Southwest Washington Fishing Reports
2002 Report Archive
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WDFW Sport Sampling Results for January 15-21, 2002
Sport Sampling Summaries - PDF Format

Salmon/Steelhead

• Cowlitz River - Still pretty good fishing from the bank near Blue Creek where anglers averaged better than a steelhead per rod last week, counting fish released. Starting to see more dark fish and a few more recycled fish in the harvest. There is still a small number of real bright fish being caught near the mouth of Blue Creek. However, if you fish from the bank at Blue Creek, its crowded and you need to bring your own rock or log to stand on.
  Flows below Mayfield Dam were 14,000 cfs this morning.
• Last week creel checks:
  • Barrier Dam bank - 30 anglers with 1 wild winter steelhead released.
  • Barrier Dam boat - 2 anglers with no catch.
  • Blue Creek bank - 134 anglers with 119 winter steelhead kept and 26 released.
  • Blue Creek boat - 19 with no catch.
  • Mission Bar - 11 anglers with no catch.
• Lewis River - Last week, 19 bank anglers kept 6 winter steelhead and released 3 others. 8 boat anglers kept 2 winter steelhead. Flows below Merwin Dam were 8,940 cfs this morning.
• Bonneville, The Dalles, and John Day pools - Boat anglers in The Dalles Pool and bank anglers in John Day Pool were catching some summer-run steelhead last week. No salmonid effort was found in Bonneville Pool.
  

Sturgeon

• Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam - No report.
• Bonneville, The Dalles, and John Day pools - Bank anglers in Bonneville and The Dalles pools caught a few legals last week.
  Otherwise effort and catches were generally light.
  

Walleye and Bass and other warm water fish

• Bonneville, The Dalles, and John Day pools - No in-sample effort for either bass or walleye were found in any of the pools last week.
  

Trout

• Recent releases of ½ pound rainbows:
  • Little Ash Lake near Stevenson - 1,000
  • Northwestern Lake near Underwood - 3,400
  • Lacamas Lake near Camas - 5,000
  • Lake Sacajawea in Longview - 1,700
  • Battle Ground Lake - 7,00

Smelt

• Cowlitz River - Smelt present from Longview up to Castle Rock. Generally 1-3 pounds per dip, limits (10 pounds) in 10 to 30 minutes. Mixture of sexes (majority males) and a range of sizes.
• Fishery is open Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 6 AM to 10 PM each day. No license is required