Recent content by SmallStreams

Just to add a different viewpoint, go big with spinners to avoid the small fish. I mostly use #5 spinners. Fish under 8" are much less likely to be hooked. Blue Fox are reliable mass produced spinners. Rvrfishr is a small production company that sells high quality assemble-your-own spinners...

Lewis & Clark River is open UPSTREAM of the Saddle Mountain bridge for catch & release trout, very skinny water until a day like today when there's 4"+ of rainfall. At that bridge, it's flowing to the west before it turns north to join the Columbia. If you want keepers this time of year, go to...

Rivers that had spring chinook holding in tidewater or just above tidewater saw them move in and spawn in the first gravel that looked good because they were r-i-p-e. These were obviously too dark to bother fishing for. From what I saw on Thursday while passing by, boats in Nehalem bay were...

Serious lack of water in my backyard stream right now, so stick to tidewater below 12th Ave Bridge and the pools just above tidewater in the Circle Creek vicinity. We're getting a mist tonight, not enough to pull fish upstream though.

I use a 6' (5' 11"?) Ugly Stik for my brush-busting trout adventures. It's handled a 15 lb steelhead and 10-15 lb coho. Primarily I use it all summer(*) and then once I encounter coho in the fall, I switch to a heavier rod. A shorter rod sacrifices casting distance for more maneuverability. I'd...

New month, new rain.

Upper Necanicum turned chocolate sometime between 10am and 1:30pm today. The other rivers are blown out sooner and the lower on any river you are, the sooner it will be blown out. Usually takes 2" of moderate rain in 24 hrs for chocolate color after looking tea-stained and the rain gauge...

I got Simms convertible waders for fall 2013 and they're holding up well to my brush-busting hikes. I wear waders October-June and skip them for the summer months. These are not the "guide-weight" version. Looks like Simms has changed their lineup since then?

While crossing North Fork Nehalem yesterday (low in the system), I saw my first redd of the year. Didn't think too much of it even though it looked fairly fresh... on my way back, there was a fish sitting in it! OK, guess it was VERY fresh, LOL! A little bit of investigating turned up at...

LOL, now that's a different way to cross the bar!

What I've seen coming upriver (N. Fk. Nehalem & Necanicum) are mostly smaller coho, <6 lbs. Low percentage of large ones. Due to the sparse rain pattern, NFN has had two one-day runs. Necanicum has had a single-day. All of that leaves me hopeful that there are actually many more holding...

Side planar didn't work too well for me in tidewater as the current strength was not consistent enough.

Go fishing with a buddy and you've instantly got two lines...

And wouldn't it be true that if they're not going over the falls, then they're likely stacking up below the falls?

As late as the rains have been, 2013 might be the best comparison? The other years had earlier rains as I recall.