Cutthroat on Sandy/Report

gideeyup · 03-07-2007, 04:34 PM

Fished the upper Sandy between Cedar and Marmot today. One of the 5 fish I hooked was about 3 Lbs. and had a beautiful red stripe down it's body and red strips under it's gills. Also had spots everywhere including it's belly underneath. Does the Sandy have cuttroats? I've steelhead fished the Sandy summer's and winter's since 1980 and this was the first time I've seen what looked like a cutthroat. Buddy and I went 3-10 today. Had some line and leader troubles.

gideeyup · 03-07-2007, 04:37 PM

Sorry. I meant this post for the main fishing board.

cphatts · 03-07-2007, 06:47 PM

I beleive the Sandy does have a few cutts and also a few bull trout. From what I hear both are pretty rare though.

AndyK · 03-07-2007, 07:57 PM

I have caught cutthroat on the Sandy, but as said, they are not very common.

Never seen a bull trout.

gottafish · 03-07-2007, 09:51 PM

Ive caught 1 cutt and 2 bulls in 10 years of fly fishing the river.

Matthewc · 03-07-2007, 10:13 PM

Get a camera : P

I have heard reports of large fat heavily spotted 3 to 4 lb rainbows being takin in secluded areas but not bulls or cutts of that size.

Ryan Pultz · 03-07-2007, 11:07 PM

that would be a pleasant treat! rp

PittsburghD · 03-08-2007, 04:14 PM

Interesting. I thought we were to be fishing trout on these rivers until May 31st? Sounds like a cutt but, is there any chance its a 3lb smolt? I don't know. Whatever it is though, sounds like fun to me.

--D

Mad Mikey · 03-08-2007, 05:53 PM

A few years post 96' flood we started to hear of sea-run cutts on the Sandy, big ones.

Resident cutts from the upper reaches washed to sea, in 96', some came home after a good feed in the salt.

Sounds like a few are still making it back.

gideeyup · 03-08-2007, 08:26 PM

Some interesting info guys. I appreciate your input. Main board got 1 reply

It definitely wasn't a smolt. I had a camera but I didn't want to take the time to get it out. I wanted to release it as quick as possible. I'm sure it was a cutthroat after looking at some pictures. As rare as it probably was I regret not taking a picture now but at least it was released unharmed.

Ryan Pultz · 03-08-2007, 08:35 PM

yeah sorry about the response you got on the main boat sometimes it can be salmon and steelhead only land we on the fly board do love our trout. Congrad�s on catching such a rare fish in that river rp

Beamerfish · 03-09-2007, 05:52 AM

Another confirmation of cuts in the Sandy. Caught a fat 16 incher in the zigzag some years back - positive it was a cut.

brushpuppy · 03-09-2007, 07:42 AM

Historically the Sandy had a decent Cutthroat population, but not a major one. It also had a few strains of upper river Rainbow that where reported to be quite spectacular and not a sea-going variety (i.e. resident trout rather than Steelhead).
Sadly, along with what was once a pretty strong run of Chum Salmon (now extinct) these trout are not there in #'s anymore and haven't been for 30-40 years.
Maybe in time, with the wild fish management and removal of Marmot, a few more of these fish will begin to show up in the incidental catch while we target their bigger relatives.
Curious, have any of you hooked any White fish lately?? I used to turn one or two a season in the upper canyon but haven't seen one in 5 years or so.
I released one (White fish) on the Upper Clack in the early 90's that went over 4lbs. Had I not released it I could have entered it for a state record.

On a side note, back when I was first learning to throw a fly I would
practise way down low in the Troutdale area and the first fish I ever hooked with feathers was a juvenile Shad. Go figure.

Abalone · 03-09-2007, 08:03 AM

I am sure there are cutts in the Sandy, as there are tons of them in the tribs. Bull run, Little Sandy etc. Coastal Cutts are native to all of our streams and they are survivalists. They can adapt to anything.

It wouldn't bother me if they made them C & R throughout the State.

The problem is that they are too easy to catch which makes them easy targets. While their numbers are high, Really big ones aren't that easy to come by. I believe these fish will move all over the place, from stream to stream looking for food. That's one of the attributes that allows them to survive. That big Cutt could have spent most of it's life in the columbia river for all we know..

Nice fish !

gottafish · 03-13-2007, 03:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brushpuppy

along with what was once a pretty strong run of Chum Salmon (now extinct) .

NOT, I catch chum in there every year

brushpuppy · 03-13-2007, 08:34 AM

Gottafish, I guess I stand corrected. Do you run across them frequently??
By looking at your # of posts and your location I figure you know what your talking about but in the 10 year stretch I spent fishing the mouth to Dabney very heavily from late summer to early winter for Chinook, Coho and summer steel, I have never, ever, seen the glorious purple tiger stripes of the mighty chum in the Sandy.
From what I've read, the Chum run in the Sandy was decimated in the late 1800's or early 1900's when the boats stretched their nets right across the mouth of the river and pretty much cleaned the runs clock in a few short years.
On a side note, I met an elderly fisherman one afternoon while fishing the mouth about 15 years ago who's parents would bring him down there to fish, or go up to Celilo and pay a penny a pound, when he was a kid. This was before the dams were in. He told me that it was pretty amazing, that the salmon would be spawning right there in the free flowing Columbia itself and the beaches where literally lined with spawned out salmon carcasses.

