Posting for Saturday Nov 14th, 2014

Hi everyone. I fished the Cowlitz River by the Barrier Dam last Saturday and it was an overall great day. Got to the river early, squeezed into a spot, and line in the water about 5:30 am. Started off floating eggs under a 3/4 oz bobber, 3/4 oz connecter/swivel weight and tied an egg loop around my 2-0 hook.

The smelt were in tough and devouring my eggs pretty much every cast. Everyone around was lucky to get one good drift, maybe 2 drifts before you had to put more eggs on. Got old real fast... tried some sand shrimp- just the tail curled around the hook. (Bobber to leader - about 3.5feet to 5 feet varying depths and tried different rifts) added some spitshot about halfway down between my swivel/weight and the hook. Got my first hit with this sandshrimp/bobber combo. spit out my hook right at shore.

Tried the shrimp for an hour or more- switched between eggs/shrimp ... the shrimp def lasted longer.. I thought i could just wait out the smelt but they were bad. About 9 am switched to a purple/black jig (in the picture) and landed an older 'silver' if you could call it that haha - it was "pre-smoked" for me.... didn't need to put it in my smoker haha

Got a few more bobbers down with the purple jig (i believe 3/8 oz or 1/4oz). Bites slowed down and tried eggs again- no real luck; more smelt.

Started drift fishing pink cork and pink yarn- with egg loop and occasional eggs thrown in every 10th cast or so... the smelt were def taking their toll. Hit a nice bright female coho drifting eggs and it was a great fight. She came in with the hook in her nostril- leading her in like my pittbull by the nose. That came right before noon.

A few more hookups/lost fish and a few more snags but nothing else landed. I heard Cowlitz + barrier dam was great from a co-worker of mine and it seemed it would have been nice if the smelt weren't there. Overall nice first day there... im sure ill be back again when i have another day off. I hear its always this crowded but i was surrounded by good peoples - older guy Mike, who has been fishing at that same spot i stood - as he claimed for the last 29 years .... not 30 years though! he was very exact about that... very interesting guy and also to my right, Richard. Both older guys and they helped me out a bunch- I've fished puyallup and green for pinks and silvers before but my first time here - met some nice people.

Hope this post helps! I hear the B run is just starting to come in so get out to the Cowlitz if you can brave the crowd. Even on that slow day most people i saw caught at least one- very few with 2ea and only one guy that had 3-4 landed all day. On a regular, non-smelt day... im sure y'all will do great with eggs, twitching jig, or sandshrimp under a bobber. or corky/yarn and eggs drifting about 1/2 oz maybe a bit more in pencil lead.

Good luck guys! and tell me how it is still!

Best,

Linh

Bay wolf

11/22/2014 9:28:00 AM

Great report!

gregsalmon

11/22/2014 11:53:00 AM

Glad to hear the smelt are showing up early! Maybe we will get a season this year!

linh.uw

11/22/2014 8:09:00 PM

Thanks! @Bay Wolf.

@gregsalmon - haha please catch tons of smelt this year. You can have my share!

Brat Bonker

11/22/2014 8:54:00 PM

are they smelt or smolts? like baby salmon because when I was there last they had started releasing the baby king salmon smolt from the slide of water at the dam making fishing eggs impossible

linh.uw

11/25/2014 8:42:00 PM

I believe they were SMELT. They didn't swim with their entire body with long, flowing strokes of the tail. They looked like a flatter/fatter type of herring to me.

@Brat Bonker- When did they release the Smolt? I'm bringing cured table shrimp this weekend in case both the smelt/smolt are there... they should last a few more casts at least haha.

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