What's up on the Sandy River?

[Lipripper]

Anyone fishing the Sandy River? Thinking about doing a drift on the river tomorrow. What had been the best color? Thanks

[wiser]

http://www.ifish.net/uploads/16001717.jpg
This is one I kept today. Released two natives also. Caugt the hatchery hen on metalic blue corkie and 31/2" pink worm, Wild buck on metallic blue corkie and orange yarn and a wild hen on a pink and purple first cast Jij. Thanks Mark, my first from the Jigs I bought from you.
A little slow but there are fish around. The hatchery hen and wild hen were both chromers. The wild buck had a little color. Fish were rolling in tail-outs and "frog water". Don't pass up the slow moving water.

[Navigator]

Well, I get spanked again. I hit it for a 2-3 hours this morning, early afternoon (bankers fishing). Had the priviledge of fishing some private access. Nobody went to work today it seems. A steady parade of drift boats (I probably saw a dozen) and the bankies were out pretty thick. This was between between Oxbow and Lewis and Clark. Saw one fish caught (drift boat anchored) and another boat report two. A lot were working divers and bait. I tried metallic pink (spin 'n glo] and a small blue corky. W/ eggs.

[Crabby 2]

Nice Fish, Wiser?!! Any size to the fish? I just couldn't drag myself over there to wet a line today. I'm getting into a smelty mode.

Dale

[NETONE]

From the looks of that pic...I would swear that may be a Sandy River Smelt.....

Nice fish....I'm jealous....

[wiser]

No, it wasn't a sixteen pounder. It may go six but it is a nice fresh hen. I guess I should have added a rod to the picture for comparison. The fish is still in the yard so I could verify "bigger than smelt" if need be :smile: :smile: . Hey crabby 2, are you going after them little critters tomorrow? I know they dippers are getting some but it's a long ways to go if they aren't running well. I think I'll wait unless relatives show up and want to go. Good luck if you go.

[ 01-18-2002: Message edited by: Wiser? ]</p>

[blacktail]

Hey Wiser?,

How'd the water look today? It looks like it's down around 9.5, so that's good. Hopefully with the cold/snow up high and if the rain stays light it should be in good shape tomorrow.

Were you still fishing the lower river?

Thanks,
Mike

[wiser]

Still fishing Oxbow. Water looks great. A little low and clear for some but 9.5 is my favorite height. I'm sure ther are a few more fish up higher. But I justb don't think the quality of the angling experience is worth it.Everyone to there own tastes but I'll stay fishing around Oxbow. By the way, I confirmed the catch of an early summer steelhead yesterday. A boater(two persons)who had fished Dodge to Oxbow boated it along with four other hatchery winter fish.

[Artwo]

Wiser,
Nice feeesh.......I'll be going in the morning. I'll be at my usual Oxbow drift from daylight to about noon, stop by and say hello if you get a chance. Look for the guy in the TH custom rod hat........that'l be me.

JK

[MicroFish]

Wiser? How does one distinguish between summer
and winter steelies?

[wiser]

On the Sandy river all hatchery summer steelhead are clipped adipose only. All hatchery winter steelhead are clipped adipose and right maxillary(the small bone protruding from alongthe upper jaw). A winter fish that is found in the system now will have nearly fully mature eggs or may have spawned and will have layed eggs, lost body fat and generally appear thin. A winter fish may rebrighten and appear to be in pretty good shape. Some are mistakenly identified as fresh fish but when cleaned will be found to have pale flesh and have a very small(much smaller than a pencil size) skeins of eggs that could have eventually become fully mature skeins if the fish had survived to make a run to the ocean and returned the following year. A summer fish found in the system now would generally be a fish that came in some time during the previous year(usually late spring to fall) and had lived in the river while eggs or milt sacks matured. Most of the summer fish in the system now have spawned, however a few may still need to spawn. The clip can be one indicator of the summer fish. Other than clip differential it may be tough to tell a winter fish that has been in the system long enough to spawn and a summer that has been in the system even longer and either spawned or is close to spawning.
The difference in the fish seen yesterday was the chrome bright condition with a dark blue/black back coupled with an egg skein slightly larger than a pencil with well defined single eggs. The belly meat, which was slit to clean the fish, was 3/4" thick and a creamy white color indicating high fat content needed to mature the eggs. The belly meat of a psawned fish(summer or winter) or any fish with mature eggs will be very thin and lacking much fat content, since the fat is used up maturing the eggs or milt. Hope this is understandable and helps.
This is the earliest I have ever seen a fresh summer fish caught in the Sandy. Occasionally a few are reportedly caught in late February and early March.
Scales from the fish can also be examined under a microscope to determine sub species.

