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left my house at about noon to go down and fish by the mouth of the cowlitz. had camp set up by 3 at the paradise point state park. Me and my fishing partner were bored so we went to rainier,oregon to launch. We got the boat in the water and as mt partner was walking down he ran into a friend who was getting off of a guides boat. The acquaintance did not get a fish and asked if we had room on my boat , I don't mind ( plus this was my first time fishing the mouth of the cowlitz using wobblers) if he comes so off we go. The current was pretty slow ,but we talked and fished until 7:30 p.m. before we called it quits. did not get a bite ,but did have salmon passing by hitting our lines. Woke up at 3:45 on wed. morning and was gone by 4:15 to go join the royal fleet. was able to get a pretty good sized king into the boat , lost another before the current really slowed down and my motion sickness kicked in. We loaded the boat and went to bob's sporting goods to spend 70$ on a couple new wobblers. While we were loading the boat we talked to an older guy who had caught 4 the day before and he told us how he was rigging up ( giant tip) . Went back to camp even more determined that the next day would reap rewards. Woke up on thursday at 3AM left bt 330 in the water by 430 to rejoin the armada Had 1 that straightened the ring on a brand new clancy's wobbler ( it was the ring that connected the hook to the wobbler) did get another early on that was about 12-14 lbs. Went back to camp tired as crap so went to sleep and woke up at 4 the next morning. We launched again to rejoin her majesties royal fleet. Seen a boat in the line upriver from us that pulled 7 out , we only had 1 hookup and lost it by the boat (barbless hooks). We both agree that we are to close to the washington shore , so we mark a waypoint out in 55 ft. of water where we was able to see some fish on my new garmin 741xs ( this fishfinder does NOT lie). We go back to camp and go back to sleep to wake up at 4 once again to redo what we have been doing all the previous days . I hook into an awesome fish and when i go to start the motor to get away from the armada so i can fight the fish my motor barely turns over (*#$& my battery is dead) I end up losing the fish and get a really expensive ticket from the columbia county sheriff"s office for not having my boat registration and not having a charged battery. I am DONE at this point!!! In the morning we head back home , we are both a little unhappy with the way it all turned out. Oh yeah iforgot to mention the spring in the recoil of my kicker that last morning broke and the rope would not recoil on my honda kicker. I had fun ,but it always could have been a little better.

outtheresomewhere

9/5/2016 2:32:00 PM

I hope the lord high sheriff towed you in for the price of the ticket. Also, I've been carrying my boat registration in my P/U,
but learning from you I'll keep it in the boat from now on - thanks for the report and sure sorry for the less than favorable results
for the amount of time you put in going after them. And a ticket for not having a charged battery, you've got to be kidding - I'd
sure like to know where that appears in the rule book - at 77 I suffer from perpetual low battery.

BARCHASER10

9/5/2016 3:17:00 PM

You did OK. If you go to the WDFW website and go to Southwest Washington Fishing Reports you will get the fish checker ramp checks. Go to the bottom and there is a chart and go to the right and there you will see the boat counts and success by area (Kalama, Longview etc.). For week ended 8/29, on a per rod basis the success rate was 10-15%. So you did about the norm. You had some action anyway. Sorry about the ticket.

mikep

9/5/2016 4:37:00 PM

The mouth of the Cowlitz river is in Cowlitz county Washington and, as you probably know, there is a public boat launch on the west side of the Cowlitz river just north of the bridge (Pioneer bridge I think). There is a shallow sand bar area near that boat launch but it is my understanding boats can launch there. The Northwest Wild Country and Outdoor GPS TV programs have had lots of discussions about Columbia river salmon fishing.

Billm

9/6/2016 10:51:00 PM

Thanks for the report and the heads up about the registration. I have not had the opportunity to get down there yet, but need to soon. What was the big hint the guy gave you abut rigging up? Thanks for any help.

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