Sandy River Report

[Navigator]

Gave it the ole' college try for Coho Salmon today. I was car #15 at 5:30 a.m. and made my way down to the river in the dark. River is still brown with perhaps 6" of visibility. I got skunked.

Here is a picture I took a week ago of the river. Basically, still the same today.

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/Muddy_Sandy_Below_Cedar_Creek.jpg

I originally was going to fish Eagle Creek, but decided to stick with the Sandy since at least I knew where I was going and Eagle Creek in the canyon is basically new water for me.

I think I did all the right things, but did not touch a fish. I swung flies until it got light - big purple bunny leech and a bright Pink Lady. Then I doggedly nymphed glo' bugs and brighter egg patterns until I was exhausted. Tried orange, cerise, pink/cerise, orange/white and my flourescent peach double egg pattern. I fished all types of water - pockets, deeper runs, inshore flats, tailouts and riffles. Used both single and double split shot for weight and really concentrated on keeping my drift slow and low.

Beautiful day - stopped drizzling as soon as I got down to the river. Very pleasant. Saw one coming up from the bank and saw two taken on bobber and eggs - within about 15 minutes of one another in the afternoon. Nice looking fish. Quite a bit of pressure, but still lots of available water.

Not meant to be.

[R Jackson]

Thanks for the report. I fished the Cedar Creek area on Friday and it was slow for me too.

[PTS]

Friday morning was very good to me, peach glo bug, two split shot, indicator. Had some friendly gear guys fishing along side and was able to tell them flyfishers rule!

It has been slow and you just have to get lucky and get your fly right in a coho's face. I don't think there are that many either this year. Navigator, your description of your efforts was right on. There is nothing more that you could do. Sometimes it helps to be lucky rather than good. I hope to get lucky again tomorrow.

[SilverFly]

I know Sandy coho fishing isn't as good as last year but I still have yet to get out and IT'S KILLING ME! Hopefully I'll get to sneak out for a few hours this week. Thanks for the report and river pic!

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[AndyK]

River conditions on the Sandy have not been good this year.

Thanks for the report.

[PTS]

Finally, a pretty good day Monday on the sandy, seven silvers! I believe they shut down the diversion canal. Waters up a bit and the fish were moving.

[john montana]

glad to hear you got into the fish phil. i haven't been back since my dad left, he sure had a good time. i was thinking of giving it one more shot late this week, but i just spotted this huge koi the other day! heh heh...

are they dark or new, bright fish? i think the dark ones make for cool pictures!

[SilverFly]

Seven fish is a GREAT day in my book! How was the clarity today?

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[PTS]

Clarity was about 12 inches. I find it hard to believe this clarity problem was a slide. No doubt the fishing would be better with more visibility. There are more dark fish. The meat is still nice and red but seems softer. I kept the first buck. Probably the last fish I will keep because I need to save some space on my tag for December steelhead.

[Riverkeeper]

PTS, if that's the only thing that's stopping you from retaining more fish, buy a hatchery tag. It costs about 12 bucks and you can punch 10 more CLIPPED fish. Then when you fill that one you can buy another.

[Navigator]

Nice job PTS! Glad you got into them.

[PTS]

The water clarity was really improved today making flyfishing very effective. There are excellent numbers of fish and I encourage those of you interested to get out there. The season closes the 31st.

[R Jackson]

The water clarity was really improved today making flyfishing very effective. There are excellent numbers of fish and I encourage those of you interested to get out there. The season closes the 31st.


Thanks for the update. I think I'll hit it Thursday.