COWLITZ RIVER -
SUMMER HATCHERY STEELHEAD
MID JUNE TO
LATE AUGUST
Mid June
means that the long waited summer steelhead-fishing
season has finally arrived once again. Beginning in May the
first of the hatchery steelhead begin their trip into the Cowlitz and
other southwest Washington rivers looking for the
hatchery they were reared in. The first of the main run starts
to show in cacheable numbers around the second week of June.
The hatchery
steelhead runs peak around mid-July and begin to taper off
in mid-August.
In early June the first of the
anticipated summer
hatchery steelhead begin to show up. We are also catching
Spring Kings in here at this time. We will target the Spring
Kings usually from May through June. The numbers of steelhead
begin to build and the summer
steelhead specific to this river will start to stack up in
the blue creek area of the Cowlitz
river. The hatchery steelhead
is what makes the Cowlitz
river renowned for the steelhead fishing. The Cowlitz
River is still one of the most productive for Summer
Steelhead in Washington State. It is close to
metropolis Tacoma, Seattle, Olympia, Portland, Oregon and
Sea-Tac Airport. We will fish in shorts on some of those hot
summer days. The summer hatchery steelheads that enter
the Cowlitz
River usually average in size about 6 to 10 pounds with
the occasional 15 to 18 pound steelhead to be caught. You will
see mostly 8-pound steelhead in June, July, and
August.
We fish the Cowlitz
river from our 23'– 6” Alumaweld super-vee pro jet
boat, a very stable platform that can accommodate up to six
fishermen for the type of fishing trips we offer here. We use
only the finest of equipment, including g-Loomis and Lamiglass
fishing rods, Gamakatsu hooks, Shimano and Ambassadeur reels,
Yakima Bait product, Berkley products, Pure Fishing Products,
and Izorline. Of course if you're more comfortable with your
own gear, bring it along. We mostly use ultra-light G-Loomis
spinning rods and Shimano Stradic reels filled with 10 or 12
pound Hi-Vis line. On the terminal end we use either a single
no. 1 bait hook with a corky and yarn, or yarn with a small
offering of cured salmon eggs or shrimp. We also use a double,
(tandem tied), no. 4 hooks with bait or shrimp. We utilize a
drift fishing or side drift technique, (where all the gear is
cast out one side of the boat and the whole boat and cast gear
slide down the river along a seam or along the riverbank or
through a hole). At times we will also pull divers & bait
or cast a float and jig or a float and bait, shrimp or cured
salmon eggs. We might also pull diving plugs like a Hotshot or
a Tadpolly after we have gone through a hole drifting with
bait or float.
During this time you can catch anywhere
from 8 to 12 fish per day. During the summer
steelhead fishery we have had days with up to 27 fish
hooked for four fishermen.
Reserve fishing dates as
early as possible because prime dates, especially weekend
trips, book early.
Our technique is usually drift
fishing for the steelhead with corkies and yarn or small bits
of egg offerings or we will side drift eggs or a float and
jig, shrimp, or eggs. we will sometimes pull plugs like
hot-shots or tadpolly's or use divers and bait in certain
parts of the river or after we have gone through side drifting
with bait.
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