Oregon Fly Fishing Report – Small Stream Outfitters & Guides

Hi Anglers,

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.

It’s almost September and that means Fall fisheries are beginning to heat-up. The cooler coastal waters get going first with Sea-Run Cutthroat Trout (Blueback) arriving in Mid August and early Fall Chinook showing up slightly later. We spent the last few days poking around Oregon Coast tidewater areas chasing Sea-Run Cutthroats and keeping our eye open for Chinook. We found great numbers of Cutthroat and especially encouraging was their average size. Last year, a majority of the fish we caught were under 12″ and we believed that this year those fish would be return this year in the 12″-16″ range. That appears to the case so far as we are catching more fish over 13″ than under. Encouraging results for early season!

Also encouraging are a few early Fall Chinook present as high as upper tidewater. More fish are showing near the mouths each day and we expect the best Salmon season we’ve had in years. We have just a few openings left in the Fall Season. Now is the time to book a trip if you’re thinking of chasing Sea-Run Cutthroat, Coho or Chinook in September, October or November. Give us a call at 503-515-3533 or email us

Sandy with a nice Oregon Tidewater Sea-Run Cutthroat Trout. Caught August 23, 2011

A great snow year generally equals a longer, higher Cascade run-off and this year is no exception. With the Willamette Valley streams like the McKenzie, Clackamas and Sandy on the high side for fishing flies, we’ve opted to hit the coast where run-off is over and rivers are holding nice flows and cool temperatures for this time of year.

We’ve had bursts of decent steelheading here and there, but numbers have generally been low. However, both Steelhead and Spring Chinook numbers have been getting steadily better over the last couple weeks. With the good flows I would expect fishing to improve in late June and early July.

Although Steelheading has been slow, Coastal Cutthroat fishing has been very good with anglers averaging a couple dozen fish per rod in the 8″-17″ range. It feels as if some of the sea-runs may be hanging in the river longer this year because water temperatures and water levels are still prime and food is abundant. On cloudy days, hatches last all day long and are a great mix of small stoneflies, green drakes and caddis.

As the valley streams drop into shape throughout late June and July we’ll be transitioning over to WV Summer Steelhead and trout. Give us a call at 503.515.3533 or email us to inquire about a guided fly fishing trip this Summer!

Tight lines,
Small Stream Outfitters Guide Staff

Check out our new fall chinook salmon, coho salmon and sea-run cutthroat photo gallery. View great catches from our guests throughout the Fall of 2010.

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

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.