Nestucca steelies

[Sublime]

Fished the nestucca this weekend and had a ball. Fished the upper section and saw hundreds of fish stacked up in pools. Decided to bring out the fly rod and try. SMACK! first cast, nice 10 lb (or so) native. Caught two more during a 2 hour spell. Made sure the hook was barbless, due to the majority of the fish being natives. However, strangely enough, my friend hooked, landed, and kept a nice 12 lb HATCHERY WAYYy up river...like in the Blaine area. anyway, just thought u should know, that the steelie fishing is great right now up there, and the pressure is practically non-existent...gotta like that! :smile:

[Tanner]

I didn't know there was any such thing as a native summer steelhead on the Nestucca. :rolleyes:

[willametteriveroutlaw]

From what I have heard they are the progeny of old hatchery stockings. That have just reverted to wild.

[Flatfish]

They are all hatchery fish.Not all summers get clipped on the coast.Look at the fins.Are they round,like a brats?Or are they super looking- sharp and square?Bet they are round.If they are old hatch fish that are wild spawning now,I have never caught a one of these.
In most cases I don't have enough experience to have a valid opinion.Here I do.I have caught(at least according to my records)137 hatchery summers on the 'Tucker in my lifetime.All were hatch fish.Fin or not.Next time you get a spring native look at the fins.Then compare it to the look of a brats.Night and day once ya know what to look for.
Mark and the dog who is,believe it or not,awake.

[baitslinger]

I have caught maybe a dozen or so summers on the Nestuc over the years, and I have to say that one of them was definitely a wild fish in my opinion. It had beautiful clean fins, the dorsal was perfect, no evidence what so ever of distortion, and it was mint 10# on the 4th of July. Made me wonder if it was possibly a stray native summer from the Siletz? I wouldn't doubt that there's a small, and I mean really small, native run in there. I also caught had a similar experience on the trask, caught a little 18"summer, definitely a wild fish. Anybody else have similar findings?

[graybeard]

I caught one of those elegant looking steelies on the Nestuc about 15 years ago. It was beautiful, much different than the hatchery fish, very long fins.