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.

To arrange a guide trip for Winter 2010-2011 steelhead action, give us a call at 503-515-3533 or email us!

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.