Guided Winter Steelhead Fishing on the Columbia, Cowlitz and Chehalis Rivers
ColumbiaRiverFishingGuide@gmail.com

The winter season offers opportunities for record sized steelhead that justify the extra layer of clothing. Wild steelhead are pound for pound the hardest fighters and will often take long fast runs that race the heart and warm the body. Early winter steelhead, which consist mostly of hatchery returns, begin to show in late November on the Cowlitz, and other local rivers.

Late February through early April brings the largest hatchery returns to the Cowlitz, with Washington state catch records showing over 2000 fish taken in the month of March alone. The Chehalis and Satsop during February and March produce the largest wild “Photo-mount Wall Hangers” of the year, some exceeding 25 pounds.