Sandy above marmot?

[etacada]

anybody know if there is any kind of fishing above marmot dam on the sandy river? is their a closed season on it? i just moved to the sandy area and the upper river looks nice.

thax,
cb :tongue:

[Radke]

I believe it is now closed to fishing for salmon/steelhead because they only let natives up that far, and you can't keep them babies. Back in the late 70's thru the late 90's, fishing the stretch below the salmon river confluence was my favorite place, other than marmot.

[Otolith]

I saw some people flyfishing in the Salmon River a couple years ago. Not sure if it was legal or not but I'm guessing it was. Don't know if the Salmon gets Steelhead but I saw quite a few Chinook in there.

[Chromaflage]

Before the closure and fish sorting, we used to pound the nooks and summers on flies all the up to and into the Salmon river. Those were the days! The last couple years it was open - eggs under sliding bobbers at the mouth of the Salmon were absolutely deadly. Closed now and probably forever. :depressed:

ORS

[The Reverend]

What do you think will happen after they take out the dam??? Do you think they might open it back up????

[Chromaflage]

Hard to say - IF/when they take the dam out, they will lose their ability to sort fish. So, we'd be back to a mixed hatch/nate bag throughout the whole system again. It will be very interesting to see what happens. Also, the structure of the rivers will likely change significantly. Good question, though.

ORS

[o-mykiss]

If my memory serves me correctly, I think that there is a trout season (catch and release) up there with artificial lures and flys. Not sure though. Closed for salmon/steelhead.

[Stew]

Originally posted by OregonRedside:
Hard to say - IF/when they take the dam out, they will lose their ability to sort fish. So, we'd be back to a mixed hatch/nate bag throughout the whole system again. It will be very interesting to see what happens. Also, the structure of the rivers will likely change significantly. Good question, though.

ORS <font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">Won't happen ORS we talked to the area bio and there will be a system to keep the hatchery fish from straying upstream. The reason Marmot is going to be removed is because PGE does not to pay the cost for upgrades.
The Sandy will be better off without it.
Here is the link to explain what will happen when Marmot is removed
Marmot Dam Removal (http://www.dfw.state.or.us/public/NewsArc/2002News/October/102502news.htm)

[ 02-09-2004, 09:49 PM: Message edited by: Stew ]

[Chromaflage]

Stew - I half way agree with you here. But, I'm curious about how the propose to keep hatchery fish from "straying upstream." Do you have more info on this?

ORS

[Stew]

I edited my post to have the link with the info you wanted. I imagine there will be some straying but wityh the smolt released downstream that will aleviate most of it. The Marmot dam was a barrier to wild fish and besides the ANWS alot of wild fish groups applauded the removal.
The old saying about it all looking good on paper might apply here :wink: We'll have to wait and see

[Chromaflage]

Thanks, man! I'll check it out!

[Steeliefly]

I talked to one of the guys who works at Marmot last winter. The plan is to take the dam out in 2007 vecause that's when they expect the old hatchery stocks to finally be gone from the river. As far as being able to fish above Marmot after that - who knows? I checked out the fishing regs and it was hard to find anything cut and dry about any closures above Marmot. So, I called the State - sure enough, don't go there. Too bad, there are some great places to fish above Marmot, and catch and release is quite acceptable to me.

[Mad Mikey]

&gt;&gt;&gt;. Summer steelhead historically did not spawn in the Sandy Basin&lt;&lt;&lt;

Not true. Talk to Mark Bachman about this. He is loved or hated with respects to his efforts concerning the wild fish on the Sandy.
The Sandy does have a small run of wild Summer fish, I have caught many of them back in the eighties when you could still fish near Brightwood.
It's arguable that these fish were spawned from hatchery parents but Mark has been on it for 35 years and I lean towards trusting his judgement on this.
Strays? Maybe, but come Sept. if you hit it right you will find a fresh shot of unclipped fish moving through around Silver season.
With Marmot Dam being removed the Summer fish will eventually be phased out.
I hope they open up the Salmon and Zig-Zag again for the few remaining years of hatchery Summer returns.
I talked to Mark about this last week. People have a misconception that he is AGAINST hatchery steelhead in the Sandy, not true.
I long for the day I can fish those upper Sandy tribs with the fly again.
The dam removal will overlap several Summer runs. Will we get a crack at them on the upper river during that period?
I sure hope so.

[The Reverend]

I was not able to fish the salmon or zigzag rivers when they were open to steelhead. I can only dream of what it was like, in a small stream, crystal clear water, six weight fly rod, sight fishing to a 10 pound summer steelie. Pretty awesome. I would love to be able to fish up there some day. I think a good way to remove strays from the upper river would be to let the fishermen remove them, right?

[Mad Mikey]

I darn near bawled when they shut that down. Oh man did I have fun on the upper Salmon. If you have never seen how fast a steelhead is moving when it grabs a swinging fly it is simply amazing.

[draggin bottom]

The plan for the Sandy, post Marmot Dam is to prevent the broodstock fish from straying by placing an acclimation pond in the Bull Run. That way mosy of the broodstockers will look for the Bull Run and depart the Sandy. There are many opinions around concerning this policy. It will effectively eliminate all keepers from the stretch between Dodge Park and Marmot Dam. Could get more crowded lower on the river if you ask me. If you'd like more info, come sit in on a meeting of the Sady River Chapter of the NW Steelheaders. We meet the first Wednesday of the month at Glen Otto Park in Troutdale.

DB