports page" Bob?

Here ya go Peter:

click here

Yer killin' me here Bob! I was gonna brag about my nice bright 9 pound silver I caught yesterday but now I'm just going to sulk in the corner.......nice fish man!

WELL Im going to hit cowlitz for the next three days ill let you guys know how i did ......

Here's a sample of what we were looking for the other day.

Parker: Nice fish, but creepy photos.

Now I know what to dress up for Halloween. The headless fisherman.

You hit it on the head Mike.....due to scenes like that every year I find myself fishing less and less for river salmon and more for steelhead. If all the same people (quantity and quality) that fished for salmon also fished for steelhead, I'd take up flyfishing.

Number of trips to the river since the Aug. 16th opener for me? Zero. I've been hunting nearly every day since Sept. 1, but I just don't care to catch humpies anymore and the silvers are lousy biters right now.

Ike

New to page, first time to read or reply. I fished the tidewater on the Willapa 3 times this past week. As you can imagine, low and warm. Would say clear, but tide water is always brownish. Took a little experimenting,but caught some chrome kings & coho. I believe the best bet is to be there just about an hour before the tide is all the way back in ,but not slack. This seems to be the arrival time of the most aggressive fish that are ready and willing to bite. Caught several of each on #3 silver blade vibrax with the hot pink body. You will get hung up a lot until you get used to where you can/ cannot cast. Retreive the lure as slow as you can and still stay off the bottom. If you are not hitting the bottom every now and then, you are reeling too fast. I like to pick out my "casting zones" when the tide is all the way out, which also lets you see where the deepest slot is and any potential "bad" areas to try to keep your fish out of once hooked. I would rather break one off than have it go into some of those areas and mess up my whole line. I caught most of my kings on eggs. The Willapa is one of a growing number of rivers that the snaggers have been so kind to ruin for fishermen who like to plunk eggs. Your bait must not be stationary, so a float is in order here. I have found that this year( seems to change every year) the hot color is a dark red #14 corkie ,#2 hook, and as many eggs as you feel ok in using. My baits are about 2 " in diameter. Adjust your float size until the wind will almost cause it to go under on it's own. The kings down there bite very,very soft and will give up on a bait if there is too much resistance. I have also found that washing my hands and using gloves has increased my hook ups. Enjoy the page. This egg fishing should work where you fish also. Be patient, we are only fishing for 2 or three good take downs.

Took the pontoon and electric motor out to the mouth of the Skok for a few hours this morning.

Dangerous. Had to avoid a few lost nets that were just under the surface. I didn't see the floats because they were about 6 inches below the surface at high tide. I didn't see or get any fish along the estuary.

I did see some coho cruisering near the beach between the Union boat ramp and the mouth of the Skok. Got some chasers on a blue fox.

There is a mix of nicer fish all along the lower end of the Hood canal.

Hit the Green this morning.
Lost 1 and kept 2, saw at least a dozen fish caught in the 3 hours I was there.

Could it be the large number of orcas spotted by whisky had a lot to do with the low numbers of coho boated? Inquiring minds want to know....

Fished the Squally from boat Yesterday. So many people fishing between Mts Road and I-5, I lost count at 80. Found a hole and tied up to a snag. Casted Mag warts and hooked into a monster.. 30# Pluss, he took me for a ride and broke me off under a snag. So if anyone catches a hog with a Green/Orange Mag wart in its lips, you know where it came from. Also got a nice Cutthroat about 3# while casting spinners. Saw some DARK kings rolling, but no silvers.

fished sekiu 9-19 thru 9-23. saw a 20lb silver on the scale at the coho resort on the night of the 18th. had four of us on the boat monday morn and by noon we had released three nates and kept 1 small hatchery. released a couple more nates in the afternoon. tuesday we hit it at daylight and put three in the box right away and within a half hour the bite was over. fog kept us out of the shipping lanes. wednesday we headed straight out for the shipping lanes. was fishing at 25-40 ft and it was slow. heard people chattering on the radio about fishing at 75+ ft and hitting a lot of fish. Dropped the riggers and started hitting fish. wound up with 5 that day. thursday we had five in the box by 10 and took us nearly all day to get #6. friday we limited by 10 and packed up and were on the road by noon. biggest fish was 13.5 and most were in the 5-6 range. the hatch:native ratio was about 1:3. caught only three humpies that were returned. most fish were caught on whole herring in a helmet. a couple were caught on cut plug and a couple shakers were caught on a cop car coyote spoon.

Bullshooter,

Whats the fishing historically like in Sekiu this time of year? Should we be past the peak of fishing or still early? Just curious.