Well we've been fishing the Cowlitz now for a bit. We banked it today though, had some good springer lessons in some 80 degree weather. It's been very good. Today was a lot of fun, fish jumping everywhere. Bite was good in the morning, and we ran up to Barrier for the afternoon lull in the crowds. The sun didn't help the bite, didn't pick up until the evening when we went home. The water dropped during the day, but man there are fish in the river now and it's only going to get better. Sorry no pics, it's been a long day. But I'll see you out there! The fish are in boys, let's go get them.

I've got some dates open to drift for these tasty springers. Let me know and we'll get you set up.

Nate Treat Fishing
Official WashingtonLakes.com Sponsor

"Specializing in Fishing Instruction and Shore Guiding on Washington's Rivers."
NateTreatFishing.com

Got to blue creek about 6:30 fished till 11 no fish only about 15 rigs and 4 boats in the parking lot. Guess I will go try the skook

I went down to blue creek i had a half day to fish before picking up my doughter from winter break. We started at around seven. In the first hour of fishing we saw five fish rolling five feet in front of us. We both had a couple of take downs but couldent connect. As the river cleared out we moved up river to the next hole and i conected with this brite 6-7 pounder on bobber and jig. He had already broken off someone and had a jig in his mouth next to mine. Jared of S G S guide service was out picking up fish two feet in front of us. All in all it was a great day of fishing.

This is getting old. Took my son Matt down to the Cowlitz with hopes of getting him his first steelhead. We fished from daybreak until 1:30. Our primary method was boondogging eggs/float. We also tried jigs, corkies, and pulling plugs. FIshed mainly the hatchery hole, but did go down past the bend. Boy the Blue Creek hole has changed with those downed trees!
On the plus side it was a good father-son outing and we had a very nice day weather-wise with no rain and a bit of sun. The river is running around 10,000 CFS and looks good. We did see around 4-5 fish caught and they all looked bright and big.
That said, what a slow year compared to previous years!

Took my 3 yr old boy to Blue Creek to search for some steelhead or salmon. Didn't find any, heard of only one caught all day, but caught a nice batch of cutthroats, smallest about 13", largest one was about 19" with rosy cheeks. He caught 3 of them on a worm and split shot drifted a few feet from the bank. I caught the two larger ones on a bobber/jig about 20 feet off the bank. I was using cured shrimp tails on the jig (pink/purple aero) trying to find steelie, or a coho would have been nice too, but was quite surprised at how hard that cutt nailed it. Thought I had a bigger fish on till I felt it fighting, but still a nice catch. The other larger one was caught with a piece of nightcrawler on the jig. A few other takedowns but missed them.

Catch of the day goes to my son, though. He dorsal-snagged a king, drifting a split-shot and a #6 baitholder with a nightcrawler (yes, I even crimped the barbs) on his little wal-mart special kiddie-trainer fishing pole. Had to have been at least 8#'s, although if it were still alive and intact it would have been closer to 15#'s! ;-) He was pretty shocked at the size of this 'fish', and a little bummed that we had to let it go. It WAS snagged, after all, (aside from being quite a few days dead) and I'm going to teach him right from the start.

Anyways, a great day to be on the river. Weather was fairly warm and dry, making it a comfortable, memorable adventure for the little man. Wish I would have seen some steel, maybe next time!