Cowlitz River

Welcome to the Cowlitz River website. Cowlitz River fishing guides and river levels and conditions as well as popular links will be listed here. If you have ever wanted to catch Salmon on the Cowlitz river, this is the place to start. Cowlitz river Salmon fishing is good.

Boats anchor in the deep water of the Columbia River and it's a good spot to catch fall Chinook Salmon. Hoglines often extend downstream to below the Longview bridge to Rainier, Oregon. The Cowlitz River meets the Columbia in Carrolls Channel and it's where Steelhead, Chinook Salmon and Coho Salmon are caught. Carrolls Channel is the part of the Columbia River between the Washington shore and Cottonwood Island. This area near the mouth of the Cowlitz River is great for fishing into October.

The Cowlitz is a very popular Coho Salmon fishery and it offers Chinook Salmon fishing further downstream of Woodland, Washington.

Cowlitz River Fishing Report

Cowlitz Summer Steelhead - The summers runs were late as has been the case for most of the species this year. The unseasonably high runoff was partly to blame. However, last week we did see good numbers of fish in the river and we boated 6 fish on Wednesday and 8 on Thursday of last week. We should see good opportunities for summer steelhead now through mid August.

Columbia River Chinook - Projections for the Columbia river system Chinook salmon returns are excellent, over 800,000 returning. The season opens Aug. 1 but the fish will be in better numbers toward the end of the month. I will start fishing in the Columbia for the fall Chinook on or about Aug. 20th. We will move into the Cowlitz about Labor Day depending on the fish.

Cowlitz River Salmon - Again good projections for the return of both Chinook and silvers. The WDFW has already increased the catch limit for Coho Salmon to six fish per person. The day catch limits could include up to two adult Chinook and four adult Coho. The Chinook will be in the system from the end of August through September with mid September possibly being the peak. Coho Salmon will start showing in late September in numbers and be available through October.

thanks to Greenwater Guide Service for the Cowlitz River fishing report.