Upper Sandy Report

[greenheadgunner]

I fished about 400-600 yards above Revenue Bridge. First time I had hit that spot. Biggest thing I saw was a 15 lb salmon carcass. All I caught were brookie dinks. Beautiful day though.

Would that area be prime for salmon, steelies, or trout? I know all three live there but I would guess some of those deep holes hold salmon. How big do the trout there get? Are they mostly rainbows or brook?

[clacksteel]

The steelhead is what I would be fishing for. As far as I know there are no brookies in the sandy. Most likely those were smolt, but they could have been rainbows considering the have a good population scattered throughout the system but mostly up above marmot.

[Azeal]

There is no resident rainbow trout population in the Sandy. No brookies either.

There are a few native cutthroat trout (and a very very few bull trout).

Most likely catching salmon and steelhead smolts.

[clacksteel]

There is no resident rainbow trout population in the Sandy.



There is a pretty good fishery up higher in the system, especially in some of the tributaries for wild resident rainbows.

[Azeal]

The only resident rainbows in the Sandy or Clackamas systems are high up in tributaries above passage barriers that block access by steelhead and cutthroat (plus a couple of isolated pockets between the Bull Run dams, but those are likely remnants of steelhead that have been cut off). See Table 5 in:

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ODFWhtml/Research&Reports/WildFish/CHAPTER3.html

For a listing of Sandy Basin streams that have them. The mainstem Sandy does not support resident rainbows.

I only argue the point because I hate seeing folks target steelhead smolt on the mainstem Sandy or Clackamas thinking they are catching rainbows.

[clacksteel]

I only argue the point because I hate seeing folks target steelhead smolt on the mainstem Sandy or Clackamas thinking they are catching rainbows.



I see the same thing...it's pretty annoying. I agree that there are not many above either of the dams, but I know some experienced fisherman that target them and know the difference between a smolt and trout. I don't have any personal experience w/ the mainsteam trout (other than catching the odd residualized steelhead smolt that desides not to go to sea) but I do target the fish in the tribs.