Oregon steelhead fishing (2010 - 2021)

Last couple of weeks have been good to me. Landed a handful and hooked quite a few more, here is a limit i got last week. Thanks RogerD for getting this photo on here, been having problems with that.

Got this chrome cookie cutter hen today. After fishing one of my favorite holes (which has not been producing like past years) for an hour and a half or so i decided to move. The river is so low you can almost bank fish from anywhere now, and there is a spot downriver where i see boats hook fish all of the time. I know steelhead like broken water for protection when the water is low, and rapids are a good bet. Waded out onto a little grass island and on about the 5th cast hooked her in the rapids on just a corkie drift fishing, my favorite! I had yarn but took it OFF for a smaller presentation, like Brandon says "ahh corkies, the original bead". I hate to say it but i get bored watching the bobber float all day, drift fishing feels so much more connected and you are much more in tune with the bite and just the fishing experience altogether (in my opinion).
Anyway, hooked her and realized i was 10 feet from the bank with branches and bushes behind me and no net. It was quite a fight, and probably hilarious to see me try to land her. After seeing i had a great hookset and she was a hatchery, i figured i'd tire her out and tail her which i have had success with before. This fish wanted none of that, every time i tried she shot OFF again, plus i had no gloves so it is even harder. Eventually she tired out enough that i got her close and just grabbed her by the gill. Was very pleased to see her eggs tight in the skiens, and the meat was a beautiful orange color. Never know with those winter hens. A great experience today!

Sounds like a good day. I managed another wild fish today, not big, but quite the jumper. I am liking my new fish grips. I kept him in the water , got the picture, and unhooked him all without ever touching the fish.

Got this chrome beauty today drifting a corkie and yarn, full of eggs and excellent meat. See if these pic work

ot this nice buck today on an orange yarnie dropper under eggs...got it all on video, with snow falling, from hookset to bank landing 50yards downstream....

We got on the board a few times this past weekend. This is a picture of my son with his first tagged fish this year.
He convinced me to switch to his now favorite type of fishing, boon dogging(sp?). Turned out to be the right call!

One for two today, another wild fish. This whopper was probably 5 or 6 lbs! For once I forgot to slip my license in my pocket when I left my truck and wouldn't you know it, here comes the warden when I am about a mile from my truck. Uh oh! I got OFF with a verbal warning but he said there would have been a problem if I did have a fish on me so I guess I'm glad I never got a keeper. He was a nice guy and I'm glad someone is checking.

Me and my buddy Roger D decided to do some bush wacking on a couple of coastal streams today, we had a great time exploring some new water! Got most of the excursion on my gopro, which i still need to edit. Hooked into a nice fish at the end of a picture perfect tailout which to our surprise was a hatchery stray, of course my gopro battery died literally seconds before hooking up. My first jig fish this year, and only second on the bobber, been digging drift fishing as of late. Luckily Roger got most of the fight on his gopro here are a couple of pics. What an awesome day!

Went out yesterday to a coastal creek I like to fish when my regular river is blown-out. Water color was slate grey and flow/level was excellent. Ended up going 1 for 2 in non-stop raining conditions. Took home an "egg wagon" hatchery hen 25" in length, and lost a dark buck with deep red sides. He was on for 5 sec and made one huge areal jump to give me the "fin" and the hook came out. I would have thrown him back, but it would have been nice to get a good fight out of it

coastal chrome on the centerpin, before the flu took me out

Had a few caught over the last two weekends.
Went 2/3 on the first trip. 1st fish was on a plug and the 2nd fish was caught on a soft bead, twice. The 2nd fish came undone after a few rolls, rowed up river and bam, in the exact same spot. Both were nates so just glory shots. We switched rowing a few times, very windy so someone always had to be working the sticks.
Yesterday I got my grade school friend John, yeah that was many years ago, onto his 1st ever steelhead. Bonus was that it was a hatchery hen with eggs.
Still waiting on my 1st tug of the year. Also, another bonus got to meet fellow OFFer My2Labs at the ramp.

Big joint effort by me and my buddy. We dubbed this one "the sardine". At least it was a keeper and in great shape. (It went on my tag.)

Went out yesterday with rogerdodger and hobster in our "new" old drift boat that we went in on together. Second time taking her down the river, and we were able to get one in the net. A nice little buck with lots of energy, hooked on a 12mm soft bead under a float. rogerdodger with the net, scooped him up out of the water like a pro! hobster busted out his Go-Pro and got some great footage of the fight all the way to the net!

Here is the video from hobster's YouTube page:

Had lots of fun the other day, got some cool gopro footage fighting a fish (the first of me filmed by me ). Hooked quite a few and had a big buck break the treble hook on my cleo!

Only my second winter SH on a swung fly; not the biggest, nor the prettiest, but full of fight! What a Blast!

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I took what I think is my last winter steelhead trip this year and it was the first day with more than one bite/fish. Ended up with this wild fish and a big hatchery (no pic) fish that was much darker. He got let go, too. It's funny, I also caught two fish on 3/29/2017. The blue Steelie was one I found and cleaned up. It wouldn't occur to me to buy one that color but it worked....twice!

a freckled eggwagon I landed

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Hit the local river for the last trip of the season.Started OFF a little slow,but we did find a few nice ones. All released. HAVE FUN!