Howdy,

I had the pleasure this week to spend a day with Dr. Bob and Dr. Dave.  Grey skies, high water and ominous clouds loomed overhead as we shoved off from the Mehama Bridge boat launch to start our downstream journey.  Bob and Dave are fly casters at heart, but were open to any method necessary to have a shot at the numerous Steelhead and Spring Salmon beginning their way upriver.  They drifted corkies through the first couple runs as I got my rowing muscles warmed up.  The river was fairly clear and reading 47 degrees.  Not too bad, all things considered. 

With the river running high and angry, I figured our best bet would be to work the riverbank and softer water around the rapids and riffles.  They continued to work likely looking seams with the corkies and occasionally tossed a bobber and jig in the mix. 

Our first stop was at the first set of power lines that cross the river below Mehama.  With the high water, a fairly good sized channel splits off to the north side and creates a small gravel island.  We anchored the boat and set up the fly rods.  On a trip down this section the previous weekend with Jeff Goodell (Oregon Outdoor Excursions Guide)and Jordan Rada, I’d spotted a couple steelhead in there, obviously taking a breather and avoiding the strong swift currents. 

Dr. Dave working a side channel.

 Both fellas gave the channel a thorough try, swinging flies along the deeper slots.  I did see one fish give chase to Bob’s fly, but it turned at the last moment and swam back into the deeper water.  It was good to see that the fish were still hanging in that area.

Dr. Bob giving it a shot

We loaded back up and moved on downstream, tossing gear in likely look places.  We soon pulled into another side channel with a deep pool on the south bank of the river this time.  On the previous trip with Jeff and Jordan, they each pulled a big native trout from this pool and once had a rod go down hard but missed the take.  Bob and Dave again pulled out the fly rods and worked the area well.  No takers though.  We continued downstream a ways and stopped on the island above “The Rock”, a big right hand turn with a nasty whirlpool, made even nastier by the amount of water pushing through right now.  We gobbled down some great sandwiches made by the folks at the Koffee Kupp in Sublimity, Oregon and went back to exploring the small island and the side channel down the back side.  Bob took his fly rod, Dave grabbed one of the baitcasting rods rigged with pink corkies.  I brought along a 5 wt. flyrod and a handful of flies. 

A spot of sunshine broke out and bugs started hatching – mostly olive and brown caddis and a few golden stoneflies.  With the cottonwood “hatch” going on, not much was happening on the surface. A splash downstream from Dave caught my eye.  Then it happened again.  The third rise confirmed that a trout was keying in on stonefly adults.  I quickly tied on a yellow bullet stone and traded rods with Dave.  The trout took a swipe at the fly on the 3rd or 4th pass, then slammed it hard a few casts later.  A pretty 11″ native cutthroat was photographed with it’s captor and quickly released.

Dave and a Native Cutthroat trying to see things eye-to-eye.

The coloring on this fish was beautiful.  It had very pronounced red “slashes” under the jaw, was chrome bright and speckled with it’s ancestral sea-run black spots.  I don’t think Dr. Dave was impressed, this being a steelhead/salmon trip, but I sure enjoyed seeing this fish.  It was fat and healthy – just what you want to see in your local river.

We continued on downstream throwing everything in the boat at likely fish holding areas.  We ported the Upper Bennett Dam without incident and worked our way though the flatter, slower section of the drift.  Spotty hatches of Caddis and Stoneflies continued and the occasional trout would rise for the meal.  As we neared the end of the trip, we stopped one last time at another location I’d scouted on the last trip.  I’d missed a take here and had a fish on for a few seconds on the trip on Sunday.  Both clients rigged up the fly rods, Bob with a new fly I’m tying lately with some cool new products from Flymen Fishing Co. (I’ll go into more detail in a future blog post). 

It didn’t take long and Bob’s rod bent over double and his reel was screaming! HE WAS INTO SOMETHING BIG.  The fish jumped about 4 feet out of the water, shaking and twisting.  The battle was on.  The fish jumped several more times, made several reel screaming runs anytime it saw us.  As it began to appear that the fish was wearing down, I moved in to put the net on him.  He was having none of that and with a renewed strength, gave Bob a few more jumps and runs. I positioned downstream a bit more and Bob worked the fish closer to shore.  I slowly moved the net into position and picked him up on the turn around.  The big buck steelhead was netted – and it had it’s adipose fin intact, meaning it was a native (wild) fish.  We snapped a couple quick shots and released him unharmed to continue his journey. 

Dr. Bob and his Native Santiam Steelhead

Not only was this a wild, pissed off, buck steelhead in his prime, but Bob did battle with him on a 6 wt. fly rod and 10 lb tippet!  It made me a believer in the Orvis Helios, that’s for sure! 

The rain finally drove us back into the boat and we pulled out at the Stayton Bridge ramp.  It was a great day….. or would have been if we’d gotten out of there a little quicker.  I’ll avoid the gory details, but as we were leaving, a City of Stayton Councilman decided to let me know how displeased he was that I was operating a guide service.  For one thing, the city of Stayton is on the OTHER side of the river from where we were located, for another, I have full license from the State of Oregon Marine Board to operate a guide business here.  I guess the guy feels he holds the title of God over the Rivers and Fishes along with his city councilman position……………….

Anyway, thank you Dave and Bob for joining me on the river this week!  BTW, I did some checking up and it turns out that being a City of Stayton elected official does NOT give you any right, title, license or jurisdiction over the water, or it’s fish, on the North Santiam River.

Tight Lines!

Dave