Cowlitz River, Washington
Cowlitz Photo Journal
The Cowlitz River in southwest Washington is the states largest producer of hatchery steelhead. Because of its large runs, there are fish arriving almost all year long. With tens of thousands of steelhead entering this river each year, this is the place to nail a steelhead on the fly. Another reason anglers flock to the "Cow", is because of the numbers of coho salmon that arrive in the river from October through December.
The Cowlitz gets a bad rap as being a gear anglers haunt, and it is, but there are some great runs and pools to fish where most gear anglers are not to be found. From Barrier Dam down, the river winds through tall timber and lush landscapes on its way to the trout hatchery at Blue Creek. 
Although winters in Washington can be dreary with gray skies and horizantal rain, the summers can be the exact opposite with blue bird skies and very warm temperatures. On these days choose to swing traditional fly patterns to summer steelhead or toss small dry flies and streamers to the enormous number of cutthroat trout that reside in the river as well.
We highly recommend the use of spey rods on this and all the Puget Sound rivers. We have a full line of them for you to use from Winston, Scott and Sage and our guides are accomplished spey casters and instructors more than happy to teach you this unique style of fly fishing.
Additional photos from the Cowlitz River
Shuttle Service: Trudy 360-864-2277 or Matt 360-864-2388
Menu options for full day trips -- Lunch
Clothing and equipment checklist -- Summer, Winter
Spey Line Specifications
Cancellation Policy
Pricing:
| $495.00 |
Full
day float trip for 1 or 2 anglers |
| Tax Not Included |
Demo
gear is available for all our trout and steelhead trips. |
Rods: Spey Rods 7-10wt. with multi tip lines, single handed rods 7-9 wt. with floating and shooting head lines or multi tip lines for steelhead and coho. 3-6 wt. with floating lines for trout.
Flies: Bunny Leeches, Egg Sucking Leeches, Flatwing General Practitioners, Mega Moal, Skagit Minnows, Morrish's Trailer Trash, River Rats, Fergus Rock Star, Skunks, Purple Perils, Skykomish Sunrises for steelhead. Mickey Finns, spiders, reverse spiders, orange soft hackles, hares ears, x-caddis, baetis/bwo adult patterns, stone fly nymphs, lightning bugs, rolled muddlers, woolly buggers for SRC's, pink and chartreuse flies for the springers and coho.
Sizes: 4-2/0 for steelhead and salmon flies, 14-18 dry and nymph patterns, 2-6 for streamers and 4-10 for stonefly nymphs for trout.
Species |
Season |
| Winter Steelhead |
Novermber - March |
| Summer
Steelhead |
June -
October |
| Coho(Silver) Salmon |
October - December |
| Cutthroat Trout |
June- November |
In our clients' words...
In the press...
Northwest Fly Fishing Article, March/April 2007
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