Oregon Fly Fishing Report – Small Stream Outfitters & Guides

Greeting Anglers,

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!

Greetings anglers,

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.

Our Oregon Coast February Steelhead Gallery has been added to the website.

Take a peek at some of the great fish customers landed during the month of February. The weather was at times, a challenge, but well worth it for some spectacular days of steelheading.

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.

More fun steelhead pics and film to follow!