Rethinking winter fishing....

[bbbass]

I hate fishing in the rain and cold, no more.
I love steelhead fishing up on the lower Deschutes river. Summertime into late fall is the most awesome fishing.
Always go home with fish.
I fished from the mouth, to upriver about 3 miles. On days I didn't feel like walking I take my mountain bike.

Never disappointed, and never cold and wet.

For sure! Been there, done that. Mostly bank fished by the two lane bridge.Caught a few aggressive biters on corkies... a real tug, not just a slack line pickup. Love those Deschutes fish!! Not the crowds tho. Yuch.

My wife and I have backpacked upriver on both sides of the river. I could tell you a few stories about snakes, ticks, river/sand spiders (had a thick layer of them underneath the fly), and mad bulls. Those were the days!!!

 

[Caveman Jim]

I will, you know I don't have a problem bothering people when it comes to fishing.


Ray

I have Wednesday open this week!!!!!

 

[Mikej]

I feel you Jim....Part of it is getting older and the rest is that the fisheries are gone, or not as fun as they were due to the people that fish, or the people that manage the fisheries.

There was the summer steelhead fishery on the upper Clackamas. My lord I loved that! Read a little thing in STS about summers on all black spinners. I tried it and it was the bomb! I'd have miles of Clackamas River to myself come high sun. All the early morning fishers had left 'cause the fish quit biting. HA! Those fish still bit, those black spinners! You just had to fish the shallow bubbly water. I still started at legal time, in the dark with glow corkies. there were many times I was turning a second fish loose at 7:00 am because I didn't want to leave that early. Many times I got bit on my first cast of the morning too. That must be 25+ years ago that they stopped letting hatchery fish above North Fork Res. And stopped trout plants for all the "Families" that camped in all those campgrounds up there. As far as I know the wild fish in the upper Clack are barley better of than they were.

I used to be able to hook winter fish 2/ out of 4 trips, sometimes a little better. Then it seemed like more and more people started fishing, and etiquette went away. Losing access has been an issue too. Cuts in plants due to lack of money, or those purist beotches, NFS!. A bunch of self entitled guides came to the game, and a bunch of bankies that saw nothing wrong with squeezing 20 people into a hole that had comfortably fished 10 for many years.

I still fish springers on the Willamette, don't catch many though. I always loved summer steelhead on the Columbia but for some reason I can't get them to bite like I used to. Same with fall chinook on the Columbia. Then, of course, forced to use barbless hooks!

All I can say is good damn thing there's perch! Because when I can finally get away from this horrible city, and county, I'm going closer to the perch!

 

[Slobray]

I have Wednesday open this week!!!!!

Wish I could, but I have a doctors appt. tomorrow


Ray

 

[No_Regerts]

I used to fish the Cowlitz until they quit planting the A run. I used to fish the Skookumchuck until it was the secret spot everyone knew about. I start fishing for walleyes in February and bass by late March, so I miss the B run.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Wish I could, but I have a doctors appt. tomorrow


Ray

, I know it was short notice but it's the nature of the beast.

 

[Caveman Jim]

I feel you Jim....Part of it is getting older and the rest is that the fisheries are gone, or not as fun as they were due to the people that fish, or the people that manage the fisheries.

There was the summer steelhead fishery on the upper Clackamas. My lord I loved that! Read a little thing in STS about summers on all black spinners. I tried it and it was the bomb! I'd have miles of Clackamas River to myself come high sun. All the early morning fishers had left 'cause the fish quit biting. HA! Those fish still bit, those black spinners! You just had to fish the shallow bubbly water. I still started at legal time, in the dark with glow corkies. there were many times I was turning a second fish loose at 7:00 am because I didn't want to leave that early. Many times I got bit on my first cast of the morning too. That must be 25+ years ago that they stopped letting hatchery fish above North Fork Res. And stopped trout plants for all the "Families" that camped in all those campgrounds up there. As far as I know the wild fish in the upper Clack are barley better of than they were.

I used to be able to hook winter fish 2/ out of 4 trips, sometimes a little better. Then it seemed like more and more people started fishing, and etiquette went away. Losing access has been an issue too. Cuts in plants due to lack of money, or those purist beotches, NFS!. A bunch of self entitled guides came to the game, and a bunch of bankies that saw nothing wrong with squeezing 20 people into a hole that had comfortably fished 10 for many years.

I still fish springers on the Willamette, don't catch many though. I always loved summer steelhead on the Columbia but for some reason I can't get them to bite like I used to. Same with fall chinook on the Columbia. Then, of course, forced to use barbless hooks!

All I can say is good damn thing there's perch! Because when I can finally get away from this horrible city, and county, I'm going closer to the perch!

Yeah Mike, all the above is the truth, I saw it in the later part of the hay days and this last month in 7 trips only ZERO bites!!! The management of resources is quite the loosing game, it always has been if GOV is involved.

 

[CoastRange57]

I have not been out this year for steelhead. The cold is just not something I enjoy getting out in anymore. I too am affected by SAD, and try to deal with it as best as possible. I have visions of taking the drift boat out, but my kids all work and are busy on weekends and really are busy with their friends and my buddies are all old decript fossils too, and we are not sliding the boat down the ramp anymore. My winter outside trips are focused on photography any more.

