Thoughts on Eagle Creek

[happybrew]

I've been promising my son I'd take him coho fishing on Eagle Creek this year. I was looking at the Ifish archives to see when I got them the last two years. Last year, due to the lack of rain, I nailed 'em on November 9th, when a brief bit of rain raised it about 6 inches, and salmon were shooting up the river like crazy. They were not stopping in any holes, but simply swimming on through, and about 200 fish swam by me in a couple of hours. I was shopping for a house at the time, got sick of it, and decided it was the time to go after checking river levels in the area. Small creeks in the area had risen about six inches, so I figured Eagle Creek had risen about that much as well, and the coho, being very late, would be looking for any excuse to head up. Sure enough fish were shooting up to the hatchery without stopping on the way, and I got three. It was my only trip to Eagle Creek last year, and I didn't get to fish again really until February, due to buying a new house and having to move. The year before that, I went on October 15, and there were tons of fish stacked up in every hole, unlike 2002, when they were shooting through. The water was also a lot higher than last year. So when will there be a lot of fish in the creek this year? I'm figuring one more rain storm soon, and they'll head in in large numbers. Unfortunately, there's no rain forecast until 10/2, and then only a small amount. Any bets on when there will be a lot of fish in?

happybrew

[rpnsteelheadlps]

Eagle Creek above the dam ?

[foxer]

The fish still move up, they just do it in smaller(very) numbers and at night. I fished the clack above carver thur night and didnt see a fish jump. I think that maybe the Eagle creek run is just later than the Sandy. You should be able to tell after the first good rain...

[Martin85]

As of last Thursday the hatchery had 28 fish. I checked some of the holes up from the park and couldn't see any jumping and I fished it Friday and Sat. for a couple of hours each night and no jumpers or bites? And the river has come down a bunch in the last week.

[Bounty Hunter]

Sounds like you have done the research and have a good of a guess as any. I usually wait until there are a few good pushes at the 99 St. slot and schools are rolling in the Clack.

[happybrew]

Dave: no, the one that feeds into the Clack.


The ODFW report says there are some, but not a lot of coho in the Clack system. If we don't get more rain, we may have a repeat of last year when the fish didn't move up in any good numbers until November. I certainly hope that doesn't happen. Accuweather is pushing their forecast of rain off to 10/5 now, but more of it. Of course, the two week forecasts are highly variable. Maybe we'll get some good storms the first week in October and things will look up.

happybrew