Anybody actually report or file a complaint about all the crud (white alge) in the water that seems to be from the hatchery. I thought it would go away after a couple weeks, but it is just getting worse.

Is this normal? I don't fish the cow much, so I might be over reacting. It just seems strange, and probably caused by the hatchery or something.

SA

Don't fish the Cow. That water is pure poison.
The 18 pounder I saw at the barrier fish seperator looked really sick as well.

It isn't anything caused by the hatchery. If you stop along the bank and look down in the shallows you can see the huge blooms of algae covering the rocks. Then when you combine that algae with all of the cottonwood seed filtering into the river, you get a really nasty combination of crud that makes it very difficult to fish. Last year it was still in the river into mid August. There's nothing you can do about it, I think this year is worse than last because of all the early sunny weather we had in April and March, really gave the crap a good head start.

Luke,
If it isnt anything caused by the hatchery than why is basically non-existent above the hatchery?
Doesn't the algae feed off the junk released from the hatchery ?

RL

I see that they raised the flow to 5000 cfs on Monday. has that effected the mess?

The white goo was particularly bad this week with the water up.. My gvote goes to the hatchery causing the problem ..

This junk is attached to the rocks in certain sections of the river. It grows in areas conducive to algae, shallow areas where sunlight can get to the bottom easily and where the current isn't too fast. The further you go upriver the more shaded the water gets with the higher bluffs. If it was the hatchery, what would they be releasing that looks like algae and cotonwood seed? Why would it be attaching itself to rocks downriver as far as Castle Rock? If they were somehow dumping this crap in the water, would they really have enough material to keep it flowing in the river all the way into August? It seems like it would flush out in a couple weeks if it was only coming from one point in the river. Has anyone bothered to call the hatchery and ask them about it? Whatever it is, it's organic and isn't toxic, it just is a pain in the butt.

If it is from the hatchery they must be piping it down about a mile, because that's about where it is abundant enough to screw up your line and bait.

Boy I sure miss CFM. I'm sure he could enlighten us :-)

Does anybody have access to a lab that can analyze a clump of the stuff? If we really knew where it was coming from we could try to solve the problem source.

Ya but it would have taken 16 pages to get to the point :p

I haven't seen the stuff but it sounds like a type of algae. If so, it's probably not coming from the hatchery directly. The nutrients released from a hatchery can cause algae growth downstream, particularly if the water is clear and/or warm. I'm not sure if this is occurring on the Cowlitz but it sounds suspicious. WDFW/Tacoma Power could be cited if they've gone over their NPDES (discharge) limit for nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus).

But this is all speculation on my part.

Luke I see what you're saying but there are area's like that upstream of the hatchery (the tailout above ethel bar comes to mind) that meet the criteria but yet are void of said "cow snot"
Cohoangler's post is what I was thinking as well....yeah its algae but something seems to be feeding it and the hatchery seems to be the obvious culprit.

RL

Fished the river yesterday the cottonwood was not to bad but it's run at 5000cfs make a big diffrents.Was at Barrier Dam doing test on boat motor pull some plugs and guess what cottonwood not much just small amounts.My point here is that the Cow is lined with cottonwood there is no real timber on the river. On lake Mayfield the shorline is all COTTOWOOD !!!!!!. Pure poision if it was I been dead along time ago. This post has been up before and still no scientific fact that it's not COTTOWOOD show me the facts that it's not and this will all be cleared up once and for all. Remember this is just my two scent

I've seen the same stuff in the water on the queets and the hoh where there is no hatchery. It may be worse below Blue creek because of the rise in water level and jet pumps blowing this stuff loose from rocks that were in water shallow enough that people were not travelling there the last couple weeks while this stuff was growing. More traffic below blue creek equals more crud in the river.

A couple years ago on the Kenai the white algae crap was so bad you could hardly fish. Every time you brought your line up it looked like toilet paper had accumulated on your gear. No hatchery on the Kenai. This is not a hatchery born issue. It's nature guys. Right conditions for a big algae bloom.