Any luck last couple days on the Siuslaw?

Thinking about heading to either the lower siuslaw, upper siuslaw or lake creek for steelies. Anyone doing any good or knows of fish being caught in numbers?

High water, FISH HIGH. Low water fish LOW

Hatchery fish are a thing of the past on the Siuslaw, there are a few to be had, but you gotta put in your time....go make a report

On the way back from Eugene I checked out the Slaw at Whittaker Cr. Lotsa boats, lotsa bankies, water high but great color. Have a yard rock loaded in the truck for tomorrow.

plumb2fish said:

Hatchery fish are a thing of the past on the Siuslaw, there are a few to be had, but you gotta put in your time....go make a report

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based on the data I have seen there should be good numbers of hatchery steelhead in the Siuslaw. for example, on Saturday, the Whittaker STEP trap had 153 steelhead in it: 9 wild and 144 clipped. (48 reported as 'very large, 12-16 pound fish' :thumb: ).

for the last few years, STEP has been planting ~60K clipped fish into the Siuslaw and starting this year, with help from ODFW, we plan each year to get the full 100K smolts into the river. cheers, roger

Just got back from there lotsa boats and most turnouts are full so you gotta hike a bit and bushwack for a spot, water looks great got smacked once on a copper spoon for 2 hours fishing. I would fish the stagecoach to Swisshome some nice spots up that way and a lot less folks.On the other hand have got a few at Arroyo Diez Millas !

Good amount of fish the creek down to tidewater. I'm 3/6 in the last 5 putting ( before the rain) and 4/7 for the year. Only 8 trips. 3 hatchery and one Nate. I fish an average of about 5 hours when I go out. Only one day I didn't hook a fish. Jan 9th. I have hooked up on spinners, jigs, spoons, plugs, plunking and drifting. Each day different techniques with good results. Water has maybe 2ft of visability to it. Lots of people, little results. My fish was one of 6 we heard of, but we left at 12pm. I'll be back out after the weekend. With the way it was the last two days, it'll be a zoo. Good luck.

Water is dropping fish are moving, next week hit the deep pools the fish should keg up below Wildcat! Yes that stretch get way too many people and theres lotsa water below there!

Yeah if it wasn't for STEP and the hatchery fish, I'd say the slaw doesn't have any steelhead in it!

Good work, Rog!

rogerdodger said:

based on the data I have seen there should be good numbers of hatchery steelhead in the Siuslaw. for example, on Saturday, the Whittaker STEP trap had 153 steelhead in it: 9 wild and 144 clipped. (48 reported as 'very large, 12-16 pound fish' :thumb: ).

for the last few years, STEP has been planting ~60K clipped fish into the Siuslaw and starting this year, with help from ODFW, we plan each year to get the full 100K smolts into the river. cheers, roger

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For a decent return we need 1 million smolts just sayin!

GaryP1958 said:

For a decent return we need 1 million smolts just sayin!

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LOL. exactly, entire Oregon Coast gets 1.125million winter steelhead smolts/pre-smolts each year. So you are correct, the entire coast gets a decent return!

rivers that get the most:

Nehalem- 90K
Wilson- 150K
Nestucca- 140K
Alsea- 140K
Siuslaw- 100K
S. Umpqua- 150K

see page 47.

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/CRP/docs/coastal_multispecies/CMP_main_final.pdf

rogerdodger said:

LOL. exactly, entire Oregon Coast gets 1.125million winter steelhead smolts/pre-smolts each year. So you are correct, the entire coast gets a decent return!

rivers that get the most:

Nehalem- 90K
Wilson- 150K
Nestucca- 140K
Alsea- 140K
Siuslaw- 100K
S. Umpqua- 150K

see page 47.

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/CRP/docs/coastal_multispecies/CMP_main_final.pdf

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Thanks Roger, great info there!
I've been at Whittaker the last 2 days and it's been SLOW. Lots of people and very few fish being caught.

It's great the PLAN calls for 100,000 smolts in Siuslaw drainage, however as recent as 3 yrs ago, less than 60,000 were actually put in.....not dissing on Step,or Steelheaders by any means, flooding has had a lot to do with recent numbers of fish. Also, these fish don't hold in the lower river, they fly up to the release point on high water events...but what do I know....

I hit it twice this year to no avail, banked the lower and boated Whittaker to Austa - the water was perfect when i hit the lower. Saw one fish jump with someones gear in its mouth- thats it. Its still good to get out casting and pretend there are fish around.

plumb2fish said:

It's great the PLAN calls for 100,000 smolts in Siuslaw drainage, however as recent as 3 yrs ago, less than 60,000 were actually put in.....not dissing on Step,or Steelheaders by any means, flooding has had a lot to do with recent numbers of fish. Also, these fish don't hold in the lower river, they fly up to the release point on high water events...but what do I know....

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isn't there another 35K that go into lake creek through the slaw too? Thats the problem with broodstock fish, at least when they don't get a good mix of wild fish into the gene pool every season, they are like well trained dogs and will fly to the release point in high water events. But if they go back to scatter planting then to many wild fish stray onto spawning beds.

Native Fisher said:

isn't there another 35K that go into lake creek through the slaw too? Thats the problem with broodstock fish, at least when they don't get a good mix of wild fish into the gene pool every season, they are like well trained dogs and will fly to the release point in high water events. But if they go back to scatter planting then to many wild fish stray onto spawning beds.

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85K into the Slaw; 15K into Lake Creek.

Hey Roger,
What does STEP do with the wild fish that make in into the trap? Plunk 'em in above it?

rogerdodger said:

LOL. exactly, entire Oregon Coast gets 1.125million winter steelhead smolts/pre-smolts each year. So you are correct, the entire coast gets a decent return!

rivers that get the most:

Nehalem- 90K
Wilson- 150K
Nestucca- 140K
Alsea- 140K
Siuslaw- 100K
S. Umpqua- 150K

see page 47.

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/CRP/docs/coastal_multispecies/CMP_main_final.pdf

Click to expand...

h20s8804 said:

Hey Roger,
What does STEP do with the wild fish that make in into the trap? Plunk 'em in above it?

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correct, most of the wild fish are dropped into Whittaker Creek above the trap so they can finish their business...

Native Fisher said:

Thats the problem with broodstock fish, at least when they don't get a good mix of wild fish into the gene pool every season, they are like well trained dogs and will fly to the release point in high water events. But if they go back to scatter planting then to many wild fish stray onto spawning beds.

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Native Fisher- are you familiar with the wild 'biter' program being used on the Alsea and I think a few other rivers?

cheers, roger

rogerdodger said:

Native Fisher- are you familiar with the wild 'biter' program being used on the Alsea and I think a few other rivers?

cheers, roger

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Yes, I have been participating in that for 2 years on my home system, last season I put 10 fish in the program, year before it was 15, more wild biters the better if you ask me. Standard procedure, or the minimum required for broodstock programs, is to mix 30% wild fish into the pool every season. Many rivers on the north coast have been trying to implement closer to 100% wild fish into the program. Using the wild biters seems to make a difference, also the higher mix of wild to hatchery the more successful the programs appear to be.