Is there a lull in the steelhead season?

After such a great start to the early brat season and a lot of early nates so far, a lot of my friends indicate the amount of fish being caught isn't what it should be for the second push of brats. This includes rivers from WA and OR. I Haven't been able to get out as much as I'd like to, but the times I have lately we've had decent success but not hot like it was.

What is the general situation from all around? Thanks

RT

There seems to always be a between time on the west end. We get excited and jump to the conclusion that there should be more fish here but not till the end of the month does it really seem to pick up. Happens every year though. This is the time to fish a little and thread MASSIVE pink worms!

Bob D

Steve,
It all deends on who you talk to........ Lets see, Between my dad and I and about 5 of my close fishing friends, there were about 50 fish hooked in 3 days. The fishing seems to be pretty good to me. All those fish came from 6 different rivers up and down the Oregon coast.

The fishing sure seems to have slowed down on the two rivers,I fish.The Washougal & Kalama.There must have been a ton of fish earlier tho because they've recycled on the Kalama a couple times now and they recycled over 400 fish on the washougal yesterday afternoon at Hathaway park.I think maybe they've raised a bunch of non-biters.I've been on the Washougal a lot since Nov.and know alot of others that have too and the fishing has been pretty slow for us.There have been people that have caught there fair share tho.I'm not complaining I've caught three for the freezer and two nates and three old summer fish so I've had a O.K. season I guess for the amount of time I've put in.A lot of those fish might have gotten by in all that high water we had too.But things have def. slowed down now.In case your thinking about comeing to the Washougal for those fish they recycled yesterday Don't they were UGLY !!!.I watched them put them in and they are BLACK !!.
HONEST !!
Bob

[ 01-17-2002: Message edited by: dawhunt ]

Bob, that's interesting about the Washougal re-cycled fish that were darkish. The recycled ones on other rivers such as the Three Rivers/Nestucca system and NF Nehalem are usually fairly bright fish. Maybe after the 'Shou egg take only dark ones were left for recycle? ... BTW, when they come and dumped the fish where you were fishing, did they start biting or were they a little tramatized after their ride? The only time I ever fished after a fish planting was long ago on the Metolius River and the ride didn't bother those trout - they were biting like crazy! ... also, I hadn't seen the Hathaway Park hole for a long time until we fished there last fall one day. It seems to be shallower and snagier. Must have been the early '96 floods?

Hey WillieRower, I just got off the phone with Gary T and we might do the 6th bridge down tomorrow. If the other seat isn't taken I'll call ya to see if you can meet to go with us. Otherwise, same plan for next week.

Steve

[ 01-17-2002: Message edited by: RT ]

Hey Bob D -

Where do you get the massive pink worms? I haven't been able to find them anywhere!!

[ 01-17-2002: Message edited by: KurtF ]

RT,they wern't darkish they was BLACK,I watched some guys that showed up and start throwing spinners,they hammered them for awhile but it slowed way down later.I never saw a bright one caught.I saw bright ones being caught on the Kalama,I never caught one just saw them.I didn't bother fishing for those on the Washougal they wer pretty bad.The guys that did,cleaned there's they were still reddish inside,I didn't see any white meat.No telling what they looked like when they got home with them.They must have been at the hatchery for awhile.They hadn't spawned out yet some had eggs or sperm in them.Thay should have recycled them alot earlier,I think. I was fishing at the tailout when the trucks showed up and went up and watched them put them in the river.RT also if you remember all the rocks that were just above the boat launch,the last big flood we had moved them down in front of the launch and down just a little.The tailout is still good tho thats where I caught that 211/2 lb fish last friday ,I've heard of several others since then over 20(5 or 6)and lots of 18-19 lb fish being caught.I'll swear there was a couple they dumped back in the river that was bigger then mine was at least they looked like it while they were laying around out there.So there's some big fish in the river or there was for awhile there.The other two keepers and the nates,I caught were about 6-7 lbs.I did catch one old summer fish that might have been around 15-16 lbs tho.
Bob

[ 01-17-2002: Message edited by: dawhunt ]

We fished up here today on the Sky. Saw several fish roll, some of them quite bright, but couldn't get them to bite. Tried everything under the sun, including all the different permutations that were working up to week ago, and couldn't buy a bite.

My favorite theory is that the fish that are left in the river are the non-biters, as the biters have been siphoned out.

RT,
I have had the "unfortunate" chance to watch the ODFW dump recycled steelhead were I was fishing a couple of different times. The reason I say it is unfortunate is because every dildo who owns a yellow Eagle Clw rod comes out of the wood work to try there "luck"at catching those fish. In my experience a few fish are usually a lttle pissed about being tossed in a truck, driven back down the river, dumped back in the river to have to swim back through the gauntlet. These fish wll bite justabout everything in sight. The majority of the fish either haul butt back up river or drop downstream aways and are locked jawed for about 12 to 24 hours.
I was just arriving at a take out on the S. Santiam one afternoon just as the fish truck was dumping its second load of recycled spring chinook. Those chinook, unlike the steelhead were on a rampage. They were biting anything and everything that we threw at them. It was fun landing and releasing about 10 nooks apiece.

Hey Paul, what's wrong with a yellow rod? That's the hot setup at the Wind and Drano.

Talk with ya Monday.