New to Salmon/Steelhead Fishing

[bbbass]

The runs are nothing like they used to be. All the old timers are gone and now you have a fleet of $50,000 dollar boats being pulled by $65,000 dollar trucks all trying to catch a Salmon like the one they caught last year in a guide boat.
They feel that they deserve that fish since they put out a ton of money and when I net one right behind them that they missed in a 14' aluminum boat made in 1960, they don't understand it's the knowledge I've gained from 40 years learning from the old guys.

Those old timers are gone... now WE are the old timers!! Glad you are willing to share with a new member and carry on the tradition! Today I guess they call it "paying it forward", us old guys just call it "sharing" and don't have to make up new terms for every dadburned thing.

This is not the first time that I've read on here that the fishing is not what it used to be... makes me want to stay in my lil corner of the state and put up a big fence to keep others out. We don't have a fishable salmon run, but the Chamber of Commerce, and others, keep promoting how great the "Oregon Alps" are... my old backpacking area. I wish they wouldn't do that. Having hordes of elk hunters cross over into the woods is..... you get the picture.

I miss the Checto and Rogue River fishing. My friends that live there say there is still a fish or two to be caught (Rogue has springers, chinnok, winter and summer steehead but Chetco only chinook and winter steelhead). But apparently it's not as good as when I lived there in the late '80s and early '90s.

 

[jbett98]

When I was a young man, I would get up at 4:30 am and go stand in freezing water all morning for a shot at a Steelhead.
Rain, shine or sleet, it didn't matter. Not anymore, that's for younger guys.
Now, I concentrate on just one fishery that I know produces enough each year for my efforts.
The State of Oregon is a poor manager of it's wildlife resources and every year the fees keep rising, while the harvest rates decline.

 

[Mikej]

This is not the first time that I've read on here that the fishing is not what it used to be... makes me want to stay in my lil corner of the state and put up a big fence to keep others out.

I need to correct your statement. "Fishing IS the same as it used to be." Catching is different. Well, you know.... Back thirty years ago there were many more fish available, in much longer stretches of rivers. The fishing license/tag money was put toward the production infrastructure to keep catchable/keeper fish in our waters. The price has gone up for those tags, and the amount of fish planted has been reduced. Because there were so many more fish it was not so difficult for the "blind" squirrels (ME) to find a nut from time to time. After catching a few fish you tend to refine your techniques. Ol' @jbett98 there has something he's refined for many years. And he knows how to hold his arse right. A noob coming into that fishery these days is less likely to find that squirrel's "Nut" without more work because of so many less fish available. I used to have "IT" for some anadromous fish. NOW, it's yellow perch, largemouth and small mouth bass.

 

[bbbass]

When I was a young man, I would get up at 4:30 am and go stand in freezing water all morning for a shot at a Steelhead.
Rain, shine or sleet, it didn't matter. Not anymore, that's for younger guys.

When I was a young man, I didn't live where there was salmon and steelhead. Moved to La Grande in 1980 at age 28 and we only have steelhead in the Wallowa/Grande Ronde fishery. Started learning how to drift fish from the bank. Moved to Brookings in 1987 and wasn't too long before I bought a nice brand new guide model 17' Fishrite aluminum driftboat. And a small 16' I/O runabout for ocean fishing. Learned to catch salmon trolling the ocean, both coho and chinook. Learned to troll the bay/estuary in the fall for Salmon. Then the river. The wife outfished me 5-1 when I took her on the river before going to work at noon. I was using roe, and she was using drift spinners retrieved slow on the bottom. Spent most of my time taking care of her fish instead of being able to bait up. Steelhead season started in December and was pretty good thru February. I learned to side drift from my boat but still didn't catch many. Returned to La Grande in 1993 and started bank fishing for steelhead again. Got real frustrated with drift fishing, and the only bobber fishing was in water not accessible to me. I bought some gear for fly fishing for steelhead, but the many flossers turned me off to it. Then I decided to wade out above the hatchery and back troll Hot Shots and Mee Wiggle Warts into the junction of the Wallowa with Big Creek, where the hatchery fish stacked up. This lasted until I grew old and decrepit, got neuropathy and could no long negotiate the rocks.

The fishing license fees also turned me off. I haven't been doing any fishing at all for a few years now. I'm waiting to hit 50yrs residency so I can get a Pioneer License.

But I'm Jonesing for fishing more and more as other hobbies disappear too.

 

[jbett98]

The State of Oregon doesn't inform you that the year you turn 65 makes you eligible for a pioneer license.
They suckered me out extra cash one more time this year.

 

[bbbass]

need to correct your statement. "Fishing IS the same as it used to be." Catching is different.

LOL!!!

"Hunting" is the same...

I used to have "IT" for some anadromous fish. NOW, it's yellow perch, largemouth and small mouth bass.

I used to have "IT" for largemouth and smallmouth bass. Learned as a kid to "catch" (vs "fish for") bluegill, then as a young adult, largemouth bass. Also fished for largemouth bass, bream, and Bluefish in North Carolina... that was a diff experience. The USCG morale locker had 14' flat bottom jonboats with 5hp motor and a full tank that we could rent for $5/day. WOW!!! We'd go out in the Pasquotank river and sloughs, water turned brown by the tanic acid from the swamp trees. The banks all had vegetation except at the Air Station where there was a rocky bank and an old cement seaplane ramp. Avionics school started at 8am so I would get there early, and one morning I caught a 10lb largemouth off the side of the ramp. The sloughs all being vegetated at the bank, one would cast a lure up under the overhanging branches. If you got hung up and wanted to nose up under the branch to retrieve your lure, you had to watch for Cottonmouth Water Moccasins that hung out on the branches. Sometimes I had to cut the line rather than risk a cottonmouth dropping into the boat. I never waded, but a had a buddy from 'Bama that weren't afraid a no snakes...

Learned to fish for smallmouth after moving here. Big diff between them and largemouth fishing.

 

[Mikej]

The State of Oregon doesn't inform you that the year you turn 65 makes you eligible for a pioneer license.
They suckered me out extra cash one more time this year.

That's 65 and "50" years a resident. Unless I'm mistaken somehow? I looked it up as we had to buy our licenses before our vaca this year. $98.00 for the two of us. No shellfish or salmon/steelhead either.

 

[bbbass]

The State of Oregon doesn't inform you that the year you turn 65 makes you eligible for a pioneer license.
They suckered me out extra cash one more time this year.

I'm eligible for the Senior license, which is not much of a discount. But unless they changed the requirement to be an Oregon resident for 50yrs, I'm still not eligible for Pioneer. I checked it a few years ago and the reg book still said the same thing.

 

[bbbass]

@Mikej

I had to edit my post because I didn't intend for the reply to jbett to appear there.

I finished my story about fishing in NC and for smallmouth here.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

As far as bring back a mess of fish goes my luck really improved after I obtained my Explosives License.