Coho fishing has been good in the Cowlitz and North Fork of the Lewis rivers, now we wait to see how much the rain affects the bite. Coho catches off the mouth of tributaries like the Cowlitz and Klickitat have persisted well this month, but inevitably will start waning.
As nutty as this may seem, there were still more than 30 boats on Saturday fishing at Buoy 10. The states have ended their angler sampling program in the estuary, so there’s no report on success rates. But it’s unlikely that many boats would be out if the catch had not been decent.
Swift Reservoir still is producing 10-fish limits of rainbow trout, but the bite has slowed from two weeks ago. It takes three to four hours to get a limit now.
The reservoir on Wednesday was 17 feet below full pull at Swift. Most boats can launch to about 25 feet below full pull. However, there’s not a lot of staging space on the dock at this water elevation.
Angler sampling by the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Tongue Point to Portland, 26 boaters with one adult chinook and six adult coho kept. (ODFW)
Longview, two boaters and 14 bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Cowlitz River mouth, 86 boaters with two adult chinook and 18 coho kept plus four coho released. (WDFW)
Kalama, 49 bank rods with six adult chinook and five coho kept; nine boaters with two adult chinook and one coho kept plus one coho released. (WDFW)
Woodland, eight boaters with one coho released. (WDFW)
Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 10 boaters with one adult chinook and three coho kept plus two coho released. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, four boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
Troutdale, Ore., 86 boaters with one adult fall chinook and 18 adult coho kept plus one adult coho released; two boaters with no walleye. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, 43 boaters with two adult chinook and six coho kept. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, 63 bank rods with six adult chinook, two jack chinook and 12 coho kept. (WDFW)
Columbia Gorge (downstream of Bonneville Dam), seven boaters with four adult chinook and one adult coho kept. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 76 boaters with seven adult chinook, one jack chinook, 44 adult coho and one jack coho kept plus eight adult chinook and two adult coho released.
John Day pool, 41 boats with two jack chinook and two steelhead kept plus 11 steelhead released. (ODFW)
Cowlitz — Eighty-four boat rods with 86 adult coho kept plus 36 adult coho and two jack chinook released; 112 bank rods with 67 adult coho, two jack coho, one steelhead and one adult chinook kept plus six adult chinook, one jack chinook, nine adult coho and two jack coho released. (WDFW)
Kalama — Twenty-nine bank rods with 13 adult and one jack coho kept plus one adult and one jack coho released; seven boaters with no catch. (WDFW)
Lewis — Thirty-four bank rods with one adult coho kept; 16 boat rods with one adult chinook, one adult coho and one jack coho kept. (WDFW)
North Fork Lewis — Twenty-one boaters with five adult chinook, one jack chinook, 10 adult coho and two jack coho kept plus five adult chinook, seven adult coho and 11 jack coho released; 130 bank rods with six adult chinook, 40 adult coho and three jack coho kept plus two adult chinook and 35 adult coho released. (WDFW)
Wind River — Three bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)
Drano Lake — Twenty-one boaters with one adult chinook and two adult coho kept; three bank rods with one adult coho kept. )WDFW)
Klickitat — Thirteen bank rods with three adult chinook and 11 adult coho kept. (WDFW)
Swift Reservoir — Two boaters with 20 rainbow trout kept and five small coho released.
