Luck and hard work align in success for smelt dippers

Published 12:45 pm Monday, February 23, 2026

LONGVIEW — Last Wednesday’s (Feb. 18) Cowlitz River recreational smelt dip fishing was cold, windy and overall fruitful — at least for the people who worked hard and were a little lucky.

Sea lion barks at Gerhart Gardens Park boat ramp marked the 8 a.m. start of this year’s first dip as a line of a few dozen fishers marched into the river with nets cast forward like bayonets.

Fears of another season without smelt were high after dippers came up empty-handed last year. State officials had cautioned that Wednesday may go the same way because the fish had not yet entered the Cowlitz by Tuesday morning.

“I don’t think we’re getting any,” 6-year-old Rex DeSoto called to his dad as the first wave of nets came up empty.

That quickly changed as dippers with waders — and a few hearty souls without — made their way a bit farther from shore.

One family of a father, son and grandfather from Brush Prairie pulled up a net with some of the day’s first fish only minutes later, and others quickly followed.

“Hey, look, I got more fish for everybody,” Rex said triumphantly about 20 minutes later as he splashed back to shore with a wriggling net. His family said they plan to smoke the fish. “Dad’s friend said they taste like candy,” Rex explained.

Other fishers, like 31-year-old Aaron Huang from Bothell, said they plan to fry their catch. He heard about the season opener on social media and came to the Longview boat launch after ChatGPT mentioned the site.

“This place was recommended because this is the first place the smelt come into the river,” he said.

Huang and his father, Shun, seemed to have found a prime spot; nearly every sentence the 31-year-old said was interrupted by him rushing to transfer a handful of fish his father had netted into a bucket on shore. His mother, Xu, cheered the pair from the shore.

Next to them, the family from Brush Prairie fared similarly well, as a man speaking Russian joked to them, “I got the big one! I’m pulling salmon, guys!” with his net raised from the water with a couple of small smelt.

Smelt in a bucket at Gerhart Gardens Park on Feb. 18 in Longview. (Photo by Henry Brannan/The Columbian)
The event brought together slices of the region that don’t often interact, with joking dippers stacked shoulder to shoulder speaking English, Spanish, Russian and Chinese.

Dippers said the good mood came from catching fish, the lack of rain, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife police mostly just watching from the top of the boat launch.

Mixed views on WDFW

But frustration over WDFW’s increasingly involved management of the fishery still bubbled out, with people criticizing the new license requirement and limited dip schedule.

Previously, Cowlitz River smelt was one of the last unregulated fisheries in the state, said Britton Ransford, WDFW regional spokesperson, and people could dip whenever the fish were running in the river.

One truck greeted people driving up to Gerhart Gardens with a spray-painted sign reading “F U WDFW” and “Where’s The Fish” with the W, T and F written considerably larger than the rest.

But others appreciated the agency’s management of the Endangered Species Act-listed threatened species.

“I also appreciate the government,” Huang said, “because they control and they maintain this river so we can have so many fish.”

Fred Smith, 78, managed to catch his share after wading a ways out into the sediment-laden river. This season was the Steamboat Island resident’s first since Mount St. Helens’ 1980 eruption.

“It’s just a matter of getting out and giving it a try,” he said. “Some days are good; some days are like the saying ‘They call it fishing; otherwise, they’d call it catching.’”

As 9 a.m. neared, some dippers hit their 10-pound limit and were replaced by new dippers who heard the spot was panning out.

WDFW’s smelt biology lead, Laura Heironimus, stood above the bank a little before 9:30 a.m.

“It’s not a one-dip-limit kind of day,” Heironimus said. “But there are fish out here.”

She added that the department expected to make a decision Thursday about Saturday’s potential smelt dip and the rest of the season.

“We’ll get all the data from our samplers across the river together, and we have our index counts on the boat,” she said.

That will help the agency calculate how many people participated Wednesday and how much they caught. Generally, the recreational Cowlitz River harvest limit is supposed to be about 2% of the total observed Columbia River run size, Ransford said.

The department announced Thursday that the river would be open again 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, for dippers who wanted another chance.

Henry Brannan, reporting for The Columbian in Vancouver, is with the Washington State Murrow Fellowships, a local news program supported by state legislators.