NORTH SANTIAM TROUT

[UN REEL]

i drift the north santiam,when springers are slow,,,took 4 reel{john} with me,,since its closed to trout,,the big ones hit steelhead gear,,,with diver/bait set up..landed a 6.5 pound rainbow,,awsome fish,,the biggest i have seen yet,,,on this river,,no steelhead .we drifted last sunday,,mehama to stayton,,the river is going to be great ,,nice slots..DON

[drbfish]

how do you know it was not a steelhead? 6.5 pounds would be what? about 27"? I have trout fished for years on the north Santiam and have only seen one fish that was over 14" and he was a monster at 18-19". No disrespect but I would think it was a steelhead.

[Orange Heron]

I've guided the North Santiam for several years and have not seen a rainbow of that size but a fellow guide that has fished that river for 30 years plus did get a rainbow of about 6lbs. two years ago hust above North Santiam State Park in a small pocket close to the north bank of the river. I was somewhat unsure of a fish that size too but I have heard of 4-5 lbs rainbows that were caught above the fish trap over the years. Bill told me exactly where he caught this fish and one of my trips about a week later we did throw some flies through that pocket in the hope of pulling out a summer steelhead but with no luck. Anyway, we were done with this spot so I decided to float the boat over this are to see if I could see any fish just because I thought there had to be and to my suprise I did kick a nice sized fish out of there and it did appear to be a big rainbow. This was sometime in June if I remember. Needless to say I was no longer doubting what Bill was telling me. Intersting though to hear something about another big rainbow.

[UN REEL]

unreel,here,,this fish had great big spots,head to tail...was it a native steel head????.Don

[J.Slay]

UNREEL,

Any pic.s of that monster? After landing a pretty big rainbow on a stream I thought mainly held them around 13" I always bring the disposable camera just in case. Otherwise my freinds won't believe me.

Good to hear though that the North Fork has a few nice rainbows in it! I have only caught the small one there.

[Boedy]

I have caught some really nice trout below Mehama on the North and with the catch and release and no stocking they have on the river now it will just get better.

[tag-a-long]

Am I wrong, or aren't all sea run trout over 20 inches steelhead? How can you tell the difference between sea run and river fish?

[lost_sailor]

here we go again!

[Beaver1]

When I went to OSU we would rent rafts and float Packsadle to Mill city, tons of trout in late spring, caught several over 15" on one drift in the large pools. :cheers:

[rollcast]

I have never caught a trout anywhere near 6.5lbs, but I have caught multiple trout in the 14-18" range in the Minto Park area in the fall by fishing with October caddis imitations.

[tag-a-long]

Well Lost sailor, you seem to have some input...

What????

Oh, you probably haven't read any other posts I have made referring to the fact I am not a Nate, rather broodstock, inported here. I have no idea of how to distinguish between the two and would appreciate a bit of help.


So yes, maybe here we go again... Can anyone explain?

[Orange Heron]

One of the easiest ways to tell the difference is to look at the tail of a fish. Steelhead have a square tail and rainbows have somewhat of a forked tail. I have run into this on the Mckenzie River before where you have to determine if it is a small steelhead or a big rainbow.

[lost_sailor]

No, I defer to the experts. I've landed 3 steelhead in my life.

Just meant we already thrashed out the rainbow vs. steelhead debate about the Rogue !

Aren't there quite a few native cutthroat in the Santiam now? I got into a bunch of small ones up below Salmon Falls (Little N. Fork) a few years back.

[Salmonator]

There's lots of nice cutts around the waterloo area in the spring (10-17"). We catch 'em throwing spinners for steelhead.

[UN REEL]

unreel here,,this fish was caught below mehama,,in the cina wall hole,,i have drifted this section for 11 years,,i have caught 2 plus pounders everyyear,but since the trout was closed,the trout are getting huge...Don

[Salmonator]

Originally posted by tag-a-long:
Am I wrong, or aren't all sea run trout over 20 inches steelhead? How can you tell the difference between sea run and river fish? <font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">Tag, sea run or not all trout over 20" are considered steelhead.

UN-Reel, the N Santiam is full of native steelhead right now. I'd bet money that is what you caught. I'm suprised no one has given you any grief over running diver and bait in that particular river since it's about 97% natives and runbacks this time of year.

[Boedy]

Sailor, I have seen one cut here at my place (Mehama) this year that was around 16 inches but I dont recall ever having seen one on the Santiam before that. Not saying they arent there just that this was my first and I was amazed when I hooked it and saw what it was.

