Fishing In your Neighborhood Network - @FiNNreports
Southwest Washington August 2023
As the Buoy 10 Chinook fishery winds down this weekend, all eyes will turn inland. The past few days have seen some epic fishing in the lower Columbia and catching is also turning on above Bonneville. There also remains many opportunities for other species, as locally bass fishing is going strong, as so is Mayfield Lake for trout. Puget sound continues fishing great for humpies with some Coho and Chinook in the mix. In this September report and forecast I cover fishing hotspots and areas including Long Beach, Kelso, Cougar, Camas, Woodland, and other greater Vancouver WA neighborhoods.
Let's sink into the current fishing conditions.
SW Washington Hatchery Escapements
Due to publishing deadlines and Friday release of this data, this graph is almost a week old when you read this report. I do however publish this chart every Friday by noon on X (twitter). @FiNNreports. The weekly escapement charts are posted on Wednesdays.
The Naselle which saw fifty-three early Hatchery Chinook and four Wild Chinook this week, with the Washougal only receiving seven hatchery Steelhead return for same period. Other river totals are further down this report in their respective neighborhood.
Ilwaco and Long Beach
At Buoy 10 Dave Mallahan with Dave’s Guide Service shared the following report from Monday 8/28/23. “My last day at buoy 10 resulted in an absolute epic Chinook bite on the Oregon side around the tongue point area with hook up after hook up lost fish missed, fish released, I can't keep track of all the fish we landed and lost, but it only resulted in three keeper fish for the afternoon. I moved up river with a second group, which resulted in another epic bite and limits. It's days like this the dreams are made of it keeps us coming back and looking for more days like this. So thankful for these days, I still have the 6th 11th and 12th of September open, if anybody would like to join me for a trip.” Thanks for the info, Dave!
A friend of mine fished the ocean this past weekend and reported, “Outside, north of the green line, 120' of water. Pink Spinners with anchovy strips at 30 to 38 on the line counters.” They had a very good day. You can find WDFW Buoy 10 creel check reports here.
Beginning August 26th, Ocean anglers off the mouth of the Columbia River are allowed to keep unmarked coho.
State and federal managers met by telephone last Friday morning and agreed there’s enough hatchery coho remaining in a pre-set quota they can allow wild fish to also be kept between Leadbetter Point, Washington, and Cape Falcon, Oregon, near Manzanita.
The bag limit remains two legal-sized coho, but neither must be fin-clipped. Only 15,545/79,800 hatchery coho of the original quota have been caught.
However with this change, the original quota ends and a new quota of 21,740 coho, hatchery or wild begins. It is expected by fishery managers to continue through most of September. This makes about zero sense to me. No changes have been made in the offshore chinook season in that zone, and Buoy 10 regulations also remain unchanged. I understand this is the first season since 2015 that wild coho were allowed north of Cape Falcon.
Surf Perch fishing at Long Beach is epic right now. Gulp Camo sandworms (as always) being the best bait. There are also some reports of surf crabbing picking up on the low surf days. One angler reported some good sizes to the Perch. He caught 4-15” and 3-13”. Reports of good surf fishing are also coming from Mocrocks.
Jetty Fishing reports are hard to come by. This tells me things may not be off to a good start. With the recent improvement of fishing inside the Columbia, this may soon change to the positive.
Crabbers are having some success with snares off the North Jetty. Use caution as it’s very rocky. Best to use a stout set up. Be prepared to lose some gear.
Favorable Ocean conditions are questionable based on the swell and wind forecast for this weekend. The NW swell while 12 seconds apart is forecasted to be 7 feet. Adding to that, a potential SW 2 foot and 4 second interval wind wave will make for a potentially wet ride in smaller open boats.
National Weather Service Portland OR
159 PM PDT Wed Aug 30, 2023
Coastal waters from Cape Shoalwater Washington to Florence Oregon and westward 60 NM
A series of low-pressure systems will pass over the waters over the next several days. Each will increase winds periodically, with the first occurring Thursday. West to northwest winds through mid-next week.
