9-18 N Santiam report

Hit N Santiam at 6 this morning. Overcast, 61 degrees, nobody bank fishing or floating. My brother was tossing a flies and I was using Blue Foxes...#4's, Michael Jackson's with chartreuse and red, but silver/blue mostly. Upstream casts on end/sides of runs and deep holes, some holes on far side of river with tree/bushes overlooking nice runs....but good casts got decent presentations.

9:30 got into my fish Coho ever...native to boot! Nice 23 incher...prob 3-4 pounds. Forgot my net in truck so my brother ran real quick and got it(wont do that again), so I really never had to take him out of the water. Clean hook and clean release. Fun to hold him down in the water right before he took off....first is always the best, right?

Nice little native rainbow hour later.

Good day!

Nice to see your report from over there!


... it almost looks like a jack-hook from the photo... either way, fun fish!

Nice report man and great pics. The one time i fished the n fork it was a blast and really enjoyed that country. such a cool spot on top of that slab.(Thanks autofisher for putting that event on and letting me come enjoy that river with everyone). I am curious what made you identify that fish as coho. I was't there but just by looking at your photo I can smell the chinook. Maybe because i just ate some? Nice fish curious why you let it go?

Nice report man!! BTW I have to agree with Andy the fish looks like a jack chinook I see from here the black mouth!!! Lol

Damn! how did RWS beat me i swear i read it first.

Thuggin4Life said:

Damn! how did RWS beat me i swear i read it first.

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Sneak attack dude.

gonna have to starting walking backwards around here. lol

Mostly a guess for Coho ID. Thought it was just too small to be a chinook...cool!

Thuggin4Life said:

Damn! how did RWS beat me i swear i read it first.

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his post came out first because was a special one he hit the 1000 posts he is a official member of the V.I.P club!!!

ahah yeah you could get a chinook thats barely a pound. i seen one it looked like a trout in chinook clothing.

Congrats RWS Just reach platinum OFF staus Also know as god status. feel free to run the forum. you earned it. Waco you almost there buddy. soon you can be an OFF elite ist like the rest of us. After 1000 seems like you quite counting. And know you can change the title to whatever you want it to say!

We're all gonna get our ass banned by GZ for hijacking the thread...

But does this mean I get a cookie?


Or is the simple reality that Ive spent to much time looking at this monitor...

RunWithSasquatch said:

We're all gonna get our ass banned by GZ for hijacking the thread...

But does this mean I get a cookie?


Or is the simple reality that Ive spent to much time looking at this monitor...

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I think is the second option!!! Lol

waisted to much time on the internet is what it means lol

For being this late in the year, the colors on that fish are not bad at all (I realize it's native), especially compared to most of the fish that are on time for the season, most of the Chinooks I see on the North are brown, it can be a gamble when you get them on the cutting board.

My theory on all those brown fish in the Santiam is caused from all the sediment in the Willy, but I could be way off, maybe it is just from the long travel.

almost all springers turn bronze or brown when they have been in the river for a while. but yes, it's in very good shape for the time of eyar. nice fish

brandon4455 said:

almost all springers turn bronze or brown when they have been in the river for a while. but yes, it's in very good shape for the time of eyar. nice fish

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Ahh, I've only targeted Springers in the Santiam so I thought it had to do with the Willy, do they just get darker quicker than Fall fish? If so, it might have to do with the oxygen content in the water or the temps possibly. I never really started paying attention to this kind of stuff until recently, not neccessarily important for a fisherman to know, but you know what they say, curiosity killed Drew :lol:.

All good info...thanks guys. I think if I could do it over, I would have kept it. However, I thought the nook season was over on the N Santiam until Nov 1. Side note...it was a contest between my brothers (two of them) to get into the first steelie and ho, and nook. 1 for me...0 for them! Now I need a ho and steelies for the trifecta...come on fish!

You should read over the regs, because native chinook, regardless of date are not legal for retention. I believe thuggins remarks about retention would have gone towards if it was a coho, because they are legal for retention above the Falls regardless of clip status.

I will have to re-read the regs. Glad I released it now! Always feels good to release a native!