My first steelhead season

[jaraiza10]

Good day,

My name is Juan, and I am about to embark on what is my first steelhead/salmon season. After fishing lakes and small streams the time has come to raise the adrenaline and seek bigger fish. I will be trying my luck for steelhead with a focus on the Clackamas river. My unfamiliarity with the waters of this river raise my concern for a good spot to begin my adventure. I just purchased my waders and I am in search of good bank fishing. I'll be using a simple jig and bobber set up and maybe even the white jig/pink worm everyone is raving about. You all seem like very nice people and I will take any sort of advice. I'm looking forward to my first big catch and meeting people along the way.
Thank you for your time and good luck to all this winter season.

 

[Raincatcher]

Welcome to the forum and the winter craziness as the quest for stealthy steelies drives so many over the edge. While I am not terribly familiar with the Clackamas River myself, we have many members who fish it often enough to know the answers to all your questions. They should be up and about soon and may even take time to post suggestions before they go off to work. In the meantime, you really should take the time to read some of the archived posts with the same questions. The answer should be in there somewhere. Good luck on your new search for a higher adrenaline rush! Be aware that once you land that first steelhead, you will enter into a world of incurable addiction. Good fishing to you, and, again, welcome to the forum! eace:

 

[sheed]

Welcome jariaza10.
I'm in the same boat as you. I'm planning on going to the Clackamas around Sunday maybe.

 

[waco]

Hey Juan welcome to the forum. I used to fish the Clackamas a lot before I moved to the coast. The Clackamas river is a good place to start this addiction call steelhead fishing!! You picked a good method to learn how to fish for them, and you can fish with sandshrimp too. Just tip your jig with a little bit of sand shrimp or fish the whole shrimp under your bobber. I suggest to go to the upper river and explore there I always caught more fish there.
Good luck to you on your search for those ghost fish!!

 

[sheed]

Waco, what is considered "upper"?
Is it where the Clackamas river in Gladstone or by Estacada area?

 

[youngbuck307]

All the parks have bank access and I think I have fished them all at least some. Upper river would be I think anything above Barton park. I have fishing all over in Barton park the mouth of eagle creek has some good water as well. And who knows some day that creek might have fish in it again ( they have a hatchery run but it sucked last few years) in next few weeks I would even start going higher than that in the system.

 

[dozer365]

Good day,

My name is Juan, and I am about to embark on what is my first steelhead/salmon season. After fishing lakes and small streams the time has come to raise the adrenaline and seek bigger fish. I will be trying my luck for steelhead with a focus on the Clackamas river. My unfamiliarity with the waters of this river raise my concern for a good spot to begin my adventure. I just purchased my waders and I am in search of good bank fishing. I'll be using a simple jig and bobber set up and maybe even the white jig/pink worm everyone is raving about. You all seem like very nice people and I will take any sort of advice. I'm looking forward to my first big catch and meeting people along the way.
Thank you for your time and good luck to all this winter season.

First OFF, welcome to the forum Juan. Great that you got waders!! Just remember a lot of people Catch winters in 2-3 feet of water. Myself, I've hooked fish behind people who had wadded out waist deep. Always fish water before you wade into it. Next be safe. Know your limits with those warders and consider a floating/safety belt. I don't wade in water much more then knee deep.
Your timing is great to learn your new craft. Watch YouTube and other guys using bobber jigs. The biggest part is depth of jig and letting it "free float".
As far as the clack goes. It won't really "turn on" tell the majority of the clackamas hatchery broodstock start to return. This rain we are having might draw in some fish. But the meat of the run will be feb-April.
Get out and learn the access points and observe the other people fishing. What type of water they are fishing in... Size of float.... Color of jig.... How they cast, like up river down or across... How they present there jig.
And make sure to follow the clack report thread to help with area and timing. I will be posting valid reports as often as I can on that thread.
Good luck and tight lines Juan.

 

[jaraiza10]

Thank you very much dozer365. I plan on doing more studying both in and out of the water and hopefully come up with a solid plan of action. It sounds like we may get a break from our "dry" winter that we've had so far. I want to be able to differentiate the water levels in association with clarity, and even the flow speeds and so forth... I'll probably have a chance to make a couple of rounds this weekend, so I'm excited.

 

[Jiggy]

Listen to Dozer, he's the man, but for what it's worth a 1/8 oz jig,or jig head with worm, 1/2 oz in line weight, and a 5/8 oz bobbed is a pretty good combo. Whether your using a worm or jig, match the bobber to the overall weight of the h hardware that you using. A robber that's too buoyant for the gear might cause you to miss a strike, or the fish will let go. The Berkley worms, bubble gum color, the smaller ones, with the top removed above the wide part of the worm works well for me. #63, and #65 aero jigs are popular, I've watched that pink sucker pick off 3 fish right in front of me! The last thing I'd say is move around, cover lots of water, don't get stuck in one spot. I might sound like a know it all,but I'm faaar from it. I just ask a lot of questions, and I thought I'd save the these guys the typing after they went through getting me up to speed last year!!! Thanks again everyone, fun year for me last year. Only hooked 5, but I'm back baby! Welcome to the forum! Good luck!