Westport - A Washington State record may have been broken this past week. Angler Keith Johnson had an official weigh in and filled out the paperwork for a State Record Dorado.
Westport Anglers are also reporting some epic Coho fishing with some 12-15lb fish dominating the catches. Last word was good fishing from 180fow, heading west to 280fow. Another charter report indicated they located a large school of blue sharks that had pushed a bunch of Chinook under their boat. At one point the report indicated they had 9 fish on16 rods. They limited in 15 minutes for the boat, 17 fish.
If you need fresh Anchovies in Westport: You can buy them from Westport Seafoods, dockside at their net pens, from 5am-9am 7 days a week. (360) 268-0133
A productive combo for Westport Chinook has been Hot Spot Purple Haze Flasher and 3.5” Silver Horde UV Cookies and Cream spoon. These spoons are great for ocean Chinook. I used them in various colors almost exclusively for Chinook when I fished my dory out of Pacific City some years ago.
If you have never experienced Westport, here is a map of the Launch routine, as it gets busy
.
Bottom fishing is still excellent out of all ports for those targeting them after Salmon Fishing.
Crabbing has improved at most locations coastwide, including the Sound. Hard-shells now comprise the majority in many pots. Unlike Westport Harbor, I wouldn’t recommend crabbing in Ilwaco Marina. In addition to the jetty and dropping pots in the Columbia estuary, there are snare crabbing opportunities from the shore in the Oysterville area of Willapa Bay, although I haven’t personally tried it.
Albacore are reported up to 60 miles out. Some members of the Dory fleet in Pacific City went 60 miles on a run last week and didn’t do very well. As of Tuesday reports from Washington ports also indicate quite a run to get into Tuna.
Cathlamet to Longview
Lower Columbia River, Rocky Point/Tongue Point line upstream to Bonneville Dam – 858 salmonid boats and 242 Washington bank rods were tallied during Saturday’s (8/26) flight count. WDFW Creel checks show Sec 7 (Cowlitz) – 57 boats/141 rods kept 20 Chinook, one Chinook jack and released one coho. Sec 8 (Longview) – 49 bank anglers kept one Chinook and released four steelhead. 67 boats/143 rods kept 12 Chinook. Sec 9 (Cathlamet) – 25 bank anglers had no catch.
During a call with Jim Milanowski with Looney Coonies he shared that he’s been fishing a few different locations throughout the lower Columbia. He provides this valuable report:
Salmon fishing is outstanding throughout the Columbia system. Trolling with 360 flashers and spinners tipped with Looney Coonies and anchor fishing with wobblers are both producing nice grades of chinook. A few cohos are also being caught now in the main stem Columbia. Target kings near the bottom on the outgoing tide and suspended on the incoming. Current intermittent gillnetting will negatively impact sport success.
There’s some milfoil/weeds at times so clear your gear regularly to get a good presentation. A helpful tip to combat weeds is to use longer bumpers and leaders. The fish are migrating in full force with the shorter duration of sunlight. The cooler days are perfect to be on the water.
Toledo and Castle Rock
Silver Lake is fishing quite well. My friend Keith Fisher went bass fishing there for the first-time last week and had a blast. They boated 12 bass and one crappie. Best lures were Shad rocket spinners, Senko’s, and a crank bait. The Bass below was one of the smaller ones.
While counts are somewhat low, some Cowlitz River fisherman are getting a few Steelhead. The Blue Creek area continues to be the high point of catching and obviously the most popular.
Cowlitz River Escapements:
🐟 Hatchery Chinook: Year to Date: 3388 | Net Gain: 81
🐟 Wild Chinook: Year to Date: 489 | Net Gain: 23
🐟 Hatchery Steelhead: Year to Date: 2444 | Net Gain: 124
🐟 Chum / Sockeye: Year to Date: 5 | Net Gain: 0
🐟 Cutthroat: Year to Date: 98 | Net Gain: 23
Bob’s Sporting Goods shared an image of their Chinook Derby leader. It was a massive 38.5-pound fish. My understanding is the fish was caught on a charter out of Ilwaco.