[ 01-18-2002: Message edited by: Wiser? ]</p>

[wiser]

http://www.ifish.net/uploads/03001618.jpg
One more hatchery fish today. Put in a little comparison just for you Netone. No smelt in the Sandy yet :smile: . 28" 8 pounds. If I get two of these will it qualify for that sixteen pounder?
Hope everyone who participated in Flotilla 3.5 did well.
Artwo, Hope you got to fish your drift. It may have been a little difficult to get in there with the security for Tommy Lee Jones, b. Del Toro et. al. taking up the parking area at your favorite access point.

[ 01-19-2002: Message edited by: Wiser? ]</p>

[FearNoEvil]

dangit wiser? you catch to many fish!.....geez man... :smile: way to go.. very nice fish..

[blacktail]

I picked up 2 hatchery fish above Dodge today. One about 9 lbs, the other about 6 lbs.

Both fish taken on a float and jig. Only saw two other fish for lots of anglers.

Mike

[wiser]

PE,
Wait till I get those fancy metallic blue/green/black corkies you promised. You notice I had to resort to the old sunrise orange cheater with a knot of light pink yarn to fool them today.

[ 01-19-2002: Message edited by: Wiser? ]</p>

[FearNoEvil]

i gotta go to the post office since htey sent em back!!! jerks.. anyways i'll head over this week adn send them out :smile:

CAseyhttp://www.ifish.net/uploads/12292118.jpg

[ 01-19-2002: Message edited by: PrimeEvil ]</p>

[Artwo]

Wiser,
Had a fine day on the river today and no problem with the security, just have to get there before they do in the morning and ignore the "area closed" signs. Caught one first thing this morning then had two boats come in and low and behold who was in these boats, smiley (and friend), lipripper and FM2 (with daughter) from ifish. We fished together for about two hours with lipripper landing a dandy native buck. FM2 got pictures of it and me with my fish so hopefully he will post them for us. They were all a joy to fish and converse with but eventually they had to move on. Shortly after they left I landed another, almost a twin of the first. So I fished for about an hour more and decided I'ld had enough and left around noon with two for the day.....not to bad. From your description above on winter vs summer fish I believe the first one I caught was a summer fish, had no eggs in her and the other was plum full. Her meat was still nice and orange and she only had alittle color to her around her fins, kind of skinny but still looked good. You should be able to tell when FM2 post the pics. These two were taken on metallic blue corkie with fresh eggs cured up from last weekends fish. Hope you all had a good day as well.

JK

[Lipripper]

Artwo it was nice to meet you. Now I know that when I see you again on the river I will know where the fish are. Smily and Jim managed to hook and land a little buck and I managed an even smaller hen. Great day on the river,fishing and catching was great. Hope to see up there again.

[wiser]

Good to see friends unmet are catching fish. I probably saw you drift down the river past the area I was fishing. In fact it may have been your boat that went over and stirred up the hen I caught. What kind of boat were you in? Some reports indicate success is down but I know there are plenty of fresh fish around.
Guess I'll have to start calling it Artwo's drift.

[ssteelheadsteve]

DO YOU SEE THE PINAPED MARKS IN THE PHOTOS ABOVE ?