Oregon Fly Fishing Report – Small Stream Outfitters & Guides

Sorry we haven’t posted in a couple weeks, we’ve been busy on the water. We’re catching up a bit this week after guiding steelhead non-stop in February. What a February it’s been! It’s not often one can speak of catching winter steelhead by the dozens or rarer yet hundreds, but we’ve been having that conversation with some of the other area guides.

After a rainy January, the weather pattern finally broke and we were into a warm February with moderate rainfall. Great conditions for coastal steelhead fishing. We were rarely blown out and the water level never really got too low. When it would threaten to drop too far and the fishing would just begin to slow down, here came another small storm to bring it right back up. We got pretty wet a few days, but boy was it worth it. 10 fish days became common place instead of a rarity and everyone’s confidence soared. We had a high day of 21 hookups between 2 anglers after a good storm at the end of the month that brought a huge surprise push of late hatchery steelhead and it was game on!

As the Alsea hatchery stock winds down for the year, Nestucca broodstock steelhead have begun to fish well, although the river has been a bit crowded for our tastes. A lot of quality magazine press has sure increased the fishing pressure in that river. However, at times it’s worth it. There are occasions that river fishes better than anywhere on the Oregon Coast.

The native steelhead are showing well and we’re now catching more wild steelhead than hatchery. A normal pattern this time of year. We haven’t caught any 20plus pound fish yet, but we’ve seen a few pictures and hope our turn is next. The next 6 weeks will tell…

We have a few late season steelhead guide days still available. If you’re interested in fishing big wild steelhead on flies or bobber fishing, give us a call at 503-515-3533.

Tight Lines,
Jesse

Chrome winter steelhead taken on the the swing (purple/fuschia string leech).

Sea-Lice bright winter steelhead taken on a salmon river MVP.

Early Winter Steelhead Fishing Highlights
December, 2009 and January 2010 Steelheading Photographs
Nestucca (Hebo, OR), Siletz (Lincoln City, OR) and Sandy Rivers (Sandy, OR)

Early Winter brought with it a LOT of rain and mild temperatures. Over a 4-5 week period in December and January the Oregon Coast Rivers were only in shape a handful of days. If you were lucky enough to be on the water, there were plenty of early Winter Steelhead to be caught. The weather finally settled down the last week of January and we went to work, making up for lost time of the water. Steelheading was as good as the Oregon Coast gets. Guests hooked 40 fish in 5 days of fishing that week including lots of hatchery fish and a few incredible native fish.

Luckily, the season doesn’t end January 31. As we enter February we’re beginning to see less hatchery fish and more angry native fish, which is just fine with us. We look forward to the challenge of doing battle with this big, wild fish through the end of April. Give us a call and come experience these incredible fisheries. To book an upcoming Winter steelhead trip, call us at 503.515.3533 or email us!

See Photographs

Ahhh the life of a steelheader… wait for good water, then wait for some good water and wait some more. And when the good water comes and it’s fish, fish, fish until you can’t stand up. Thus has been the story this past week as we made up some lost days due to weather.

Fishing on the coast has been great. Guests have hooked 25 steelhead in 3 days this week, including the high day of the season (15). We’re taking a quick break to re-pack and re-stock today and then we’re at it again. I’ve got tons of great pics to post, but haven’t had the time. I promise to get them up soon.

The time to hit the water is here. To inquire about a guided fishing trip call Small Stream Outfitters or Oregon River Guides at 503.515.3533

Tight Lines,
Jesse

It’s been a typical December with periods of rain, snow, wind and bitter cold. We had to reschedule lots of days to to weather, but we’re used to it. We’ve got over 100 days to start 2010 dedicated to chasing these Winter Steelhead and we’re looking forward to getting everyone out on the water.

We finished off the 2009 with a wonderful day of nymphing for Winter Steelhead on December 30th. I had decided to hit the upper river in the pontoon raft hoping to avoid some dirty rising water that was supposed to rise overnight and through the morning hours. Instead, all the rain came as snow and the river rose gradually to a near perfect level. We had 4 feet of visibility and steelhead green color, with a hint of glacial haze. Perfect. The early morning trip through the coast range was dicy and slow going, but I made it without issue. My guest beat me to the meeting spot, which I never like, but he was understanding of “Winter Storm 2009″.

Apparently “Winter Storm 2009″ kept the anglers away and I had the river to myself. Could this day get any better? Sure, as soon we started hooking steelhead. It was the first time steelhead fishing for JP of North Carolina and he made the most of it! He hooked and lost his first fish just 15 minutes into the day. JP got a little taste of the goodies there and then promptly landed his first steelhead a couple hours later. A beautiful thick, heavy wild fish that tail walked away from us the second it was hooked. It just doesn’t get any better than that. Just to make sure we didn’t get bored JP kindly hooked 2 more throughout the day.

Thanks to all the anglers who fished with us this year, making it our best year of guiding ever, even during our tough economic times. Your business and kind friendship means a lot to us. We look forward to fishing with all of you in 2010.

Congratulations to JP for his first steelhead on a fly! That always makes a guides’ day.

The big November rains passed through last week, blowing out all the coastal streams for about a week. They are all coming into shape now and several rivers to the South including the Alsea and Siletz were fishable today.

Before the rains hit good numbers of hatchery Winter Steelhead were already beginning to show in the Nestucca and Alsea Rivers. Once these rivers drop in to prime shape over the next couple days, look out for chrome. Expect good Thanksgiving weekend steelheading, the traditional opener of the season.