WDFW streamside checks indicated the following for the week of August 28th: Cowlitz River I-5 Br downstream – 22 bank rods had no catch. Cowlitz River Above the I-5 Br – Nine bank rods released one Chinook. 9 boats/29 rods kept 16 steelhead.
Riffe Lake is in danger of becoming inaccessible for the Labor Day weekend. It’s currently down to one lane and no dock availability. You can find current conditions here.
Mayfield Lake is fishing quite well for trout. Angler Jack Smith had a recent banner day. Fishing Mayfield right now is best by going to Ike Kinzwa State Park launch. This is where river Tilton brings in colder water. He suggests the area to right of launch around corner 100 ft out from bank or around bridge corn 12-inch leader to flasher or dodger wedding ring worm tip piece of corn. Use quarter ounce or half ounce weight and troll 1.3mph, 80 ft behind boat.
Trout stocking at Mayfield has occurred a few times in August. The last one on August 23rd consisted of 2,420, listed as 1.2 fish per pound, which puts the weight of these just about in the one-pound class. All total for August, Mayfield has received 10,000 keeper trout.
Alder lake has cooled off a little since my last report. One angler reports marking schools between 20-60 feet. They tried trolling between 1.2-1.8 mph, using wedding rings & Elgin’s Gods Tooth spoons, with corn & maggots soaked in tuna oil. They tried various dodgers and leader lengths, fishing in front of the park without much success.
Rapid short turns and fishing before 9:00am can increase the hook up ratio this time of year. It’s also a good idea to the shorten up the leader length as spawning season approaches, like 8” short.
Kalama
The weir is in place on the Kalama River, so please be aware of the fishing area restrictions between the Modrow Bridge down to 1,000 feet below the rack. WDFW creel checks revealed only seven bank rods keeping one Chinook and one steelhead.
The Chinook escapements continue to impress with Steelhead maintaining consistent numbers.
Kalama River Escapements:
🐟 Hatchery Chinook: Year to Date: 4473 | Net Gain: 768
🐟 Wild Chinook: Year to Date: 357 | Net Gain: 108
🐟 Hatchery Steelhead: Year to Date: 1535 | Net Gain: 120
🐟 Wild Steelhead: Year to Date: 350 | Net Gain: 13
🐟 Cutthroat: Year to Date: 25 | Net Gain: 1
Kress lake late summer bluegill is producing some fun times. The fish have gained some weight since I targeted them in the early spring. It’s lots of fun for the kids. To be honest it’s a blast on a fly rod for everyone and an inexpensive way to introduce yourself to flyfishing.
Columbia WDFW creel reports for Sec 6 (Kalama) – 189 bank anglers kept 11 Chinook and one Chinook jack. 28 boats/75 rods kept 12 Chinook, one coho and released two Chinook and one steelhead. Lots of effort, not so much catching.
Woodland
The Lewis river is still super low and between runs right now. Seth hooked a Chinook hover fishing the deep pool by Stevens Moorage. I fished the Columbia and mouth of the Lewis this week. The weekend was an absolute zoo on the Columbia.
On an earlier high slack tide my son and I caught one wild fish inside on an 11” Shortbus Chartreuse with orange Hyper-Vis+ tape 360 flasher combined with the spinner below. The Columbia river is very warm and on Sunday was 72.5 Degrees. The water temperature inside the Lewis was in the mid 60’s.
On the low slack this Sunday, I ended up going back outside on the Columbia and got in the line of trollers by Lewis. Fish were caught on and off all morning, but there was a short active bite at the bottom of the tide, a 60-minute flurry of more than a dozen hookups. As this week progresses to next weekend, we have some good am high tides building. Hopefully the water cools off and a super bite turns on in this spot as it’s close to home for me and so many others. I’ve never seen so many boats in that little area, especially while Buoy 10 is still under way. Maybe it’s a sign of the rough economy and folks are staying closer to home.
