Cowlitz provides a memorable fishing trip

By Chester Allen | The Olympian • Published October 10, 2008

COWLITZ RIVER - This big, sprawling river offers red-hot fishing and plenty of solitude every fall.

Seriously.

The Cowlitz is a pretty lonely place - if you steer clear of the elbow-to-elbow lineups at Blue Creek and the Barrier Dam - and the fishing for summer steelhead, sea-run cutthroat trout and coho salmon is terrific through this month and into November.

Most of this big river is left to the herons, the fish - and anglers willing to strike out on their own.

A boat is the best way to find peace, quiet - and fish - on this big river, but anglers willing to pore over maps and do a little walking will find good fishing away from the crowds.

Being alone is a good thing, especially on a day where the fish are biting - but LANDING one becomes tougher than driving to Seattle on a Friday evening.

That's what happened to me Thursday morning.

I coaxed the station wagon to the river, walked a ways to a favorite stretch - where a big riffle bounces around a corner and runs into a deep run.

My usual fall rig of a big, black wooly bugger fly and a small dropper - an egg fly, Lightning Bug or Copper John - dangled from the leader. Casting two weighted flies is inviting catastrophe into your life, but a few tangles are worth the chance of hooking a summer steelhead while loafing along fishing for sea-run cutthroat trout.

The river looked great - clear, with a touch of green in the deep dropoffs. I love drifting my flies over the shallow, rocky riffles and shallow gravel bars - and then letting them drop into the greeny deeps where the eager cutts - and a few snappy steelhead - lurk.

One riffle or good gravel bar can kick out lots of cutts, which are back in the river after spending most of the past year swimming around in the Columbia River estuary.

A Cowlitz gravel bar in fall is a great place for a beginner or young angler to catch fish, and there's a good chance of lucking into a steelhead or even a coho salmon - especially if you're casting a spinner.

I was casting flies - for the simple pleasure of seeing the line unroll over the river and feeling a striking fish snatch the line out of my hand.