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Over the weekend I had my first experience with the Cowlitz River. A lot of you have pm'd me regarding hitting this river on the fly. Well, after seeing the river for the first time, I honestly have to say that I would not waste a single penny to drive all the way down there for some utter disappointment.
The hatchery has changed it's outflow to an area up stream and it is the closest thing that I can imagine to fishing pandemonium. The lower portion of the river that used to be fished heavily over the years has pretty well gone by the wayside. We went down to have a look at it and it was literally a ghost town. Not another boat in sight. All of the guides focussed on the upper area near the hatchery. I did see one gentleman in a toon on anchor, just down from the outflow, but he was not having anyfun. Or maybe the one finger he kept holding up to everyone waking him out was his way of saying he had one fish??
We were in a boat amongst easily 150 other boats in an area the width of Vedder Canal and probably as long as from Island 22 launch to the main flow of the Fraser. Here is the one pic I managed to take while not worrying about someone slamming into us. I did however see 3 boats collide. In this river, there are really no rules of etiquette, it's all about getting your fish and getting out of there. The guy I went with said that the only rule is to not hit anyone with your boat. Guys low holed other boats all day long. It is seriously the biggest joke I have ever seen. After about 15-20 minutes I felt mentally exhausted due to the mayhem.This picture doesn't really tell the whole story. Needless to say, I will NEVER, (yes NEVER) be going back.
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oh, one last thing....
you see the fog in the pic???
that isn't fog, that's boat exhaust from the overwhelming amount of boats in the area.
Like I said, that pic doesn't tell the whole story, that pic was taken from shore after I asked for a break, we went to shore.
The hatchery has changed it's outflow to an area up stream and it is the closest thing that I can imagine to fishing pandemonium. The lower portion of the river that used to be fished heavily over the years has pretty well gone by the wayside. We went down to have a look at it and it was literally a ghost town. Not another boat in sight. All of the guides focussed on the upper area near the hatchery. I did see one gentleman in a toon on anchor, just down from the outflow, but he was not having anyfun. Or maybe the one finger he kept holding up to everyone waking him out was his way of saying he had one fish??
We were in a boat amongst easily 150 other boats in an area the width of Vedder Canal and probably as long as from Island 22 launch to the main flow of the Fraser. Here is the one pic I managed to take while not worrying about someone slamming into us. I did however see 3 boats collide. In this river, there are really no rules of etiquette, it's all about getting your fish and getting out of there. The guy I went with said that the only rule is to not hit anyone with your boat. Guys low holed other boats all day long. It is seriously the biggest joke I have ever seen. After about 15-20 minutes I felt mentally exhausted due to the mayhem.This picture doesn't really tell the whole story. Needless to say, I will NEVER, (yes NEVER) be going back.
oh, one last thing....
you see the fog in the pic???
that isn't fog, that's boat exhaust from the overwhelming amount of boats in the area.
Like I said, that pic doesn't tell the whole story, that pic was taken from shore after I asked for a break, we went to shore.