WDFW checks for the Columbia showed Sec 5 (Woodland) – 35 bank anglers kept five Chinook. 35 boats/83 rods kept 25 Chinook, one Chinook jack and released one coho. Lewis flow rate remains unchanged at around 1,250 cfs.
Last Saturday around noon, I spoke with the fish checker at the Forks State park ramp. He had checked in four Chinook all day. I’m not sure what total those fish went into for the creel check report. The numbers don’t jive considering there was “No Report” for the Lewis. I assume those fish ended up in the 25 fish total from the Columbia above.
I went up to Cedar Creek on Monday without observing much activity at all. It won’t be long until the first Coho begin to show. They aren’t prolific biters once they get above Woodland. The B runs in mid-October however are a different story.
Lewis River Escapements:
🐟 Hatchery Chinook: Year to Date: 3619 | Gain: 8
🐟 Wild Chinook: Year to Date: 288 | Gain: 7
🐟 Hatch Steelhead: Year to Date: 2445 | Gain: 145
🐟 Wild Steelhead: Year to Date: 10 | Gain: 1
🐟 Chum/Sockeye: Year to Date: 29 | Gain: 4
🐟 Cutthroat: Year to Date: 22 | Gain: 1
If you are launching your rig off the beach at Austin Point, be careful where you park. I heard second hand from the Port of Woodland, that for now we can” officially” launch on the beach but not park there. You need to park up above in big parking lot area. Those few parking on the beach beyond the bollards might receive a ticket. The Port has big plans for the area at Martins Bar. As development plans are firmed up in the coming months, I will share what I learn. It’s exciting, (think along the lines of Willow Grove, launch and park). This should take much of the other water sport recreationists away from the Lewis River launches. This access to the Columbia would also offer an alternative between Ridgefield and Kalama.
My barbers young son fished Horseshoe lake last week. He got lucky and caught a couple leftover stocker trout. The lake is super warm and very low. Bass and Panfish should be good on the south side if you have a boat or kayak.
Plunking Martins Bar is hit or miss. My neighbor has been a couple of times over the past week and reported no action for himself.
Ariel, Chelatchie and Cougar
Merwin continues to fish well for some anglers. Early in the day limits are coming to those focused on fishing just outside Speelyai. Successful anglers are deploying gear a little deeper, like 60 feet. Deadly venom cut plugs with short 8” leaders seem to be doing the trick the last couple of days. Unlike Yale, the Merwin Kokanee are still firm and chrome.
The trophy trout action is about to pick up at Swift Reservoir. This is an overlooked fishery as it occurs in conjunction with the fall Salmon run. Large rainbow trout in the 20”class are not uncommon. They become especially aggressive feeders in the fall in anticipation of the winter doldrums. The lake is open until November 30th.
The Edge Pro Shop in Woodland just got the new colors of Deadly Venom's Tasmanian Cut plug. This is fast becoming the go to plug for SW Washington Kokanee fishing. They have recently also restocked new beads. The folks at the Pro Shop also want you to know about the Fall chinook derby. Bring in any fall fish (gilled and gutted) Ocean, Columbia, or tributary fish. Biggest one wins a rod of choice and with a second rod going to a randomly drawn winner. There is no limit on entries!
La Center and Ridgefield
The ponds around Lake river have been producing decent Bass catches. I don’t have the details of exact locations, but there are lots of possibilities around the Wildlife refuge area. Be sure to check for private property and don’t trespass.
Greater Vancouver
A friend plunked the Who Songs spot last week for Salmon and didn’t have any success. Frenchman’s and Davis Bar areas have been hit and miss, but folks are getting Chinook. Ten days ago I anchor fished across from Sauvies island on the Washington side at the end of Lower River Road area. There were two other boats around us of which one hooked up mid-way through the outgoing tide. We didn’t mark a lot of fish but did see a couple jumpers break the surface.
