jamisonace
Still a few chrome fish hanging out in our Southern Oregon streams. With this last rain a fresh push of fish moved in and a few were even willing to bite. We started our day dropping over the falls on the Elk River just before daylight. I wish I had gotten a video of the ride down because it was more wild than I've experienced before. Not sure if it was my line or the water level but once I hit the wave train at the bottom of the falls it pushed me hard right into the rock wall and gifted me another nice dent in the drift boat. I'm kind of proud of all my dents.
The water on the Elk was approaching low and clear but the deep holes still had some beautiful green color to them. We fished all the deep water and some of the more shallow runs. We fished from daylight to about 1 and got one fish to the boat out of 3 bites. The other two didn't stick. There were about a dozen boats on the river and a couple other boats got bites but no other fish that we know of. It appears the fish pushed through on the high water. Our fish was a 15lb chromer with sea lice so we felt pretty good about what we got.
We pushed out early to try to get a quick drift in on Sixes. When we got there it was muddy but dropping. I have high confidence in fishing that river so with about 6-12 inches of visibility we decided to give it a try. We made it there about 2 o'clock and fished all the holes quick in only the most likely places. We pushed so quick through everything to get out before dark that I knew we'd have to get lucky but in the second to last hole and one of my favorite holes in all Oregon rivers, we found a beautiful chrome hatchery hen.
I was definitely expecting more fish considering the how late the run was this year and since this was only the second time the rivers have come up in any significant way this season but it didn't happen. Still a great day on the water and good end to my chinook season.
The water on the Elk was approaching low and clear but the deep holes still had some beautiful green color to them. We fished all the deep water and some of the more shallow runs. We fished from daylight to about 1 and got one fish to the boat out of 3 bites. The other two didn't stick. There were about a dozen boats on the river and a couple other boats got bites but no other fish that we know of. It appears the fish pushed through on the high water. Our fish was a 15lb chromer with sea lice so we felt pretty good about what we got.
We pushed out early to try to get a quick drift in on Sixes. When we got there it was muddy but dropping. I have high confidence in fishing that river so with about 6-12 inches of visibility we decided to give it a try. We made it there about 2 o'clock and fished all the holes quick in only the most likely places. We pushed so quick through everything to get out before dark that I knew we'd have to get lucky but in the second to last hole and one of my favorite holes in all Oregon rivers, we found a beautiful chrome hatchery hen.
I was definitely expecting more fish considering the how late the run was this year and since this was only the second time the rivers have come up in any significant way this season but it didn't happen. Still a great day on the water and good end to my chinook season.
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