I trolled this opener morning, glad we have an August opportunity to retain clipped steelhead as well.

I caught a pair of practice fish and sent them on their way. Man can those native steelhead hammer that spinner and make an initial run! No pics of these.

@Tenderoni77 - if you add the words “Official 2025 Fall Salmon Report” or similar to your thread title people will be able to find it easier.

Pretty clouds:

I did see about 4-5 salmon caught. The Columbia was 70F.

 

Thanks the the report Chris. Alway’s enjoy the updates and photo’s.
And yes, nothing quite like a summer steelhead attack!
Your sense and appreciation of natures delights are a pleasure to partake in.
I was sitting in the backyard today watching the clouds race by, all of a sudden they stopped, then a bit later started again. I told my wife and granddaughter to check it out however they missed out.
Take care and have a great summer/fallfishery.

 

I started earlier, and marked some fish out deep. Right in front of me a nice one was caught. This young lady made good work of clearing gear and netting the fish, and later running the kicker in congested fishing.

As I deployed gear something started messing with the spinner down deep. I applied thumb drag (not vice grip!) until I could engage the Lexa’s bail. Fish on! A frisky olive hued beast made some nice runs and came to bag. About 13-14 lbs. I set her free.

My son joined me and caught a jack.

I noticed what appeared to be a gillnet boat anchored or running gear perpindicular to the ships docked immediately below the Cowlitz.
Maybe they were just anchored and not corking all the fishermen above. I didn’t want to troll over either.

 

I started earlier, and marked some fish out deep. Right in front of me a nice one was caught. This young lady made good work of clearing gear and netting the fish, and later running the kicker in congested fishing.




View attachment 1070334

As I deployed gear something started messing with the spinner down deep. I applied thumb drag (not vice grip!) until I could engage the Lexa’s bail. Fish on! A frisky olive hued beast made some nice runs and came to bag. About 13-14 lbs. I set her free.

View attachment 1070336

My son joined me and caught a jack.

I noticed what appeared to be a gillnet boat anchored or running gear perpindicular to the ships docked immediately below the Cowlitz.
Maybe they were just anchored and not corking all the fishermen above. I didn’t want to troll over either.

View attachment 1070337

He is a longshoreman. We hire him to be our safety boat on lash jobs. We were lashing that pole ship at berth 6.

 

I hope to be at Warrior Rock on the 11th.
Good to hear things are already happening.

 

Is anyone going to be up in that area this Monday the 4th that wants another rod in the water?

 

Any reports as of today going tomorrow and wondering whats my best option.

 

Here's our one only bite from this morning. Tall boy for reference.

 

That thing looks heavy! Weight??

 

Is that a tule ? Pink around the fins with pronounced spotting ?

 

Meat cut bright red and the fish never turned bronze in the bag.

 

Thank you CCW for the detailed report! Finally getting a chance to head out this afternoon. Looking forward to it

 

Mouth of the cow, ~6 hours, didn't even see a net get grabbed.

 

 

This going to drive me nuts being over here in Ukraine watching you all have at em

 

Goes around comes around...you drove us nuts all spring...

 

Come back safe.

 

I actually belong to the “Cloud appreciation Society “ …. Pretty cool stuff.

We trolled last night uphill from 43 at about 6:30-7:00 pm and had two fish on. The second one was a BRUISER ! Unfortunately the newbie/older gal on the stick had trouble standing and maintaining tension in the whitecaps and it got away. Spinners were suspended to avoid some of the grass got the action.

LOTSA grass and weeds in the water; check gear every 10 min or risk wasting time or a whole pass etc.

Today - few boats out with the underwhelming rain. We trolled a few passes, then anchored, tried wobblers and caught up visiting for a while.
Yank yank !! Inside wobbler, a new one, got busy. Hanna did a great job on a feisty, bright fish that hit at low tide. 19 lbs.

We got all set up again and the same rod goes off. This time it was a deep steady pull here and there and line stripping, steady runs told me it was an oversize sturgeon. Wanting my new “hot” wobbler back we tried to fight it. We were never in control of that. At some point after a half an hour he just dove and rubbed it off. Tight Lexa 400 drag, 50 lb Ande leader and Okuma x Troll were negligible to him.

Leo had fun too.

 

You big tease, what's the new wobbler

 

Went out this afternoon to kill an hour or two. 15 minutes into the troll nailed what I figured was a Tule. It wouldn't swim off, so I kept the colored up thing. To my surprise it wasn't dog food. Must have been an old summer run nook! Cut as well as the bright chrome fish I landed sunday!

 

Today out of Cathlamet we went 1/1 with 2 rods. After several looong runs got her in the net. Mid twenties bright. Mexican hat skinny. Saw only 2 other boats the whole time. Back at it in the morning.

 

We’ve only seen 3 fish caught so far today.


Another 19 lb.

 

Fished mouth of the Cow today 0600-1100. 25-25 boats- most trolling. Saw 8 nets fly. At least 2 jacks landed, along with a few nooks. Nice day.

 

16 & 19 lb limit

Hard Rock Salmon video

 

Would you have still gotten the fish without the matching shirts? Couple gorgeous fish.

 

Went 1/1 this morning out of Cathlamet. Wind made trolling difficult. Weeds were a P.I.T.A. Worth it tho- got a nice bright 15iber. Water temp 68.7

 

Awesome!

 

Do you think a prop could get out of gearheart at low tide ? Gonna try fishing tomorrow afternoon.

 

24 lbs.

 

On Fire! Congrats

 

Nice fish ccw! This is your time and water. Congrats on the dial in!

 

Nice work CCW!

You getting them all on the hook, or some trolling too?

 

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