Researchers in the lower Cowlitz River checked their bag net on Tuesday and found 16 smelt in it.
Field staff also observed five seals in the river and a few seagulls.
Smelt in the lower Columbia River is not particularly unusual, but this is early for even a pilot run in the Cowlitz.
Sport and commercial dipping is not allowed.
Coho continue to provide action in the Cowlitz, in the Klickitat and at the mouth of the Klickitat, but those fisheries can be expected to wane.
Twenty-four winter steelhead showed up last week at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Mid-Columbia — Klickitat River mouth, 26 boaters with 38 adult coho kept. (WDFW)
John Day backwater, 15 boats with six steelhead kept and eight released. (ODFW)
Cowlitz — Eighteen boaters with 13 adult coho kept plus one adult coho and one cutthroat trout released; 128 bank rods with 33 adult coho, one jack coho and two steelhead kept plus seven adult coho released. (WDFW)
