Santiam report please

[Eric]

Will be heading down to fish the santiams next week with an old OSU buddy. What's the latest poop on the north and south fork?

Is any part of the north fork floatable at current water levels?

Thanks.

[happybrew]

I don't know about the North Fork, but on the South Fork, they quit recycling fish a couple of weeks ago. Your best bet would be between Foster Dam and Waterloo Park. Just below the dam there are plenty of salmon and steelhead, and they have been biting. On Monday I stopped by for an hour. I saw two fish lost and two landed, and had some interest in my lures from the steelhead, not as much from the salmon.

happybrew

[Williedrifter]

Like happybrew said fish up near the dam, I made the float to Waterloo the other day and didn't see a thing. It was kinda nice though for a Sunday- no other boats and one bank fisherman.

[fish forever]

I went down the lower North Fork last Sunday from Stayton Br. to Shelbourne.

river was really low - lots of banging, dragging, and portaging. Werent many fish down low either - saw one Steelie adn some dark Salmon. Ive heard the upper stretch (Fisherman's bend area) has been more productive.

[santiamflyguy]

well, i fish the N. Santiam three or four times a week. i average about a half a fish a trip during a normal year. the last three weeks, i have caught a grand total of one fish in eleven trips. for some reason the bite is just off, and has been for quite a while. the fish are in the river, but no one seems to be catching them. they're holding in funny places (deep deep deep) and not hitting for squat.

i'm not trying to shoo you away from good fishing of course, but if it were me i'd go to wiley cr. park, at least you'll know where the fish are, and likely people will be catching them too.

[Eric]

Thanks for the report guys.

Not was I was hoping to hear! With over 25,000 summer runs over willamette falls I was wringing my hands in anticipation. Odd that there's not a better bite. Is temperature a factor (too warm)? With the recent rains and overcast I expected better.

Thanks anyway.

[Salmonator]

We did Wiley cr to pv today, got 6 steelhead grabs and two in the boat. No bait in the boat today, some on plugs and most on spinners. One thing that I thought was weird was the number of dead chinook on the bottom of the river through the entire stretch. They appeared to be healthy enough, but we probably saw 20 fish dead for no apparent reason in several different holes.... Joe

[santiamflyguy]

congrats salmonator, sounds like a decent run. the N. Santiam has been really funny this summer...no one seems to know why. right now the moon is out full and that puts the bite off pretty much everywhere, unless something overrides it. apparently that hasn't happened lately.

on the positive side, there are something like 250 steelhead per mile from packsaddle down to mill city. at least you'll see fish images/icons/smile.gif