Northwest Fishing Reports

Why does Tacoma Power raise the flow rate from 6600 to 8400 in 1 day when there is no rain? It sucks b/c you cant fish next to the dam

They always let water out on Mondays for fish reasons. Something to do with returning smolt or something. Fished the Cowlitz yesterday and it was not good fishing, that change turns off the bite like no other. Lots of fish in the system, they just don't care about anything.

but they just raised it today to 8400 for no reason?

Really sucks when you drive 2 hours to fish there and they raise the water during your drive over.

I prefer it when is higher, the fish bite a lot better when the water is rising rather than dropping there, that's just what I learned. bobber and eggs next to the beach.

It's not as good as it is around 4-5 k, that's when it's perfect. It really blows out the main river, which is what I drifted. Got down there and the bite was dead, unlike last week when it was phenomenal. Meh, what're you going to do?

yes but give us a reason why it's going up or advance notice

Jhuynh2 wrote:yes but give us a reason why it's going up or advance notice

I believe there are river forecast sites that let you know when they are going to raise it, they might be doing that if they are expecting a lot of rain.
I personally like fishing barrier when it is flowing 7-9k or atleast for steelhead because personally I think it sucks when it is like 2-5k

Jhuynh2 wrote:yes but give us a reason why it's going up or advance notice

Here's your reason.

http://www.cowlitzfish.net/FTC_Docs/FHM ... 092513.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is the answer to some of the same questions from the meeting with TPU back in May

9. Water flows fluctuating wildly below Mayfield Dam. Worst flow fluctuations ever
are happening this year.

The decision to change Mayfield discharge is made by carefully balancing a number of factors, including: downstream flow and ramping requirements, elevation restrictions on Mayfield reservoir, coordinated dispatch of Tacoma’s other power resources, and local and regional power needs. These factors have been in effect for years. One recent change that impacts local and regional power needs is the development and integration of a large number of wind generators. In the last 5 years over 7,000 MW of wind generation has been built in the Pacific Northwest. Wind generation is very volatile and uncertain. When output from the wind generators increases or decreases, the regional demand of power from other resources changes in response.

10. Need advance notice of expected flows in order to know when to go to Cowlitz to
fish.

Tacoma Power describes our Mayfield discharge plan for the week every Monday on the Fish Line and in the Cowlitz Fish Report. Unfortunately, because of the factors listed above our plans can change with little to no advance notice.