fyi: huge steelhead in N. Ump.

[eugene1]

Drove through Roseburg today on the way back from Cal. and had the opportunity to check out the fish ladder at the dam. Got out of truck and talked to one dude who said no fish today. Well, I went down to the windows anyway and saw some seriously awesome steel! One buck had to have went all of 25#s His tail seemed to be over a foot wide? and I saw about 7 fish hanging out in the ladder. Really cool to see one big one jump into the next pool. All of them were nates. Maybe the hatchery ones were already harvested. I was there for awhile and a lot of people and families were checking out the fish too. Kind of a cool way of sharing your passion with fish to friends or kids if it is somewhat convenient for you. Anyway, what an awesome fishery the N. Umpqua is! It really puts the Slaw steelhead to shame, in my opinion.

Wish I would have brought a rod and the sled to at least try, anyway saw a couple of sleds and a few drifters hitting it. Color was nice on the North but dirty on the South. Plunkers at the forks were kinda few and not very successful.


Best,

 

[the_intimidator03]

to my understanding is that the North Umpqua does not have a hatchery program for steelhead anymore (winters and summers i think) The south does maintain a hatchery program tho. So there may be a few stray clippers coming back on the north.

 

[fredaevans]

to my understanding is that the North Umpqua does not have a hatchery program for steelhead anymore (winters and summers i think) The south does maintain a hatchery program tho. So there may be a few stray clippers coming back on the north.

They closed the Hatchery just below the FOW?? (Fly Only Water?) Crud, off to Google again ...

 

[fredaevans]

to my understanding is that the North Umpqua does not have a hatchery program for steelhead anymore (winters and summers i think) The south does maintain a hatchery program tho. So there may be a few stray clippers coming back on the north.

Are you sure?

Nothing here about 2013 ... so??

 

[YawBuddy]

Not sure about production levels at rock Creek. I do know that they are spawning out the fall chinooks, coho's and steelehead that are trapped and caught by Umpqua fisherman's association and volunteers. UFA is a family oriented group that has a lot of things going on. If you like fish and helping to assure we have fish to catch and educating our young people about fish check out our website. You will be able to get some answers to the original thread.

 

[eugene1]

interesting info guys.

 

[the_intimidator03]

So in reading over that article, The winter run on the North Umpqua is a wild only run. Rock Creek hatchery stocks about 110,000 smolts for the summer run fish. They also ship out 125k eggs to another hatchery (why is beyond me) They also do a hatchery spring chinook run, But other than that its mainly a wild run on the north


Btw Freda, I wasn't trying to make it seem that Rock Creek Hatchery got closed, They have however changed stocking habits and remove programs. I was thinking both summer and winter steelhead stocking was removed, but i was wrong and it was just winters, They still have a summer program however I think it is fairly small and would yield aprox 1100 hatchery returns

 

[bran_man]

There are DEF clipped summers, but not the winter run. wild only with the occasional late run summer in the mix.

 

[plumb2fish]

They still raise winters at Rock Creek, but they release them in the South Umpqua. If you want a decent shot at a keeper steelhead on the umpqua system, go fish behind the casino in canyonville in March-April.