Despite the overall low returns, my first three outings of 2023 had not disappointed. Even though conditions had not been ideal, we had found fish on each trip and when my friend (and coworker) Jonathan and I had to attend a conference on the Oregon coast, we found ourselves within striking distance of some great steelhead water.
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| Blue skies on the Oregon coast |
While torrential rain and snow the day before we left meant that we couldn't fish on the way down, we were able to carve out a little time after the conference to visit a couple of coastal streams. The first stream that we decided to fish was new to both of us, being one of the numerous rivers cascading down from the Coast Range. Although, the rains earlier in the week meant flows were still up, it was a rare blue bird day on the coast and we were both eager to check out some new water. The first challenge though was getting to the stream as we had pass over a coast range ridge fish that was still blanketed in snow from a storm a couple weeks earlier, but luckily it had melted out just enough to get over the ridge and we were able to descend into the valley below.
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| A snowy drive in |
As we came upon the stream, it was just one of those spots that I just could help but fall in love with. The beautiful steelhead green water snake through a heavily forested valley that still held some of its monolithic virgin Sitka Spruce and Douglas Fir. After briefly scouting out the water, which was clear but indeed still looked pretty pushy, we rigged up and made our way upstream in search of some good holding water. After a short hike through a thicket of Salmonberry bushes, we spotted a couple decent runs and made for the river. Both runs looked great, but I ended up taking the first run, while Jonathan went upstream to the next one.
The run wasn’t too long and a log across the top end made the fishable section even shorter so I spent about a half hour covering the water before I convinced myself that nobody was home a headed upstream to see if Jonathan was having any luck. However, on my way upstream in noticed a bit of slow water behind an island above the head of the run I had been fishing. While it was pretty nondescript, it looked like a great resting spot for any fish moving upstream so I decided to check it out.
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| Steelhead holding water behind the island |
The pocket wasn't very big, was full of seams and after putting in a dozen or so casts a my indicator shot under and I set the hook on what felt like a nice fish. The fish certainly had some weight behind it, giving me a couple of good head shakes but just as it started to take off downstream the hook came loose and it was gone. After losing the fish, I worked over the pocket with a fine tooth comb, but there were no other willing takers so I had to acknowledge my lose and move on.
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| Jonathan working a great piece of fishless holding water |
I caught up with Jonathan at the next run and as he had no luck we continued upstream, covering nearly a mile before we were hemmed in by the canyon and high flows and we were forced to turn back around.
Given that we still had a decent amount of daylight, we decided to fish the river downstream of the car as well. This section of river was full of nice pockets and runs, but just no fish. It wasn’t until we came to a pool with a small tributary coming in well downstream that the river showed any signs of life. I managed to get a perfect drift along a seam under some branches and right in front of some branches when my indicator shot under. Right when I set it was clear that this was no steelhead and my 8WT made quick work of the fight with a small but spunky Coastal Cutthroat.
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| A small but beautiful native Coastal Cutthroat Trout |
After the Cutthroat, I continued to work downstream and hooked one other similar sized Cutthroat that popped off near shore, but there didn’t appear to be any steelhead around. By this point the light was starting to fade and it looked to be a good distance to the next piece of good water so it was time to call it a day.
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| Half light on the river |
The sun was fading fast when we finally made it back our way back to the car and while there were no steelhead landed this time, the beautiful surroundings and surprise native Coastal Cutthroat still made the outing an absolute delight!
The next day saw us on another river, once again we were treated to beautiful weather and the extra day had given the river time to drop into perfect shape and had a tone of steelhead green that was just to die for. The first spot that we fished was a perfect swinging run, with lots of structure and a little chop on the surface to help and steelhead feel safe. I decided to toss a blue string leech and quickly feel into the rhythm of two head casting and swinging the fly. About halfway down the run that rhythm was abruptly disrupted when I got a solid grab. I put in several more casts in the same spot, but the fish didn’t want to come back and the rest of the run showed non sign of life.
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| Swinging flies on the river |
After covering the first run, Jonathan pointed out that there was a good spot at the tailout, but he expected that it would be tricky to get to at these flows. I figured it would be worth giving it a shot anyways and after a trick bit of wading I found myself on the edge of a deep trench. The single hander was the right rod for this spot and after just a couple casts my indicator plunged under the surface. This fish had some weight behind it and initially held in the trench going deep and trying to break me off on the over hanging ledge. However, after this strategy didn’t work, the fish decided to get up and go, charging upstream and into my backing. The fish was well into my backing before I was finally able to turn it and and slowly started to gain some ground again. The battle was far from over but had now turned in my favor and after a few minutes it was just a matter of navigating the rock garden on my way back to shore to find a spot where I could land the fish. When I got the fish close enough, I was surprised to see it was a big rebrighting kelt, that probably would have been nearly 20 lbs prior to spawning and was still in the mid to upper teens.
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| The big kelt |
After watching the big kelt swim back into the depths, I headed back upstream and caught up with Jonathan to go swing another run. This was another picturesque piece of water, with a riffle that tailed into a deep salmon tank. After fishing through most of the run, I got a solid grab, but this time hooked up. Upon hooking the fish, it quickly became clear that it was much smaller than the previous fish and I was guessing that it was either a jack steelhead or a sea-run Cutthroat. When I landed it, my guess turned out to be right on both fronts as it was a cutbow hybrid.
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| A steelhead-cutthroat hybrid caught on a swung fly |
While Cutthroat/steelhead hybrids do occur naturally it is hard to know whether this was such a result or influenced by hatchery steelhead releases in basin which often result in the natural mechanisms that isolate the two species breaking down. After turning the Cutbow loose, it was back to fishing as we covered all the water on our way back to the first swinging run. We didn’t touch any fish until we got back to the run and when Jonathan threw a cast where I’d had my grab he was immediately rewarded with a hook up. This fish didn’t put up nearly the fight that my earlier on had and when tailed the fish, the reason became clear as it was a hatchery kelt that was looking worse for wear after spawning.
After Jonathan got his spawned out hatchery fish, we moved on to another stretch of river further upstream, but after covering several holes and not touching a fish it was time to move on once again. We moved a few miles down river this time and after a short walk found ourselves at a great looking run. Always being sure to observe the river for a moment before wading in this time, as we spotted a redd with active fish on it in the shallows near the top of the run. As the last thing w wanted to do was disrupt them, we stuck to the bushes until and headed downstream until we were well clear of them.
Luckily there was plenty of good holding water nearby and the next two runs downstream both looked good. Jonathan took the lower one, while I took the upper and after working through almost the entire run I was rewarded with a hookup in the tailout. I fought the fish for about a minute and got a good look at the 4-5 lb fish before it spit the hook. Having found one fish in the area, I decided to give a deep slot on far bank a few more casts and sure enough, my indicator went down and I hooked into another steelhead. This one was a bit bigger than the last one and ended up taking me almost all of the down to where Jonathan was before I was finally able to bring it to hand. Jonathan was gracious enough to offer to snap a picture for me, but hit a slick spot on the way up and ended partially filling his waders in the process.
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| A flawless native hen |
With Jonathan wet and the day wearing on after I released the hen, it was time to call it a day. However, on the way we back upstream stopped to watch the fish on the redd for a bit. Instead of the standard pair of fish, we spotted a male and female on the redd, as well as at least four additional satellite males holding around edges of the redd. While I love fishing for steelhead, seeing these fish successfully completing their journey and spawning the next generation was one of the more memorable experiences on the river this winter and was the perfect way to bookend the season.
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| A steelhead redd with two fish paired off (dark spots in the middle) and at least 4 other satellite males |
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