Can't argure with that. A-hole bankies usually don't go up and down in front of you all day.

So THAT'S where the Mary Ellen drift got its name, huh? Well, it's kinda sad that she was chased off the drift named after her by all the goons down there. Sorry to hear that.

Well, good luck down there, Luke. Don't let the a-holes get to you.

Thanks Dan, good luck too.

good luck with the a-holes luke. where is the mary ellan drift?

the mary ellen drift is right below blue creek on the right hand side as your going down the river.


SKeets

Luke,
Very interesting post, always wondered how that spot got its name. As for the "morons with money" thing, Im an E5 in the USAF, and I can assure you, not all of us "morons" who run sleds on the Cowlitz have money. Alot of us are hard working folks who go into debt just to have a toy or two. Sleds are often looked at negatively on any river, but if there is one where their presence should be expected, its the Cowlitz.
I fish this river quite often, from the boat and the bank, plenty of A holes on both sides...but please dont group ALL sled runners as A holes.

Tight Lines
RL

Tight Lines
RL

There will always be a love hate relationship between boats and bankers. They love ya when you take them out in the boat and hate you when they're stuck on the bank. I don't know a lot of guys that paid cash for their boats so I don't think it's a rich thing. In fact I know it ain't. Oh well.

Yes, there are undesirable fishermen on the bank as well as in the boats. I've fished around both of them. It just gets me riled up sometimes. There have been several times that boaters have been very cordial about offering to take me out when I've got a strong fish on. I'm very thankful for that. It's a very small percentage that actually are ruthless in their pursuit of the elusive steelhead. I fish by myself most of the time and most guys in the boats ask how far out I am fishing and they pull up and wait till they drift down river to cast out. This last weekend I lost a fish right under the bluffs in my grandma's old fishing hole and I had some guys cast right into me after that. It really irritated me, but later in the day I went downriver and caught a nice winter run with my uncle. So it ended up all-right. Good luck to everyone in their fishing expeditions going into the new year. As ole Andy up at his tackle store used to say, "Go out and rip some lip!!"

Oh great, Skeets; thanks for giving away my zipper!!

glowballed the cowlitz last night "hookers at the point" i hooked 4 landing 1, my buddy david hooked 2 landing 1, pretty much everyone glowballing last night landed, or hooked fish. It was fun, seems that the winters are showing as all the fish i saw were chromers


so "cowlitz" i think the fish are coming my friend, oh yes

FishinSinsation,

I hope that you are right…but you are still months behind the clock!

But like I have said earlier….Keep dreaming!

A couple of fish for a few guys a day (or night) at that "death trap" (the point on Blue Creek) is not worth it for most fishermen! It is a fishery for the young, the dumb and the reckless, when you are risking your life for a fish when you are fishing on that point!

Don't forget that fishermen have already died there because there was no place for them to go when the cliff behind them dumps onto them!

Did you even know what the 1997 Cowlitz Complex Juvenile Fish Production and Distribution Overview for the Cowlitz steelhead were?

They were;

Early Winter (635,000 smolts)
Late Winter (85,000 smolts)
Summer (430,000 smolts)

So it's time now for Mr. "Salmo G." to tell us what he believes the smolt releases were that would have contributed this years returns! Salmo has a hell of a lot more information available then I do to get that answer! The heats on you now Salmo!!

Happy New Year all!!

Cowlitzfisherman

there are assholes on darn near every river aren't there? but the cow is full of them including me

Just returned from the Cowlitz...they are big and they are bright. I'll pick mine up at another time, didn't have my cooler with me!

New Year's Day report from the creek: It was slow for the day time anglers. We saw a few caught, only saw one bright winter fish, otherwise they looked like summerruns to me. But it was nice to be out. Because of the low water there was plenty of room to fish, but I wasn't venturing to the Clay banks area. I didn't like the idea of hugging that cliffside, holding on to a rope and hoping I didn't fall in!

Man i dont get the logic you guys have: broke jetsledder=nice guy and rich jetsledder=asshole?
I fish with a family friend who has been sledding that river since the 80's, yeah he's loaded and works his butt of for every dime he has. He probably runs the nicest setup on the river, but he's no asshole. I've been with him and seen other sled drivers do some dumb stuff like drifting into us while were obviously pulling plugs well down river from the crowd at the creek, or casting into bank fishermen, even boats running on top of each other, etc etc. And I dont think ones economical status had anything to do with those accidents, a jackass is a jackass no matter how much is pockets are weighted down. I've also seen dumb bank fishermen wade out into the deep water well beyond other waders from the inside of the blue creek turn and ***** at us every time we go buy, like we have any place to go when he's in the middle of the river. I fish the bank like the rest of you at blue creek when I'm not in his sled so dont think I dont know the other side. Just remember its everyones river and we all want the same thing from it, so just get along.
waterboy

Hear Hear!

wb600,
Dont know if that was aimed at me, but I simply meant not to assume that ALL sled jocks are morons (or aholes) nor that ALL sled jocks have money. Nothing more nothing less.
More power to you if you got a few bucks, nothing wrong with that

RL

Hit the Cowlitz bliz on Sunday and Monday, slow fishing, but the fish are large, got 3 for my efforts, two at 33 inches, one at 36 inches. Observation: the low water makes the fish spooked by all the sleds, fishing is good when they all run out of gas....go figure [

Nice Fish!

What fin do they clip on the hachery fish?


herm

The adipost I believe.

Fish Doctor, did you get those on the bar across from Blue Creek? Looks like it from the picture.

Sorry Mike,
these were not caught there, we stopped on this bank to clean them, its down river a ways. The fish are adipose clipped, not 100% clipped but there is a scar on both, believe me, if those were unclipped then they would still be swimming, I have no problem cleaning out hatchery fish but natives are a different story.