In the month of September most of boats are on the way between the Cowlitz mouth and the Longview Bridge in Columbia River. Not all stretches of the Columbia River produce salmon and steelhead for anglers equally. There are portions — like the Camas-Troutdale area — that produce chinook and steelhead at much slower rates than most other parts of the lower river.
Joe Hymer of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said there are six full-time samplers and nine temporaries working this summer and fall just on the north side of the lower Columbia. He informed that the river between Bonneville Dam and Tongue Point is divided into 10 sections for sampling purposes. The Columbian has examined the sport catch data compiled by the two states trying to determine — statistically, not just back of the boat talk — which areas of the river fish best in August and September.
Official figure shows that August is a steelhead month. Steelhead stacked up just downstream of Bonneville Dam provides the best fishing. The plume of cool water at the mouth of the Cowlitz River is good, as are the beaches on the Washington side. In 2009, Oregon bank anglers at Bonneville caught 56 fish (88 percent steelhead) per 100 trips. They did even better in 2010, at 65 fish (94 percent steelhead) per 100 trips.
Everyone knows that September is a chinook month. Steelhead catches plummet and the mouth of the Cowlitz is the place to be during September, and it seems everybody is there most days. The bi-state data also shows fall chinook fishing is good in the Cathlamet area (west tip of Wallace Island to west tip of Puget Island) in September.
