LONGVIEW — This yr’s Cowlitz River smelt dipping season went out quite a bit prefer it began: with out a lot occurring.
The Washington State Division of Fish and Wildlife mentioned Friday that nobody caught any fish, and nobody acquired any license-related citations in the course of the season, which ran Feb. 5 to March 22.
“Smelt are naturally unpredictable, influenced by various factors including water conditions — and this season was no exception,” wildlife spokesperson Britton Ransford mentioned. “While the tentative schedule provided structure, the fish did not cooperate by entering the Cowlitz River during the fishery.”
The 2025 season was the primary with a license requirement. That transfer was a part of a broader shift this yr that targeted on asserting dipping days additional upfront to offer cities alongside the river an opportunity to organize for the 1000’s of people that come for the favored Southwest Washington custom.
Whereas neither transfer was celebrated by space dippers, the latter angered many who made the trek to the river on opening day simply to go away empty-handed.
“As with any fishery, approved fishing days do not guarantee that fish will be present in large numbers, as smelt migrate on their own timeline,” Ransford mentioned.
Frustration has continued to boil on-line because the season opened, with many contrasting the present-day fishery to what it was like a long time in the past.
Others surprise why a business fishery is allowed for a fish that requires such shut administration.
The wildlife division is required to handle the fishery as a result of Columbia River smelt, often known as eulachon, are listed as “threatened” beneath the Endangered Species Act.
Their numbers have diversified extensively yr to yr however are a fraction of historic returns. Fish and wildlife known as off harvests in 2018, 2019 and 2023 as a result of small returns.
Final yr noticed about 8,000 dippers pull 54,000 kilos of the tiny fish out of the Cowlitz in simply 5 hours.
This yr, the fish didn’t make it from the Columbia into the Cowlitz in time for the season, which needed to finish March 22 due to the timing of hatchery releases of younger chinook salmon upriver.
The smelt have since continued upstream and supplied Oregon dippers with a uncommon Sandy River fishery earlier this week. That state required each dipper who was older than 12 to have a sound Oregon fishing license.
Would-be Cowlitz River dippers can discover essentially the most up-to-date data for subsequent yr at wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/laws/smelt.
