It is pretty clear that we need rain to push some bright fish into our Oregon rivers. This weekend I camped on a favorite small coastal river on word that decent fish were in. If they were, they had scooted through by the time of my arrival. After the first day of fishing I knew things would be tough, the fish had the common and rarely fatal disease known locally as “lock jaw.” Beside that, I wasn’t seeing any salmon that would be described as table fare even in the most generous sense of the word unless you are fishing Great Lakes tributaries. Yeah . . . I guess I’m calling you out. Sorry guys but you know it’s true and the truth is painful sometimes.
Expectations adjusted downward, I hit the river first thing in the morning hoping a couple of fresh fish moved into the holding pools. I shortened my leader about 18″ to minimize the risk of “flossing” or worse and swung a chartreuse and black clouser through the run that I hoped held some “movers.” Instead, on my fourth or fifth cast the fly was hammered by a bronze hen chinook. She fought as well as a bronze fish can but was brought to hand and released after having completely trashed my fly:
(Psst: Michiganders . . . if your fish looks like this it isn’t worth eating.)
I gave up hope of finding chrome and quit fishing just about the time Matt strolled out onto the bedrock ledge. I gave him the run down but after the Herculean effort he made to meet me he needed to run his fly through a few of the fishy looking spots before completely bagging the trip. Fair enough. In short order he was rewarded with a coho which was also released:
That was it for the fish and we left soon after Matt caught the coho. On the bright side, the weather was good, the chanterelles were out, I spotted a bunch of redds, tested some gear, the coho were thick and I had a good camping trip.
Rumor has it that there are big schools of chinook hanging near the jaws of several area rivers and maybe they are late but on the way. This next rain will probably tell us a lot about how the rest of the season will go. I’m doing the rain dance.–KM
Nice – I’m no weatherman, but I’m guessing you’ll get your rain before too long! I mean, it’s Western Oregon, for cryin’ out loud!
Looks like fun – I really want to get in to the steelhead and salmon action this year. Always have kind of been hesitant to get into it because the crowds are usually so bad over here with so few rivers carrying steelies or salmon, but I’ll just have to do a little more research, I guess and hit i t hard.
Is it pretty much the Snake or the Columbia in striking range? Standing invite to fish if you are out this way. Also, not a myth–see my flickr Oregon Fishing set.
[...] 28, 2008 by mstansberry While salmon fishing last weekend, Karlos and I came across some wilderness littering bastards. We picked up their trash on the trail, [...]
Looks like rain all next week!
Those are some pristine chanterelles sir!
So much love for the Michiganders…
I’m ready for Thursday!