Meldrum

[Moe]

Seeing a few winters going over the falls, I was thinking about giving meldrum a shot in the coming weeks before I follow the fish into the clack. I have read I shouldn't cast very far at meldrum, about 10 feet? The setup I'm going to try will be a spin n glo with a cluster of eggs, so hopefully that works. My question is the bar big? Is there a better area to fish(northern most area of bar, southern most, etc.)? Should I expect a lot of company? Thanks for any tips and good luck to everyone this season!

 

[OnTheDrop]

Company for sure. The bar is pretty big. There's several places you can plunk. If I were you I'd hit the lower end ( furthest away from clack )

Ditch the eggs and rock some coon shrimp.

 

[Raincatcher]

If you do go to Meldrum, please do not drive out on the gravel! Every year there are cars parked there that get into big trouble when the tide comes in and some folks have drowned as well. Please be safe! :hi:

 

[DrTheopolis]

At the current level, driving out on the bar shouldn't be an issue. If the tide is up and it looks OK, it should be fine. At low tide, probably best to just walk in, but the issues there (and there's often issues... like make sure to not leave your lights on) are mainly in late winter/early spring when the water is up. I'm not much of a plunker, but use the boat ramp there, and people fish from the end (north) of the bar, all the way up to the bulkhead, which is just below the Clack mouth.

Pretty interesting crowd there, from the usual kind, helpful folk, to some bad attitudes. But there's plenty of room for everyone.

 

[Raincatcher]

We had an OFF gathering there a few years ago. Imagine our confusion when the big, purdy stern wheeler made a left and went up the Clackamas River! :yikes: Fifteen minutes later it came scooting back out with no power of it's own due to a heavily damaged paddle wheel. The passengers were all scrambling to put the pdf's on and had a look of terror on their faces. It rushed out into the current and headed back toward Portland. Half hour later, it was being guided back upriver headed for repairs, I'm sure. We never did see anything on the news that I can remember. I'm betting the pilot is now working a concession stand renting inner tubes. :lol:

 

[DrTheopolis]

At least he had a big audience for his dumbassery. I imagine to mess up the paddlewheel, he would have had to try to climb the first riffle (I believe it's dredged up to the Lagoon).

I'm sure some in attendence were familiar with the lower Clack, and had an amazing :what was he thinking" moment.

 

[ChezJfrey]

We had an OFF gathering there a few years ago. Imagine our confusion when the big, purdy stern wheeler made a left and went up the Clackamas River! :yikes: Fifteen minutes later it came scooting back out with no power of it's own due to a heavily damaged paddle wheel. The passengers were all scrambling to put the pdf's on and had a look of terror on their faces. It rushed out into the current and headed back toward Portland. Half hour later, it was being guided back upriver headed for repairs, I'm sure. We never did see anything on the news that I can remember. I'm betting the pilot is now working a concession stand renting inner tubes. :lol:

Are you sure that the pilot wasn't from Exxon?

 

[Moe]

Thanks for the advice everyone, will start hitting it on Thanksgiving.

 

[Modest_Man]

Those "winter steelhead" are just called that after November 1st. Still pretty early but who knows, you might find a bright one. I'm going to give it a couple weeks yet.

 

[bigboy70]

ill be there saturday just to check it out been hearing things through the grape vine and its on my way home so why the hell not