Sooo tomorrow....

[eggs]

Anyone want to go stand in the cold, ****, and wind tomorrow? River should stay in decent shape, it won't blow out with this low snow level.

 

[eggs]

I lasted from 6:30 to 7:15 before I was frozen stiff and gave up.. maybe in a couple hours I will give it another go... river has about 2' of visibility... but snow and wind.. what a great Spring!

 

[mgdguy]

Yea after this week of weather I just couldn't see myself out there today.

 

[eggs]

I saw myself land 2 native bucks in 3 hours.. both bright both in a hail storm..

 

[Outdoor_Myers]

Grats! but can't you only keep hatchery fish or something like that? Im trying to now understand the rules for every little river in the woods lol its so complicated

 

[OnTheDrop]

where were ya eggs?

 

[eggs]

Up above dodge.. and yes you can only keep hatchery fish on the Sandy..

 

[mgdguy]

Glad to hear you got into some! :clap:

 

[eggs]

Thanks it stopped what was starting to look like a skunk incoming...

Fyi.. I have landed 8 native winters on the Sandy and not 1 hatchery...

I must be doing something wrong I trick the sneaky ones into biting but the dumb ones snub my offering..

Only 1 tagged fish the first steel I ever landed and was on the 1 time I fished the Clack..

I AM HUNGRY DAMNIT!!!!

 

[metalfisher76]

Thanks it stopped what was starting to look like a skunk incoming...

Fyi.. I have landed 8 native winters on the Sandy and not 1 hatchery...

I must be doing something wrong I trick the sneaky ones into biting but the dumb ones snub my offering..

Only 1 tagged fish the first steel I ever landed and was on the 1 time I fished the Clack..

I AM HUNGRY DAMNIT!!!!

Natives have always been known to be better biters. They are just more agressive. Hopefully you get your hatchery soon bud!

 

[mgdguy]

I was about 50/50 native/clipped on the Sandy this winter, but I had heard from a couple others out there that they had a 'natives only' winter as well.... :think:

 

[cmcono]

sooo where is a good place to fish out on the sandy at the moment? and what kind of lure/bait should i use to make it more effective to catch fish? i'm still new to this whole fishing for salmon thing so please any help is appreciated thanks :lol:

 

[eggs]

Dodge park to Marmot all should be good.. drifting eggs or anything pink and white seems to be the ticket..

 

[cmcono]

i'm gonna head out to oxbow and see what happens there, if i catch anything there i'll let you know and if i don't then i guess i might be doing something wrong

 

[eggs]

no you might not be doing anything wrong... the winter run is starting to run down and summers are starting to trickle in... right now is most likely the least amout of fish in the river other then maybe nov-dec...

Don't worry about slower glass water, look for faster seems and broken surface water.. look for bottle necks in the river and fish below the rapid.

 

[cmcono]

oh wow lol, i probably should have read that, cause i went there and caught nothing, but then again i was only there for 5 hours, i was using split shots and it kept getting stuck, eventually my line snapped lol, happened like 3 times , is there a better way weight that i can use that won't get stuck other than putting on less weight. which in my opinion i probably should do instead. Also i didn't seem to notice any fishes going by at all, there was another guy fishing off the bank with me, but i never went to him and asked if he caught anything or what he was using. maybe next time i'll spot one:lol:

 

[n8r1]

This is just my advice, I'm not nearly as familiar with the Sandy as Eggs, Metalfisher76, and some other people are, but my limited experience with the Sandy River is that it's an extremely "snaggy" river. Much more so than most of the coastal-bound rivers. There are a lot of jagged rocks that will catch your weight, making drift fishing more difficult. The fact that you were drifting with split shots instead of a lead dropper or a slinky probably made your line even more susceptible to a snag.

However (again in my limited knowledge of the Sandy River opinion) I would rather use a float. It keeps your bait/corkie/yarn/whatever else above the bottom and less likely to snag. This is just my $.02, and I would definitely get a 2nd opinion from some of the other guys on here who are experts with this river.

oh wow lol, i probably should have read that, cause i went there and caught nothing, but then again i was only there for 5 hours, i was using split shots and it kept getting stuck, eventually my line snapped lol, happened like 3 times , is there a better way weight that i can use that won't get stuck other than putting on less weight. which in my opinion i probably should do instead. Also i didn't seem to notice any fishes going by at all, there was another guy fishing off the bank with me, but i never went to him and asked if he caught anything or what he was using. maybe next time i'll spot one:lol:

 

[eggs]

Yea there is a time and place for both ways.. if you drift the sandy you want just enough weight to touch the bottom a couple times per drift... and pick a tailout spot or anywhere below dabney park... rocking a bobber is very popular in most places and is your best bet in 80% of the river.. more time in the water better chance at catching something.. saying that I drift fish 80% of the time because I know where it is effective and where there is pebble bottom.. one thing to consider is in most steelhead holding spots on the sandy the water is in the 2'-5' depth.. it might look deep but it is most likely the sandy bottom screwing with you.. this becomes more noticable when you hop in a boat and run through spot you thought were 5' deep and are reallly only 2' deep.. the sandy is a lot snaggier then say the nestucca or something.. but instead of using a 6 shot slinky drop to a 4 shot slinky and know you are near the bottom but not dragging the bottom..

 

[cmcono]

thank you guys, for giving me advice here. but i will get some floats out there or less weight and hopefully i might get a fish someday in my life :lol: