N. Santiam above Detroit.

A
ArcticAmoeba
I took the pontoons out to Detroit Lake for the day Saturday, and ended up just spending the night...Because the Santiam was barfing trout from her drifts. The Kokanee fishing on the part of the lake that we fished was pretty good. The ramp @ Blowout road, or Hoover campground. It is where the mout of the cold Santiam meets the warmer 70 degree Detroit Lake. Kokanee were in roughly 45 feet of water at the mouth, and were taking your standard green wedding ring, and Ford fender rigs. All mid sized fish, and didnot keep any. Let 'em get big for next year. But we were mostly fishing on private property up above Idanha. It was really cool to drift fish for trout, which is something I have never really done...Mostly flies on rivers for me, which by the way I only casted 10 or so times, because it would have been unfair to my friend, and his dad if I caught 100 trout in an hour! So i switched over to a spinning setup and threw a #3 with black bell body, blackened brass blade, and some deadly sharp Owner, or maybe VMC trebs. Scoped the different areas where I would target Steelhead and started learning the drifts. Once I found where the bottom, and the big snags were, it only took a couple more casts to start bringing them in at a ratio of one fish for every 2.32 casts. I had moments where I went like 5 for 5, and others where I took 7 blank casts. After about 25 released, and 2 retained, I switched to drifting the last of my homebrew trout dough. All I had were some size 1 VMC's with 10 lb bait loop leaders, so I said, MEH! and went with it, withsome real fat chunks of dough. This was real nice as it is exactly how I fish the Clackamas. Drift good bait. My bread and butter paid off, ended up hookin upu with close to 2 dozen more, and keeping 2 more 14 inchers. By this time I had cooked trout for breakfast over the campfire, and now it was lunch time, so 1 more goes on, and I hit the evening bite for more action, and one more fatty to make it 3 for dinner. This was my best trout day ever. Nothing come very close actually, and I attribute this success to being persistent in absoluetly nailing the drift I was fishing, and not fishing it for more than a half hour. For a while my buddy was in every spot I just left, and he went on a real dead streak, but both my friends, and one of their dads all got into fish, about 10-12 apiece. So excellent fishing on the Santiam in this one strecth that is roughly 1/2 mile long, that is why we only fished Detroit for 3 hours in the afternoon for Kokanee. So here is a picture of a couple of the real murderer drifts. You can probably spot them in 1 or 2 pictures. and a picture of the breakfast trout. Once again camera ran out of battery, so i could not take more, but at least the scenery pics are nice. MMMM. Very nice area. Great fishery, and great friends...Doesn't get much better than that!
 
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Raincatcher
Raincatcher
Hoover...the campground..Detroit...the dam

Hoover...the campground..Detroit...the dam

I love that spot at Hoover Campground. Thanks for the great (as always) report. Pictures are always good,even when they don't look that great to the poster-person. So, are you going back soon?
Barb
 
Troutski
Troutski
Crazy water...

Crazy water...

