COWLITZ RIVER
Washington's Cowlitz River is the largest of the three Washington rivers near Portland that get spring chinook runs, and it gets the biggest return. It also is expected to get a strong enough return this year that it should avoid the closures.

Guide Lee Barkie knows the Cowlitz like few other guides, and has learned how to score in good years and bad. He knows that by May the springers will be spread through the Cowlitz from the mouth up to the Barrier Dam at the salmon hatchery. His approach is simple and consistent.

"I just start at the dam, and I work down from there," said Barkie. "By May, you have the whole river to fish because there will be springers in all the holes."

Barkie targets flats and shallow areas early in the morning, and shifts to the deeper holes once the fish stop moving later in the day.

You can use whatever you want to on the Cowlitz and catch some fish, but it is mainly a bait show. Barkie prefers to back-troll with divers and bait, either eggs, sand shrimp or sardines. He also likes to run plug-cut green-label herring.

"There are times when that's a deadly method," said Barkie. He runs his bait behind a jet diver with a 16- to 18-inch lead line and a 5-foot leader. He fishes different baits until he finds what the salmon want to hit that day.

"I like to run two lines with herring, and a couple lines with something else. Once I know what they want, I'll concentrate on that," he said.

Whatever bait he uses, he will dress it up with Pautzke's Krill scents. "The hatchery fish really like that stuff."

When the river turns cloudy, which the Cowlitz will do sometimes, Barkie will switch to flat-lining plugs, such as the M-2 Flatfish, which come in better colors for turbid water than the more popular Kwikfish, according to the guide.

Cowlitz bank-anglers have a few good choices on the river, including plenty of room at the Barrier Dam Campground. There are good spots for plunking as well as throwing bobber and bait, but Barkie warns folks from spending much time throwing spinners.

"You will catch far more fish on the Cowlitz if you fish with bait," he said.

For more information, call Barrier Dam Campground at (360) 985-2495. Lee Barkie is at (360) 304-0771.

LEWIS RIVER
Barkie also likes to fish the North Fork of the Lewis River, another fine springer river near Woodland, Wash. This river is smaller than the Cowlitz, and its run is not supposed to be as robust this year. Anglers will probably see some reduction in season or limits. The river closed to spring chinook fishing on May 17 last year.

There is an excellent troll fishery at the mouth of the river, where local fish mingle with other springers heading up the Columbia. The first week of May is usually the peak for this fishery, and by the second week, most of the fish are moving up the river.

Good spots to intercept them include the confluence of the East and North forks of the river.