A man walks with an empty net up the side of a hill at the Castle Rock boat launch in 2017.
Following a successful opening on Valentine’s Day, the Cowlitz River will open for another half-day smelt dip next week. That opening, set for Feb. 26 from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m., was announced by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife earlier this week.
Dip netters will be able to try their luck from the Highway 432 bridge near the mouth of the river up to the Al Helenberg Memorial Boat Ramp in Castle Rock.
While this will be the second smelt opportunity on the Cowlitz in 2020 this is the first year since 2017 that any recreational smelt dipping has been allowed at all. The previous opening provided a writhing ration of small fish for those who could make it to the river on a weekday that was also reserved for lovers. According to WDFW stats, approximately 35,000 pounds of smelt, or 400,000 fish, were pulled from the river during that five-hour opening.
No fishing license is required in order to harvest smelt but individuals are limited to ten pounds of fish per day. For the uninitiated, ten pounds of smelt is equivalent to about a quarter of a five-gallon bucket. During the Valentine’s Day dip WDFW police confiscated around 500 pounds of smelt from dippers who exceeded the personal limit.
Columbia River smelt, also referred to as Eulachon, have been listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act since 2010.
“We work with our federal partners to ensure that opening any fishery for an ESA-listed species won’t affect our ability to meet conservation goals,” said Laura Heironimus, the smelt, sturgeon, and lamprey lead for WDFW, in a press release. “We’re pleased to see the run is strong enough to support these recreational fisheries this year, and we want to make sure we can continue to offer this fishery in the future.”