Section checks disclosed by WDFW are: Sec 3 (I-5 area) – 4 boats/7 rods kept one Chinook. Sec 4 (Vancouver) – 68 bank anglers kept eight Chinook. 55 boats/122 rods kept 21 Chinook, one coho and released one Chinook.
You can find the Non-Treaty Commercial Fisheries landing report as it’s updated at this link. The Washington and Oregon Wildlife Departments joint fishery Fall Update was released last week. You can find that information here.
Battle Ground
No reports for the East Fork Lewis.
Battleground lake is reportedly producing some trout catches in the evenings. Best to use a bobber this time of year to keep your bait out of the grass until it dies off. During the summer, worms are a good choice of bait, as the bluegill and bass like them too.
Camas and Washougal
The Washougal river is nothing to write home about. Reports are nonexistent, as is fishing effort. Lack of fish and low flows prevail.
WDFW Columbia checks showed: Sec 2 (Camas/Washougal) – 8 boats/21 rods kept four Chinook and two Chinook jacks.
Lacamas Lake and Round Lake are good for smaller blue gill. I haven’t heard any specific reports, but some years ago it used to be good bullhead catfishing at night along Leadbetter Road. If you haven’t been to Lacamas Lake in some years, it’s changed quite a bit.
Stevenson and the Gorge
Seth received a report from a friend who fished Drano on Tuesday Morning. Fishing was excellent, catching their limit by 8:30am. With the increased dam counts fishing should continue to pick up. More reports should become available as anglers follow the fish up the gorge. Seth is going to fish the area this weekend. Look for an update from him next week as he returns to the report. The WDFW creel report this week shows a peak in interest.
Neighborhood creel checks on the Columbia last week WDFW reported Sec 1 (Bonneville) – 60 bank anglers kept 13 Chinook, one Chinook jack and released two steelhead. 9 boats/23 rods released one steelhead.
Gorge Angler checks report: Wind River – No report. Drano Lake – 23 bank rods had no catch. 94 boats/249 rods kept 99 Chinook, three Chinook jacks, two coho and released 15 Chinook and 17 steelhead. Klickitat River below Fisher Hill Bridge – One bank rod had no catch. Klickitat River above #5 Fishway – No report
Carl at Canyon Market and Shuttle wasn’t available for call this week. I’ll share his contact info with Seth, so he can start calling for a report in the coming weeks. It’s still early for the Klickitat, but on the horizon.
Puget Sound
Johns Sporting Goods reports great fishing days down in area 9 for pinks. Fishing in the sound for Pink salmon is epic right now, with more and more Coho in the mix. Please review regulations carefully as the sound is full of complex rules. If you want the try pink salmon fishing from shore, one of the closest spots to SW Washington is Les Davis Pier. Click here for WDFW link to Puget Sound fishing pier locations.
One boat angler reports that it’s a literal fishing frenzy in Marine Area 8-2. “We released so many we lost count, but I got my two. One silver and one pink. Bite was hot in the am but slowed down a lot in the afternoon.” They only fished typical coho gear, coho killer, squids etc. but the humpies couldn’t resist.
Flyfishers are also getting in the action for Pinks in the sound. Pretty much any good Cutthroat spot should provide some killer Pink Salmon fishing. This well used weighted fly pattern below comes highly recommended.
If you are like me and use the slip discs for your rod holders, you know how incredible they are for fine tuning the rod position. My frustration has been the ability to get them super tight for trolling with heavier gear without busting my knuckles. I came across this new product that recently came out of field testing and will be available to order online soon. Check @FiNNreports for when I receive the ordering info. In the meantime you can check out Fish SOS Facebook page.
Have a safe Labor Day everyone. The Columbia should be epic with the cooler weather and incredible numbers of fish. You’ve read all the reports, now get out there and catch yourselves a Chinook. If you see me on the river, say hello.
Tight Lines,
Ian Carter, Real Estate Broker
503-810-2737
ian@washingtonhomes.realestate
@FiNNreports is posting more frequent reports and notifications exclusively on X (twitter) in addition to this monthly comprehensive report at TheGuidesForecast.com.