And so to the Small Stream Outfitters faithful, over the next year or so we aim to create a few photo essay posts, called “Life of a Guide”. It’s what we do, it’s what we love and here’s what it looks like.

Selection of modified lifters. Simple. Fast. Effective.

Weather beaten hand holds a low water favorite.

Rivers on the Central and North Oregon Coast have come into shape nicely over the last few days after a couple big storms earlier in January, bringing with it a really nice push of Native fish as well as the tail end of those early hatchery runs. We are A OK with the transition, as we love to chase these treasured native steelhead. We still have a handful of guide days left in March to chase these monsters. If you are interested, please give us a jingle at (503) 515 3533 or shoot us an email.

Eric of Portland, Oregon took this great double stripe native buck steelhead on Feb 3rd. As most big fish do, it stayed deep and pulled like heck for a what seemed like an eternity before coming to hand. Nice job Eric!

It seems as though the rivers are either really high or really low anytime I get a chance to post. Funny how that works. And so we sit, staring at some pretty darn impressive current CFS numbers. The Sandy hit darn near 30,000 while the Siletz crested at almost 40,000 and reached moderate flooding. That’s some big water. Rivers will all be out at least through the weekend. The extended forecast looks wet, so it could be even longer before rivers are green again.

On the flip side, the last couple weeks fished great and there were lots of fish to be caught. Our anglers tangled with at least a hundred fish in the first couple weeks of January, including a day of 24 hookups and several other double-digit days. We found mostly hatchery fish, with an occasional native here and there. Natives have yet to arrive in any numbers and the hatchery run is still going strong. There will be another fresh batch of hatchery fish around once the flood waters recede.

Based on the moderate returns we’ve seen so far, this year’s run is average or better than average and fish are just a little late in arriving. We’re hoping for the latter, but either way fishing is good as long as those pesky streams come into shape. Drop fast little rivers….

Tight lines,
Jesse
Inquire About Booking a Guided Trip with Small Stream Outfitters

They don’t get much brighter than this fat 10-11 lb. hatchery hen. Nice job Mike!

Releasing a center-pin caught buck. The center pin was really fun until the actual center pin fell in the river. Good thing for back-ups.

Oregon Coast Winter steelhead season kicked off in typical fashion with a huge late November rain followed by a week of great fishing on dropping river conditions. However, since that rain event we’ve gone cold and dry with no moisture to speak of in three weeks. It’s a rare to have a conversation discussing the lack of rain on the Oregon Coast in December, yet here we are, staring at unseasonably low water levels. There are still Winter steelhead to be caught, but most of those are in the lower sections of bigger coastal systems. Fish are waiting patiently for the next freshet and fishing is certain to catch fire after the next good rain.

If the early December push of steelhead is any indicator of run strength we are looking at another great season on the Oregon Coast. We are now booking hatchery and wild Winter steelhead through mid-April, 2012. Give us a call at 503.515.3533 or email us to inquire about booking a guided fly fishing trip.

Sean displays a reallly nice early Winter steelhead

Justin shows off a nice late season North Oregon Coast Chinook

Check out our New September-October Photo Gallery. This gallery includes images from our October Grand Slam trips. It’s a rare chance to chase Steelhead, Sea-Run Cutthroat, Chinook and Coho Salmon in the same day all on a fly! View the Gallery

Stay tuned for our November Big Chinook Gallery coming next month!

Interested in a Guided trip? Our Booking Update is below:
We are currently booked through the end of November. We are now booking hatchery Winter Steelhead for Dec/Jan and Native Steelhead for Feb/Mid-April. There will be a rate increase beginning Jan 1, 2012. Any trip booked before Dec. 31 will honor 2011 pricing. Book now and save yourself some $.

Tight Lines,
Small Stream Outfitters

We had our first really good shot of rain early last week and is definitely spurred some activity in local Oregon Coast streams. We saw a good number of coho leave tidewater and bolt upriver. Most openings for native coho are now closed, but it’s still great to see them in such numbers. The chinook were a little slower to move but we did see the best activity above tidewater so far this year. Tidewater emptied out a bit throughout the middle of last week, but it will most certainly build up again over the next week as mostly dry weather is expected.

The season thus far is better than we expected mostly due to larger than average sea-runs and the best Chinook numbers we have witnessed in 5 years. We’re out of openings in October, but do have a couple left in November for big late season chinook. Call 503.515.3533 to book a trip or EMAIL US

Yes folks, that’s a coho hen. One of the biggest South of Alaska we’ve caught in recent years. A magnificent fish, released to spawn.

Just a quick Mid-Season Fall Oregon Coast fishing report before we head back out to the rivers. We’ve had 3 or 4 small to moderate rains so far this season. Each of which bumped area rivers like the Wilson, Nestucca and Siletz a couple inches. It’s certainly been enough rain to move the Sea-Run Cutthroat upriver. Sea-Runs are now spread out through all the coastal systems from tide water to 30 miles upriver, offering some great fly rod action. Our biggest to date this season is 18″, but we’ve had a lot of fish in the 15-16″ range . Numbers of fish have been excellent.

The early Fall rains also cooled the water down and put those upriver Summer Steelhead on the bite again. Steelheading has really picked up for us in the last couple weeks.

The Chinook are still mostly in tidewater although a fair number of jacks and a few adults have made it in to the river offering great sport on the fly rod. The adult Chinook will surely start to enter the systems in bigger numbers on the next big rain. The Coho are just now turning on in tidewater and numbers look to be good, but don’t expect the same giant numbers as 2009.

We’re booked up through October, but do have a few November Salmon dates left. We are also beginning to book Steelhead season, please give us a call (5036.515.3533) or EMAIL US to reserve your guided fishing trip. We’ll be fishing Winter Steelhead from Thanksgiving, 2011 to April 15, 2012.

Below are few pics from the last week of fishing.

Anglers,

Brand NEW Small Stream Outfitters Supplex Fishing shirts are now in stock. These lightweight, multi-pocketed, vented, button down shirts are the perfect accompaniment to your next fishing outing. These shirts are available in size M-XL, Khaki or Moss in color. Check them out in the Gear Store on our website.

We also have quarter zip micro fleece shirts and several varieties of hats in stock. Stay tuned for sweet new trucker hats coming in October!

Tight Lines,
Jesse

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