Directions to the Barrier Dam on the Cowlitz

[ABL]

How do you get there? Is the bite still on?

[scooby]

I-5 North From either Portland or Longview depending upon where you cross over to the evergreen state. Take Highway 12 exit and head East. Go about 10 minutes or so until you get to the town of Salkum. When you come down the hill into Salkum you will see the signs to Barrier Dam on the right. Turn right and follow downv that road down.

If you come to the bridge that crosses Lake Mayfield (big lake cement bridge) you have gone too far.

I can't tell you how the fishing has been the last few days, but I heard it was real good a week or so ago.

good luck -

scooby

[This message has been edited by scooby (edited 11-10-2000).]

I can. I fished there with Jeff Whitehead (Jeffhead) today. Dam releases raised the water up to 7 or 8000 cfs and shut the bite off! We anchored with half a dozen boats below the ramp among lots of rolling fish. Very few hooked. Jeff caught a nice silver jack. We tried 4 egg cures and many different plugs and spinners and scent combos but couldn't unlock their jaws. There were about 50 bankies shoulder to shoulder above the ramp, with about a dozen of them fishing. The rest of them were blatantly attempting to snag fish only! Only saw about 4 or 5 hooked out of all those guys on hords of rolling fish. After lunch we picked up and boondogged down river for awhile. A couple guide boats down there had only 2 jacks all day. Jeff and his Dad fished it the same way about a week ago and took 7 nice silvers home and lost some others. It should pick back up as the water drops back down. I can't complain about hitting an off day because I've been up there on some good days this fall.

[Jeffhead]

Another fun day of fishing with RT. Like he said the bite was definatly off from what it has been the past couple of weeks. TPU raised the level of the river on both Wednesday and Thursday, just like having a big rain storm for 2 days. After the river has stabilized for a couple of days they will get back on the bite, you'll like with any river have to figure out where they are holding. I wouldn't give up on it yet though, there are still a lot of fish in the river.
Good luck and tight lines, Jeff

[smoky]

Fished the Cowlitz on Saturday right at the Damn. Absolute combat fishing in way too much water. There were alot of fish rolling, not as many caught as you would think based on the number of fish.

The guys who were fishing right on the painted line were doing the best. If you dont have the kahuna's to muscle in there, wade out into the river as far as you can without drowning. Cast out as far as you can past the middle of the river. Guys were catching on red, orange corkies, 1.5oz lead.

If you do fish in the softer pool near the line use any spinner with a silver or gold blade.

After 8 hours of fishing up to my neck in white water, I walked over to the line. One of the locals there welcomed me to wedge in.

Two fish landed back to back on a #3 Vibrax with orange bell,brass blade. Both hens not too dark.

All day I saw a variety of colors ranging from bright to too dark.