[ 03-13-2003, 12:38 PM: Message edited by: Boedy ]

[santiamflyguy]

[ 04-21-2003, 01:30 AM: Message edited by: santiamflyguy ]

[PittsburghD]

Nice steelhead. Movin' On...

[Deleted User]

We have caught some dandy nice cuts and rainbows on the Santiam. This week we caught a 21 inch cutt that was atleast 2 lbs. on the mainstem. I would say most trout average 12 to 18 inches but since the closure some of the holes that have always held trout have been producing these large trout, while far and few between they are becoming more common. Unreel it is possible you caught a vary large rainbow. As far as the difference goes typically a steelhead has a vary dark green or black back and vary chrome sides on fish that have been in fresh water this chrome becomes more red, steelhead also have spots on the tail and mainly only above the lateral line, mature steelhead also lack parr marks. A rainbow has spots over it's entire body and typically a lighter green back than a steelhead, they also have a vary distinct red line down their side which is also on steelhead at times. On vary large mature rainbows they will usually have parr marks, which are large round marks similar to the oval ones found on salmon.

[santiamflyguy]

it's possible that the big cutt was a willamette cutt on a spawning run...i know they move up the tribs but tend to be jan/feb/mar rather than this late. who knows.

on that mehama to stayton drift there are a few holes that i know could have housed a 20"-ish rainbow. 6.5lbs would be pushing it for that stretch, i dont think theres enough biomass in the lower river to grow a fish that big, unless they were getting fat on smolt. even then i just dont see it. 2-3lbs, sure. 6.5, i don't know...

i fished the immediate stayton area for trout for quite a while nearly every summer night and never hooked anything above 15". biggest trout i've gotten from that stretch were in the winter when fishing for steelhead or 'whitefish' and even those weren't much bigger than 18". go to the power canal bridge in town and look in the water downstream where the canal splits and you will see an ungodly mess of 16-18" trout. the fact that there aren't any over 18" says something about river conditions since this area is closed to fishing and the trout could theoretically get as large as they wanted.

[ 04-21-2003, 01:21 AM: Message edited by: santiamflyguy ]

[lamiglass drifter]

Un Reel...I couldn't resist. Sounds like you fall in to the same catagory I do. We have both caught big oregon rainbows out of rivers. It's funny to me how everyone questions a post like this one. They are all experts of the particular river and have never caught or witnessed a trout of this size being caught so they DON'T EXIST!!!

It's a steelhead It's a steelhead It's a steelhead

until that one day they get lucky they will never know!

Until then they will just have to :bowdown: to the few that have :cheers: Brotha!!!

[santiamflyguy]

hehe we know they are in the river, but we just doubt that they are in that particular section. i have been witness to a 8lb and a 6lb rainbow in the same night from that river. but not from that area; and i think anyone who fishes it often will tell you that below mehama, and even more so below stayton, the majority of true trout (not smolt) are cutthroats, and the vast majority of big trout are cutts. even these are pretty small, in the 12"-14" range.

again, it comes down to food availibility and i really don't see the lower river being able to support a 6+ lb trout. such a fish would be pushing eight years old; fifteen given slow growth rates probable in the lower river. problem is that trout live to be 10 years old at the maximum. i'm no fisheries biologist so i don't have trout growth rates for that part of the river but if you compare it to the upper river where there are far more insect hatches and especially smolt for a big trout to feed on, well, yeah. the trout up there don't often get much above 16-18", although there are some of a few pounds.

if you think about the rivers in oregon which support a good number of 6lb+ trout, you'll come up with a very short list, all of which have very high biomass levels. the metolious, for one; the deschutes, the rogue (holy water), the little deschutes (browns), the klamath, and possibly the mckenzie. notice that these are in general east-side rivers and the rogue is a tailwater fishery. which gives it constant water temps=more biomass to feed on. i'm sure there are others that i am missing but this is just to illustrate that west-side rivers generally do not produce large trout, especially large rainbows.

the taking of native rainbow was closed in 1997 i believe. it is possible that this fish was able to escape for three or four years unscathed but that combined with other things makes me highly skeptical.

congratulations to you if it was a real trout but i would place money on it being a late-arriving native summer steelhead which had darkened up from time in the river.

[ 04-24-2003, 11:53 PM: Message edited by: santiamflyguy ]