ArcticAmoeba said:
I took the pontoons out to Detroit Lake for the day Saturday, and ended up just spending the night...Because the Santiam was barfing trout from her drifts. The Kokanee fishing on the part of the lake that we fished was pretty good. The ramp @ Blowout road, or Hoover campground. It is where the mout of the cold Santiam meets the warmer 70 degree Detroit Lake. Kokanee were in roughly 45 feet of water at the mouth, and were taking your standard green wedding ring, and Ford fender rigs. All mid sized fish, and didnot keep any. Let 'em get big for next year. But we were mostly fishing on private property up above Idanha. It was really cool to drift fish for trout, which is something I have never really done...Mostly flies on rivers for me, which by the way I only casted 10 or so times, because it would have been unfair to my friend, and his dad if I caught 100 trout in an hour! So i switched over to a spinning setup and threw a #3 with black bell body, blackened brass blade, and some deadly sharp Owner, or maybe VMC trebs. Scoped the different areas where I would target Steelhead and started learning the drifts. Once I found where the bottom, and the big snags were, it only took a couple more casts to start bringing them in at a ratio of one fish for every 2.32 casts. I had moments where I went like 5 for 5, and others where I took 7 blank casts. After about 25 released, and 2 retained, I switched to drifting the last of my homebrew trout dough. All I had were some size 1 VMC's with 10 lb bait loop leaders, so I said, MEH! and went with it, withsome real fat chunks of dough. This was real nice as it is exactly how I fish the Clackamas. Drift good bait. My bread and butter paid off, ended up hookin upu with close to 2 dozen more, and keeping 2 more 14 inchers. By this time I had cooked trout for breakfast over the campfire, and now it was lunch time, so 1 more goes on, and I hit the evening bite for more action, and one more fatty to make it 3 for dinner. This was my best trout day ever. Nothing come very close actually, and I attribute this success to being persistent in absoluetly nailing the drift I was fishing, and not fishing it for more than a half hour. For a while my buddy was in every spot I just left, and he went on a real dead streak, but both my friends, and one of their dads all got into fish, about 10-12 apiece. So excellent fishing on the Santiam in this one strecth that is roughly 1/2 mile long, that is why we only fished Detroit for 3 hours in the afternoon for Kokanee. So here is a picture of a couple of the real murderer drifts. You can probably spot them in 1 or 2 pictures. and a picture of the breakfast trout. Once again camera ran out of battery, so i could not take more, but at least the scenery pics are nice. MMMM. Very nice area. Great fishery, and great friends...Doesn't get much better than that!

How in the heck did you get that last shot....? That is some mighty water, the perfect place for a toon. Great post, and some really neat pictures, glad you guys had a safe and productive couple of days. Like you said " it doesn't get much better than that". Tight lines.

Chuck
 
18406ej
18406ej
Thank you for the detailed post and the photos. I appreciate the detail on the baits/lures that you use. The information is very helpful.
 
F
FishSchooler
Woah nice man, how many did you catch?! :shock::think:
Were you on the pontoon when you fished the river? That stretch looks pretty harsh and bumpy for a pontoon...
 
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A
ArcticAmoeba
CHUCK - I was waded in about up to my waist in a small section, on the near side of the two elevation drops where the flow is much less...But in the third shot, there is a small section of real slow, swirly water, just on the far side the rougher section, in front of that outcropping. Real killer holding water.

BARB - I really want to go back, as one of my best friends parents own the property, and did say that most of the yaer it is free range as long as we are respectful to the site. Not a problem for us! I might go back up in 2 weeks for some more weekend fun, but i definitely will fish this section many, many time a year now that I am aware of it. Trout are sometimes really fun, especially if you are just relaxin, campin!

EJ - No problem man, hope I can provide enough info for people to pick up on. I really do like to share what works well, as I think most people deserve to get at least decent tips for productive angling...

SCHOOLER - On the order or 50 sumpthin 'bows for me, and another 35 or so for my two buds, and one of their dads. Did not fish from the pontoon in the river, just drift fished from the bank...
 
F
FishSchooler
50... man i would love 50 perttyful trouties in 2 days! Better break out the flies so I might actuall have a chance!:D
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
I caught a rough total of 65 fish in the first day, Trout and Kokanee combined, and only caught like a dozen or so(like I need to say "only":rolleyes:) on the second day in the hour just before dawn, with a borrowed 4 wt. fly rod. Didn't seem to matter what fly was on. Minus the big wets for some reason... But the fly did need to be placed and mega mended to keep it in the seam of the drift, where the trout were hitting surface lures. They nailed PowerBait on a Spiderman rod with 4 lb. Spectra! The kid was just casting where ever, and the fish hit the fat glob of PowerBait. I did tactically drift my own stink dough, but I bet willy nilly casts of the stuff woud have produced. So if you can get out to Detroit or Idanha ladies & gentlemen, do it. Easy drive, and pretty predictable fishing in the lake, and real spurts of excellent days, with rare skunk sessions on the river. Even below the dam at Minto, a few guys had full stringers of probably 16-18" Rinbows. Trophies for the Santiam I guess, and they had full limits by 9:30 A.M. when I stopped to drop a line in on the trip home. Fishin is good out East of the I-5 cooridor.
 