We will be concentrating on the Nestucca and Nehalem drainages in December and January this year. To get in on some great hatchery and early native steelhead fishing give us a call at 503.515.3533 or email us

Tight lines,
Small Stream Outfitters Guide Staff

We were on the water a lot last week and what a week it was! The last two weeks of October are usually grand slam time on the Oregon Coast and this year hasn’t been any different. We caught the coastal grand slam landing and releasing Chinook, Coho, Sea-run Cutthroats and Summer Steelhead in the span of two days with a single angler. We also landed a 40lb chinook, a chrome coho on the swing, a 21″ Sea-run Cutthroat (our biggest of the year to date) and an 18″ Cutthroat on a dry throughout the week.

Last week had it all; rainy, windy, sunny all in the same day. The rivers levels pushed up almost a foot in some locations and few inches in others, dropped back down and rose again. That unstable weather put the best push of fish this year on the move. We found our first chrome fish in the upper river sections, but the majority of up river fish are pretty dark. We made good use of our raft this week, taking advantage of some higher flows to access great water that hadn’t seen an angler since last spring. While it was hard work at times, dragging the raft across shallow tailouts and boulder fields, the results were well worth it! Happy fish, undisturbed by anglers, rising steadily to October caddis…

Great pictures from last week and earlier this Fall are now available in two brand new photo galleries
Fall Chinook and Coho
Fall Sea-Run Cutthroat

Tight lines,
Jesse

Not since my days guiding in Alaska have I seen Coho fishing this consistently good. It’s only the first week of October, not quite halfway through the run, and we’re seeing and catching more fish than we did all of last year. To give you some perspective, last year wasn’t half bad! Double-digit days between a pair of anglers has been the norm, not the exception this year. That’s great Salmon fishing anywhere, and now we have it in our back yard!

We’ll be chasing these units around the rivers and tributaries at least through Thanksgiving so if you want to get in on the action, give us a call or drop us an Email. We have just a few dates left available for this Fall.

Tight Lines,
Small Stream Outfitters Guide Staff

It’s impossible to script great days, but if you spend enough time on the water, you’re bound to come across them on with fair regularity, and that is what keeps us all fishing.

Yesterday’s weather was cool and blustery with a late day shower here and there. Not enough to get soaked, but enough to let you know Fall is here. Angling pressure was non-existent and the fish could feel the approaching unsettled weather. A recipe for success in any guides book.

We started out the morning fishing sea-run cutthroat and by the time it was light enough to see the opposite bank we were into fish. Lots of fish… and big ones. A couple doubles and lots of fish to the boat in the 15-18″ class by 10:00 and everyone was a happy camper. We could go home now and call it good… but no. It’s a fishing day, let’s catch fish.

Throughout the rest of the day we landed a couple chinook, a chrome bright native coho and many more fat blueback trout. Officially the first coastal triple of the year! A chinook, coho and sea-run cutthroat landed by the same angler, in the same day. Last year we had a couple triples and one grand slam (add in steelhead for 4 species). We can’t wait for anglers to have more of those this season.

The fall fishery is officially here and it’s time to go fishing. Give us a call at 503.515.3533 to book a trip or Email Us.

Typical Oregon Coast sea-run cutthroat trout.

We’ve been tinkering with this brine and smoking process for a few years now and this mixture of ingredients produces consistently excellent smoked salmon that appeals to nearly everyone’s tastebuds!

Small Stream Outfitters Smoked Salmon

3-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup of Worcestershire sauce

1 ¼ cup brown sugar
2 tbls chopped fresh herbs, thyme, sage, rosemary
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup course kosher salt

2 cups warm water
10-15 pounds ½”-1.5” thick salmon filets

Mix water and salt in large mixing bowl and stir until dissolved, add remaining ingredients and fish. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours but up to overnight.

Remove filets from brine and rinse well in cold water. Pat filets dry with cloth kitchen towels. Place on smoking racks and elevate so that air can circulate. Top with course ground pepper and a few red pepper flakes if you like a spicy smoked salmon. I like to air cure the filets for a couple hours to remove any excess moisture and to let the sugars set up a bit. Once they are firm and tacky to the touch, place in smoker.

Smoke 6 to 12 hours. Time will vary due to thickness of filets, humidity and air temperature. Allow lots of extra time if it’s below 55 degrees outside. I like about 2 pans of smoked alder chips added in the beginning and middle of the smoking process, but you can use a little less or a little more depending on your taste.

Let us know how this recipe worked for you! Post a comment on this story.

A batch of Jack Coho filets air cure before heading to the smoker.

…either way it equals great fun!

As predicted Coho or Silver Salmon runs on the Oregon Coast and in Columbia River tributaries are better than average and getting better by the day. River levels remain low and look like they will stay that way for at least another week, but it’s not stopping a heavy trickle of fish up every system. It’s enough fish for great angling and it’s spreading out the fishing pressure from top to bottom. Rivers like the Sandy have good numbers of fish from the hatchery all the way down to the mouth. We’ve had several double-digit days in the last week and have heard a few similar reports from other systems like the Yaquina, Nehalem and Clackamas. It looks like it’s shaping up to be a fabulous coho year. Many anglers are switching their focus from Chinook to Coho and it’s probably a very good call at this point in the season. Reports from of Coastal Chinook remain dim and we don’t expect them to catch fire anytime soon.

We’ll continue to fish, coho, chinook and sea-run cutthroat throughout the Fall and are still accepting bookings for late-October and November. To get in on this great action give us a call at 503.515.3533 or email us.

A Sandy River buck Silver just beginning to show steelhead like colors

Typical Sandy river male silver salmon.