Oregon Fly Fishing Report – Small Stream Outfitters & Guides

Each Fall day as we dump the boat in the water, just before first light, a day of promise, opportunity and surprise awaits us. Armed with light fly rods for sea-run cutthroat, six and seven weight rods for coho and steelhead and big sticks for the mighty king salmon we set off to see what the day may bring. Each fishing day brings with it a unique fishing experience that varies greatly from day to day, even in the same section of river. The diversity of the Oregon Coastal fishery is what makes it so fun, challenging and rewarding at the same time.

So far the Coast has had two significant periods of rain, one in September and one in mid-October, each of which has been followed by long periods of high pressure and sunny skies. The first rain in September flushed a lot of the sea-run trout from tidewater into the river while the second rain brought with it an excellent push of salmon into the lower and middle reaches of most systems. As we write this post we’re staring at enormous weather system that looks like it will dump rain for the next few days and push the rivers to their highest points to date this Fall. We expect that this rain will essentially end the lower tidewater fishery and push most anglers into the main rivers for the balance of the season.

Fishing has been generally good. We’ve had a couple slow days, lots of decent days and a few exceptional days. Highlights include a day of upriver sea-run cutthroat fishing where it seemed every fish in the river wanted to eat our dries flies. Giddy anglers landed scores and scores of beautiful trout. Overall sea-run cutthroat numbers have been good, but we haven’t seen as many really large fish as last year. Perhaps they are still to come, but with just over a week left in the season, we’re running out of time.

The coho salmon run is good this year, but appears to be a fraction of the epic returns we had last year. There are still plenty of fish to target but the native coho quota on the Siletz did not fill as quickly as biologists thought.

The biggest surprise of the year has been a better than expected Fall chinook return. After several years of poor runs it’s really nice to see these fish coming back. Chinook fishing was fair during September and early October but since the last rain it’s been red hot both in tidewater and the lower river. Fly anglers have been doing really well fishing Comets and Clouser Minnows in orange/black and white/chartreuse combinations.

We’re excited for the last week of “Come prepared to catch whatever swims” before the sea-run cutthroat season closes Oct 31. We’ll continue to fish salmon through mid-November before switching over to hatchery Winter Steelhead. We still have a couple days available for November salmon and plenty of days for winter steelhead.

To book a late Fall or Winter trip, please call 503.515.3533 or email us.

Justin hooked up to a 40 lb. Chrome Chinook on a 4wt and 3x. We didn’t really stand a chance with this fish, but he fought it bravely for 20 minutes and survived 3 jumps. We won’t forget the one that got away.

One of the nicer sea-run Cutthroat landed this Fall, a beautiful Fall specimen.

Every year we try to make the trip to Alaska in one form or another. Whether it’s fishing SE Alaska for Steelhead, stream hopping the Peninsula or roughing it on a float trip the fishing is always good. We’ve come to expect stupid good fishing and that’s one of the reasons we go, but mostly we like to get off the grid, live with a fly rod in our hands for a while and spend time with friends. Typically there are more bears than people and that’s the way we like it. This year was no exception as we set off on a seven night float trip from a remote lake to the Bering Sea. I’ve done this trip many times before and have always had excellent fishing and even better weather. Late July and August is usually warm and sunny with highs in the upper 60’s and 70’s. Occasionally it will shower, but then the sun comes out and dries us out in no time.

This year was different…. I should have known when everyone I talked to in Bristol Bay said, “It’s been pretty wet this Summer.”

I thought, “Ahhh, that was last week, it’s almost August, it can’t be that bad.” Put a big old check mark in the “WRONG” column on that one. On the day we were to fly to the lake we woke up to dense fog, drizzle and 50 degrees. After 8 hours in standby mode, some overpriced burgers and a few cigars the weather lifted, we climbed in a Beaver and were off to the lake. The lake was beautiful and I got that same warm fuzzy feeling I always get when the plane takes off and leaves you in a wilderness so immense, untouched and gorgeous.

We pushed on into the river and I immediately took note of the water level. It was at least 6″ higher than I had ever seen it, but running clear and the fish were cooperating. We caught some chrome sockeyes, huge grayling and a couple nice rainbows on our way to the first camp. As we set up camp, a bear wandered down the other side of the river eating berries and enjoying the day. I too was enjoying the day and soon forgot the 36 hours of travel it took to get there.

The next day was nice, fishing was a little slower than usual, but we still caught a bunch of fish including some 20-22″ bows, trophy grayling and the odd salmon. Still looking good. Then as we set up camp #2 it sprinkled, lightly at first, and then stopped. Soon the showers became more frequent and by noon the next day, the wind had increased, temperature had dropped into the mid-forties and it was raining. Ugh… but alas, this can’t last longer than a day… can it? Four and a half days later we were still wishing it would stop raining. For the rest of the week we had a 5 minute and 10 minute break in the rain, total. The river blew out by the fourth day, but luckily we were in salmon country and the slough fishing was fantastic.

Despite the weather, we did our best to keep spirits up. We ate well, fished hard and tried to keep at least our sleeping bags and pads dry. That mostly worked. I’ve never been in a situation that tested my gear that sternly, but I can say without question that Patagonia makes good rain gear, MSR makes one heck of a parawing shelter and beavers do a good job of collecting and curing firewood. I was disappointed in one North Face tent that leaked badly by the second day and a few of the dry bags were suspect, but all in all it was a good trip. The fishing was great as usual, one angler in the group completed the week with a super grand slam, all five species of Pacific Salmon, grayling, rainbow trout, dolly varden, lake trout and whitefish. I was lucky enough to land the five salmon grand slam in a single hole, with one fly, in less than a hour, without moving my feet. Needless to say, I retired that fly.

In the end, we came out unscathed and felt like real men, although I was still shaking the water out of my ears in Anchorage. I’m chalking this trip up in the “experiences I’ll never forget” column. Next time, I’ll make sure to bring more industrial garbage bags and more fuel for the fire.

This nice SW Alaska leopard rainbow found a big pink salmon bugger in dirty water

Doubles on Dolly Varden were a regular occurrence, we even had a quadruple hookup on salmon in the lower river.

An abandoned seagull nest with a lone unhatched egg frames a soggy gravel bar campsite.

Spring is always a time of transition for Oregon fishermen and while it’s sad to see the Winter Steelhead disappear until next season, new exciting fly fishing opportunities abound. Rainbow and Cutthroat trout are now in full swing on Willamette Valley streams like the McKenzie; Coastal trout season opens this weekend; and the Clackamas already has good numbers of Summer Steelhead and Spring Chinook.

At Small Stream Outfitters we love to mix it up this time of year, go new places and try new techniques. As one of our new endeavors this Spring we’re going to try and find BIG schooling Sea-run cutthroat in their estuary Summer home. These fish are often targeted in these tidal areas on Washington’s Puget Sound but rarely on the Oregon Coast. We think we can find them and that it will provide another great opportunity for fly anglers during the Summer months. Who knows, maybe we’ll find a tidewater springer while we are at it.

In addition to experimenting a bit, prospects for our traditional Spring and Summer fisheries are good, if not excellent. Swinging flies on the Clackamas for Summer Steelhead has been very good and McKenzie trout fishing is always good this time of year.

To book a Spring/Summer Trout, Steelhead or Spring Chinook trip give us a call at 503.515.3533 or Email Us

Tributary Spring Chinook Salmon caught Mid-April, 2010 while Summer Steelheading. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good!

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

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.