I bought a couple of fishing kayaks for this spring and summer. Being comfortable is more important any more to me. I will be fishing Hagg Lake quite a bit this spring, and then over to Central Oregon for fly fishing and high lakes trout. Day trips out and then back to my travel trailer for cocktails. Deschutes fishing minus the camping with snakes is on tap as well.

I get out with a buddy on the Columbia a couple times in August and September for salmon., and I used to fish the Wilson, Trask pretty hard, but the pressure is unbelievable over there even mid week and the people not all that nice.

Looking forward to building my new shop in Central Oregon, it is going to have nice south facing windows, heat, awesome stereo, all the tools I have now, my classic pickup, a music room and office, and I will pass the winter days there until the weather is good to go outside and start fishing, photography runs with out shivering my azz off. Maybe a minimal amount of income generating activities.

So is my tenative plan for the next ten years as long as my health holds out.

 

[Mikej]

A BIG part of the reason I don't fish as much any more was due to the crowds. And lost the joy for standing in ice water up to the scrote, go figure? Once I got a boat the bank fishing for the most part went away eventually. Hiking in somewhere before light. Sitting on a rock, ready to cast as you look up/down the bank and see a few evenly spaced cigarette cherries glowing in the dark. Time comes and we start casting. A fish is hooked pretty soon and you can see at this point. Another fish or two hooked. Come about 8:30, the bank is lined with 15 people (where 7 can fish comfortably) and a guy is behind me casting over my head! That's the story of my LAST trip to the Pipeline Hole on the Sandy!

It's been a real joy getting into firearms as a hobby. THESE folks WANT you with them and fall all over themselves to help you enjoy the hobby!

 

[CoastRange57]

Come about 8:30, the bank is lined with 15 people (where 7 can fish comfortably) and a guy is behind me casting over my head! That's the story of my LAST trip to the Pipeline Hole on the Sandy!

It's been a real joy getting into firearms as a hobby. THESE folks WANT you with them and fall all over themselves to help you enjoy the hobby!

Insert Name of Northwest river here ___________________ and your story could be applied anywhere. The Asians out of Portland crowding in next to us on our last bank fishing trip on the Wilson, so close you could not even get a decent side cast in. My smart mouth got going and told them to get the f out of my casting zone. They moved and hooked some nasty looking come back and horsed it up on the bank and kept it. I would not even have wasted a tag slot even for crab bait.

Getting into black powder this spring as well, looking forward to that. I do still enjoy heading to the South Coast and fishing down there on the Pistol, Sixes, Chetco is a great one, and the Smith. Lot less pressure there. Chetco is big water like the Deschutes, need a boat there really.

 

[Mikej]

If I can ever get out of PDX I believe it would be Florence. I doubt I'd ever do little river steelhead again, no real plants anymore (Thank you native fish huggers), crowds, and private property. If I did leave I would sure miss those fat laden summer steelhead in the Columbia!

 

[bbbass]

I have not been out this year for steelhead. The cold is just not something I enjoy getting out in anymore. I too am affected by SAD, and try to deal with it as best as possible.

I have SAD also. My VA shrink got me a special blue light that I have next to my computer. 10min of surfing and I'm good.

 

[bbbass]

I do still enjoy heading to the South Coast and fishing down there on the Pistol, Sixes, Chetco is a great one, and the Smith. Lot less pressure there. Chetco is big water like the Deschutes, need a boat there really.

Hush!!!!

 

[CoastRange57]

Hush!!!!

The people you do run into are good people usually. That 300 mile drive keeps the Portland azzholes where they belong. We have family down there so at least once a year we float the Chetco for winter steelhead in 65 degree weather, and I will fly fish way up the Chetco before low water hits and shuts that fishery down. Even the Rouge is a good fishery for the half pounders.

 

[bbbass]

The people you do run into are good people usually. That 300 mile drive keeps the Portland azzholes where they belong. We have family down there so at least once a year we float the Chetco for winter steelhead in 65 degree weather, and I will fly fish way up the Chetco before low water hits and shuts that fishery down. Even the Rouge is a good fishery for the half pounde

Don't tell anyone!

The fall salmon I caught on the Winchuck was HUGE!:


Chetco River:



My dad struggling to hold up a Fall Chinook while in recovery/remission from a rheumatic disease. He's passed on now but that was a good time with him.

 

[CoastRange57]

Nice..that run on the Winchuck is short and fast, you you have to catch low like you did. I had access to a bunch of private ground up about a 1/2 mile or so and used to stack them up there each fall. The property is not longer in the family, we had a two acre piece we sold off some years ago. Not the brightest move we made.

 

[bbbass]

Bu

Nice..that run on the Winchuck is short and fast, you you have to catch low like you did. I had access to a bunch of private ground up about a 1/2 mile or so and used to stack them up there each fall. The property is not longer in the family, we had a two acre piece we sold off some years ago. Not the brightest move we made.

Bummer on selling out. I sure miss Brookings. We lived there when Pelican Bay was built and my wife suffered from the work competition due to prison worker families moving in. Lots of extra qualified people around then.

Yes, you are so right about that run. It's only a couple weeks. The day I caught that one we were visiting some friends at the house in the background. This is just towards the mouth from the highway bridge. I thought I would wet a line about an hour before we were due to eat and BAM! Then I had to go home to put the fish and eggs away, and change clothes, and we were almost late getting back. Good times.

All pics were from 1987-1993.