Sandy / Cedar Creek Silvers??

[garyk]

Looking towards the weekend, what's the outlook for fishing up around Cedar Creek hatchery? Any recent reports? How about it SandySteel?

[ChuckDog]

My experiences from Monday and Wednesday from Dodge Park up rocked (2 mint hens retained / homemade and blue fox on Monday; for 3 of us on Wednesday - 9 fish landed, lots of takes missed - 8 on blue fox, 1 on eggs). I imagine Cedar is bustin loose at the seams with fish and fisherman. That's definately not my scene up there though... Good luck! :cool:

[foxer]

Read todays Oregonian. You are going to have some company i think

[ampersat]

i don't take the oregonian. mind summing up the article for me? i hate to think of all of portland running over to the sandy just because the oregonian said it was doing well.

[foxer]

Big article in the metro section about the sandy. specifically the upper sandy below the hatchery. talking about how many fish expected, what people have been using etc. mentioned the clack as well. I guess I would rather see people catching/keeping the fish than having them taken to the fertilizer factory...

[ampersat]

it hasn't turned into the absolute zoo up there that it is most years. i guess it will now. too bad. if you're headed up there, prepare to hike a few miles of river to find a place to wedge in. also be prepared for flared tempers and lots of tangles with 1000 of your closest friends.

[choppers]

that's ok ampersat, i'll bring six or more of them today. :grin: graemlins/icon_argue.gif :grin:

[Fisthead]

Hm. I didn't see any articles, just a huge picture of a guy losing a coho on the Sandy and the look of anguish on his face. I've been planning on heading out that way for a couple of days now so I guess I'll still check it out. Even if it IS crowded, it' a long river and I like to hike :smile:

[Smeagol]

Here's a link to the article:
http://oregonlive.com/metroeast/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/metro_east_news/103364611383283.xml
If it doesn't work, go to oregonlive and look in the current news section for the article. I imagine this weekend will be quite busy there. Oh well. What else are you going to do? Yard work.... :>

[fisheromen]

The article made it sound like pretty much everyone who went up there and knew anything was catching (or maybe snagging) their limit. Have fun up there with the crowds guys!

The article also mentions that the fish are big this year, which is true. I got 5 Wed that were all big fat fish in the same size range (the one I measured was 29" and 12 lbs). However, I also spent Monday fishing 12 hours in total frustration as 100's of fish went by and I only had one sure take.

Gotta love the Sandy!

[Fisthead]

Well...
A friend and I headed out there today (Thurs.) in spite of all the talk of crowds. We didn't get around the hatchery but instead stayed lower and fished from Oxbow down to L & C. There were no crowds at all just a few people here and there. We talked to a guy who had been up near Eagle Creek and there weren't that many people up there either, at least in the morning. He got one smaller hen but nothing else.

We didn't see one fish all day and neither did anyone we talked to down lower. Didn't have one bite either. We fished spinners because everyone else around us was drifting corkies or eggs and none of us had any luck. So it goes. Gotta love fishing in the rain though :smile:

[STURGE ON]

How do you get to the Cedar Creek Hatchery?

[SandySteel]

Grumble grumble.... It's gonna be a zoo up there. I am glad that they mentioned to go up high by the hatchery. I don't like fishing there even though it is where the fish will stack up.
To get to Cedar Creek hatchery drive to the town of Sandy and as you are about to get out of town take a left turn at the last stop light in town. This road will take you down into the canyon. Follow it around a couple of curves and you will see a sign for the hatchery. Turn left to go down the road to the hatchery.
Did someone predict that the coho run wasn't going to be good this year? oops.
Don't forget that Dodge park would also be a good place to try.

[The Fishing Geek]

Yes, the silvers are definitely in on the Sandy. Plenty of room for everyone! Head to the Sandy IMMEDIATELY!

(TFG waits until the cover of darkness to escape to his waters of choice) :grin:

[choppers]

dude's and dudets.... bring your own rock. i went down to my usual spot luckly i saw two friends and crowded in but i also saw folks that where trigger happy. if any of you guys been down their it's not bad you can usually park near the main bldgs but yesturday guys where parked 50 to 100 yards past the main bldgs running both side of the road heading out of the hatchery. not to mention the lot was jammed full. i didn't see may guys fair hook them but some folks took out nice fish. 1/5 fair. just head up.

time to kill something with four legs.

good luck, choppers :wink:

[ampersat]

and so it begins. that bad and it's not even the weekend. the power of the printed word. time to scout some new spots, make my first run in the drift boat, or maybe try out a coastal river.

[foxer]

Anybody know what the water looks like up there this morning? Thinking of leaving work early and give it a go..

[NWRedside]

went tuesday after the rain. Was there before 5 AM and there were already three cars there. Walked out around 10:30 with a buddy and three fish, and there were around 40 trucks there.
We fish the fast water mainly, however in two hours we watched people snag over and over and over fish from a big hold that was near us. We counted over 30 fish to the bank snagged.
I understand that fish will be snagged unintentially every once in a while, however this was really getting me ****** off. They were horsing the fish up on the sandy bank, getting sand in their gills, picking them up by stuffing their fat thumbs in the gills...stepping on the fish, etc...before releasing them. In my opinion that is as bad as keeping a snagged fish and they should be ticketed. What's sad is that there were 24 people fishing side to side in this hole with only two fish that I saw leagally hooked all morning.
My buddy got checked yesterday coming by a trooper, so maybe some of this might improve. Problem is I doubt any of them will make the hike down to where the action is taking place.....

