I fish beads under a indicator and almost always run a two fly setup with the bead as a dropper. It's not fly fishing in its purest form but I don't really care...It catches fish and it still takes a lot of work to cast, mend and setup a good drift. I catch way more fish on the bead dropper than...
Everytime I drive over the Coast fork of the Willamette I wonder if there are stray hatchery or wild steelhead in there. Looks like you proved there are. Good job catching one becasue it seems the chances of hooking one are slim. Beauty of a fish!
Run the bead under a float and there will be no doubt when a fish takes the bead. A little fingernail polish can be used to give your a bead a mottled look. I have fished beads enough to know that at certain times they will out fish bait 10:1.
You should have no problem launching at Scottsburg with a prop, it seems to average 6-10' around the bridge but watch for rocks. We run a prop with no issues. You may be limited to how far up and down river you can run though. Sleds have the advantage for running more of the river. We were gonna...
Rogue bait rigs work pretty well on the lower river, we use a version of the rig and also homemade spinners. You're also gonna want a heavy anchor setup if anchor fishing.
You will find that most people are launching further upriver. Reedsport is the place to be when fishing for fall chinook but not springers. The water volume is much larger and colder in the spring so the springers blast through it quickly. But it could never hurt to go and troll around to see if...
We fish that stretch a lot for fall chinook but springers seem to be a more upriver fishery. I have not been down that far to see if people do in fact troll the reedsport area in the spring. You should see plenty of boats anchored at scottsburg this spring though.