F
FishSchooler
We went to detroit lake once, didn't catch ANYTHING!!! Well, thats cause I didn't know anything about cover and shadows and stuff like that 4 years ago... :D:lol:
We had lots o fun though, doin frontflips off the raft in these little lakes that were everywhere, water clarity was awesome at the one we went to, like 30 feet on a good day. Lots of tiny fish were swimmin too.
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
We catch Kokanee, and most trout as well, in the open water. You may not have been fishing in the thermocline, which is where the fish are running. Takes a little adjustment, but once you find the bite, you put out just as many pulls on your line, and most of the time, you are right back where you got the first hit. I guess you could run a drift float, and set it for super easy thermocline targeting, and troll it, or put it in at the mouth of a river or creek, and side drift it.
 
F
FishSchooler
Actually, there were so many ponds and lakes we didn't know which one was detroit lake! :lol: We kinda just fished randomly with bobbers and powerbait. Thats all.
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
I dunno where you were, but the Detroit lake I'm referring to is near the town of Detroit, OR. It is East of Salem about 40 miles or so on Hwy. 22. I didn't know there was another Detroit Lake???
 
F
FishSchooler
I know which one is detroit lake now. I meant that we thought there was only one lake in the area, turned out there were like 5 or 6. So we didn't know which one was the "real" detroit lake, we ended up playin at a different small lake.
 
C
chris61182
Besides Big Cliff and Tumble I didn't think there were any other lakes near Detroit. At least not unless you consider Olallie or Marion Forks near by.

Where are the ones you're talking about?
 
F
FishSchooler
They are just real small lakes that have no names... like lakes in the wilderness...
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
Almost all of the publically accessible lakes within 30 miles of the town of Detroit have been named. The others are private property.
 
B
Boywhofishes
i wish my saturday was as good as that, but instead i skunked with only 1 trout :lol::( oh well always next saturday right...:pray:
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
Anything I can do to be a little insightful/helpful is what I'm tryin for...The shots were actually taken 2-2.5 river miles upstream from the confluence of the N. Santiam River and Detroit Lake, on afriends private property. It is right outside of the town of Idanha.
 
C
chris61182
ArcticAmoeba you seem to be quite knowledgeable about the area, have you ever been up to Tumble Lake? If so how was it and how bad are the roads getting to it?
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
Tumble Lake, only been up there 4 or 5 times, and lets just say I totally regreted it the first time, late in the season, in a buddies borrowed Subaru. All my old Suby's can pretty much 'wheel, like almost anything, and this Forest Service road on the way in was tough on my fairly legitimately built 'Yota! So all in all a few years back the roads were in horrible shape, but the fishing was epic! All three of us were on 4 or 5wt. bug rods, using any fly we thought would catch a fish. Wolly Buggers, to erazy emergers, all that got in the water got at least a few hits. So after about 500 dollars worth of damage to my buds Subaru, and two full stringers in a day and a half, it was almost totally worth it...The roads have actually since been partially paved, and graded, so no more wash holes 20" deep! Still gravel most of the way I believe, but be aware, and probably should take something with a little more clearance. Subarus would do awesome now. Saw an old Accord the last time I went at the end of last summer though, so that says somethin about the maintenance as of late. To be safe park on Forest Service road 2223, or NF-2223, right after NF-520 ends, and 2223 begins. There was a 'wheelin trail that proceeded east of the road, and it is now overgrown probably, but I bet GoogleMaps would have at least the weird old trail going south from the road to the lake. It used to drop you in on the North West side of Tumble Lake. There is a little lake past Tumble, that you can literally drive into probably, but that is where most people end up it seems, ya know high schoolers goin up to drink beer and hang out aparantly. So Tumble stays pretty calm most days, because it requires a little hike in. Good fishing up in those lakes around Detroit, and Marion Forks for that matter.
 

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