[Smeagol]

Maybe the article and huge crowds will draw in a few wardens to the area. It should be easy pickings from the sounds of it. All those snaggers lined up shoulder to shoulder with no place to go...

[Barviewrocks]

Regarding snagging - I used to fish with an ex state trooper who would wear a baseball cap with State Police printed on it. People would look at him funny and clean up their act. We did not see any snagging whenever we went fishing. Do you think it is legal to print up some hats like those??

[NWRedside]

Barviewrocks- I like it, I like it a lot. I don't see how that could be illegal as long as you never acted like you were acting in the capacity of a warden. People wear NYPD hats all the time, seems like the same thing to me?

How many people think that their should be some regulation as to how a fish should be released. I'm not necessarily saying there should be, however it seems some peoples way of handling fish that they know are going back in the drink is somewhat negligent.

[mallard0311]

Regarding State Police hats. That's not a bad idea although the snaggers would wear them too. As far as legal I would say yes. As far as wearing them, you should have to earn the honor to wear one. It is hard to find a place to fish anymore like the old days. Do you know that 10 years ago we had less Game officers than we did 50 years ago. With cut's there will be less out there. All they can do is scratch the suface of what is going on. I do know that if you video tape these guys and the license plate of their vehicle that a citation or arrest will happen in a lot of cases. We are going to have to self police because all these newer fishermen don't have a clue what eticate is. Because boats sales continue to be good and we haven't built more rivers to accomadate everyone. We should go to an odd, even number system to eliminate some of the crowding.

[fisheromen]

We have to work hard to get to our favorite hole on the Sandy. It's two miles hiking the river with 2 crossings, one of which is impossible over 2000 CFS and difficult under it. We have NO crowd issues and at out honey hole we have NEVER been skunked, silvers, steelhead or springers (of course we've only been fishing it about a year and only been up there about 15 times). About half the time there might be one or at most two other people there and it is a long hole. You can still find good fishing in pristine settings, you just have to work more for it.

As for snaggers, I watched a guy pull a snagged fish out on Monday and next thing I know he's walking up the bank with it. I was ticked but not thinking fast enough to remember that the number to call was on my license.

[BUGLEMAN]

It only takes one person to get the real police to bust criminals if there is evidence of the crime. But two witnesses beats the his word against mine argument. If there is a snagged fish, and the police confiscate it, two quality witnesses is all it would take to get a conviction. No video required.

[Slayer]

I think that we should form some type of posee where anglers can have the right to provide info to get all of these illegal fisherman to stop! Like a direct link to Game Wardens. I know if I was in jeapordy of loosing my privledges, and my possesions I would stop. We could wear hats, call ourselves "Fishermen's Posee". Yeah! That's the ticket :grin: Pepole would know if we were standing next to them that they better shape up or ship out. Recieve some type of training from the State Police or something?

[Jooky]

Friday 1000000 anglers and only saw 3 fish legal.

Slow Slow slow

dont know it I'm going to bother again, there are tons of fish but no real biters..whats up?

[lor]

I fished up at Cedar creek and downstream
at the next hole. Saw alot of fish hooked, most inadvertantly fouled, but nothing as obvious as I've seen at other places.

I hooked two fish, both in the and they
off as I was bringing them in.
The fish @ Cedar creek and above tended to be a little dark. The fish down below are much brighter

I'll probably head back tomorrow after church.

[fisheromen]

I'm not a real expert, but with silvers, even fish that have been in the river awhile can be very aggressive. I've had old darkies chase flies or spinners all the way across the river. I experienced the frustrating lock jaw thing last Monday and to some extent Wednesday. A lot of it is persistence. Sometimes the bite comes and goes and by moving around, trying different things, and fishing over fish that haven't been fished in awhile or which have recently moved you can often find an aggressive biter.

[garyk]

Well, I asked for reports, so here's mine...

Made it up to Cedar Creek Hatchery about noon. Walking in, some of the morning crew were coming out. I was a bit suprised how few fish these early risers appeared to have; an average of about 1 for every two or three anglers. I immediately lowered my expectations.

I walked downstream below almost everyone and it was nearly 1pm before I made my first cast.

I had one brief on/off using a small pink corky.

After a couple more hours of no action, I switched over to roe, sometimes lightly weighted and in the shallower spots, no weight at all.

I quickly started getting some bumps and taps, missed a couple. Then landed a jack followed by a 12# buck.

Finally quit a little after 6pm when it became apparent that there wasn't going to be an evening bite.

Beautiful autumn day on the Sandy and I finally feel like I'm starting to learn how to fish for those crazy coho up here.

[Navigator]

GaryK -- Two fish in an afternoon. Wish I knew the feeling. Glad you got a couple. I have tried similar tactics but just have been guessing wrong - though I am only averaging about 2-3 hours a trip. That persistence thing is not easy.