Social Security Hole - report (Independence)

[NewtoORFishing97351]

Hi, Tried this place out for the fist time ,after hearing about it on OFF. I was using a black bang tail, and a vibrax spinner. I did not get any strikes, but saw plenty if fish hitting the top of the water pretty hard. Any idea what type of fish are hitting the water like this? Saw 3 or 4 others also fishing but where al plunking on the bottom, not sure what they wer using for bait and the 3 hours 5pm-8pm June 12th no-one caught anything. Water looks great nice and clear, and river seems to be down quite a bit. What can i do to catch fish I usually use blue/chrome spoon with good results for trout but that about all i have cuaght since i been in oregon, moved here in june of 2010 from S.E Texas. Grew up fishing on the guld coast so its a lot different out here, and any advice would be greatly apreciated!!..

 

[brandon4455]

welcome to OFF! the fish jumping are most likely spring chinook salmon and summer steelhead which require a tag to fish for if you do not already have them, the other people plunking where probably using a spin glo rig with sandshrimp and prawns for bait. which is the most effective way to fish down there. there are little if no trout in that part of the willamette but there are plenty of big salmon rolling through. using a very large rod with a bait casting reel and 20-25lb monofilament line should do good. i would say use 8-10ft heavy rod for plunking. heres a picture of what most of the people at the social security hole use observe the other anglers and how far they are casting out. they don't cast very far out because the fish move up river closer to the banks in swift areas like that. you can buy your salmon/steelhead tag at any bi-mart and most tackle shops and sporting goods stores. good luck

 

[C_Run]

Welcome to the forum and Polk County. That's my zip code! Brandon has it right. Just put in the hours down there and it will be fish on eventually. It should keep being good for some weeks still.

 

[NewtoORFishing97351]

Interesting, Thankyou very much for the insight. I found a rats nest of fishing tackle at the bottom of one of the sets of stairs going down to the river, and in that i saw one of these spin and glo devices, and attached to it was the three way and for the bait was a pink shrimp tail looking lure about 1 1/2 inches long. I do have the Salmon tag, but I dont have a large enough pole, so going down to bimart to pick on out, so i can this this a try. From what you have explained, this Salmon fishing sounds a lot like Fishing for large red fish on the surf in the gulf of mexico which is what im acustomed to, so this sounds very interesting to me....can't Wait!...Again Thankyou you guys very much fo the insight and your welcomes to OFF...

 

[C_Run]

One more thing. Those fish you see there at the Social Security Hole now are on their way to the tributaries like the Santiam system which is fairly close to us here. You can pursue them all summer up there and that opens up a whole world of other methods to try in those smaller streams.