Mad Mikey · 03-13-2007, 05:18 PM

Quote:

NOT, I catch chum in there every year

Rich buddy, no disrespect but... Can you prove this?

I'd be very interested to see piks. If folks were catching chums in the Sandy we'd be hearing about it on the BB's.

If YOU catch them every year, someone ELSE should have caught one somewhere along the line and it would have surfaced on the net in one way or another.

Rich, although I've never met you, you are one friggin' cool dude.

I just disagree with you this time.

Give us proof.

Do that and I will publicly apologize and call myself a doofus.

luv' ya bro.....

Matthewc · 03-14-2007, 08:59 PM

I saw a chum running up Tanner creek last fall with the tules and coho. I actually got it on film but its harder to see...asked the hatchery guys bout it and they said we have not seen one before. I was not so takin by the fact he was there as much as the fact he was there in august/sept, thats when they run in canada, so odd but true, dunno bout sandy river.

AndyK · 03-15-2007, 05:24 AM

20,000 years ago, at the height of the Ice Age, the Columbia and most of Oregon was covered by an arctic icecap. There were no fish in the rivers when the ice receded, so all the fish came from strays from other river systems.

Maybe nature is just expanding the range of chum to include all possible spawning rivers? That�s probably how they got here after the ice age.

Slow and Low · 03-15-2007, 05:50 AM

121 chum were counted over bonneville in 2006. Not sure where they are going, probably the mouth of some obscure creak on the Columbia. Check it out. Not impossible to catch strays especially closer to the mouth. These are low river spawners.

Matthewc · 03-17-2007, 05:48 PM

wow cool , thanks so much for the insight into what I felt most people would say was balony....I am going to go cap the clip and put it up here so you guys can see...it is hard to see but I am certain you guys will recognize the fish as it slides by, will post later tonight....Cool!

Tanner Creek Chum Clip is now up

http://www.************************.com/pages/misc.html

SandyRiverFisher · 03-17-2007, 06:17 PM

Go up any tributary of the Sandy and you will find lots of cutts. I grew up in the area and as a kid we used to build rock dams in the spring, come back in the fall and catch tons of trout in the pools behind them. All these creeks are closed to fishing, but back then we didnt know any better. My dad owns property on Beaver Creek, a tributary of Cedar Creek, and its loaded with trout. Ive seen fish up to eighteen inches in ponds on this creek. My dad tells stories about fishing behind beaver dams back in the early sixties and catching loads of trout. As far as I know at that time the hatchery was in operation and no anadramous migration occured up where he was so these were trout, not smolt, and the fish Ive seen and caught were cutts, 100% positive. I dont know why you dont see them in the mainstem sandy, maybe they dont like glacial melt??? In any case, they are in the basin in very good numbers. I also have seen them in little creeks down on Marsh Road, and in Badger, Alder, and Wildcat Creeks. I dont doubt for a minute that the fish you were catching were cutts.

Matthewc · 03-18-2007, 12:21 AM

I have put up the clip of Tanner creek chum, hes hard to see but it tells where to look in the clip. Posted to addy below, enjoy playing wheres waldo the chum while watching , , laughs

http://www.************************.com/pages/misc.html

For the video impaired. He is the olive green fish in the top center behind the twig.

Peace

gottafish · 03-18-2007, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Mikey

Rich buddy, no disrespect but... Can you prove this?

I'd be very interested to see piks. If folks were catching chums in the Sandy we'd be hearing about it on the BB's.

If YOU catch them every year, someone ELSE should have caught one somewhere along the line and it would have surfaced on the net in one way or another.

Rich, although I've never met you, you are one friggin' cool dude.

I just disagree with you this time.

Give us proof.

Do that and I will publicly apologize and call myself a doofus.

luv' ya bro.....

I have a pic of the last one I caught and I have shown it to a fish bio and he said there is a very small run. I caught the last one above stark street bridge. Id post the pic but its a hard copy and I don't have a scanner. plus Im not sure which shoe box its in but Then again I could care less if anybody believes me. I know what I caught. and I do have a pic. I'll try and find it.

gottafish · 03-18-2007, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slow and Low

121 chum were counted over bonneville in 2006. Not sure where they are going, probably the mouth of some obscure creak on the Columbia. Check it out. Not impossible to catch strays especially closer to the mouth. These are low river spawners.

I think this is exactly what I get into on the sandy I think they are strays. Please dont mis understand me I don't get them all the time but I do get them in one little stretch of the river

Matthewc · 03-18-2007, 08:33 PM

Could be possible, the one I saw in tanner creek is only what 20 miles? from the sandy mouth. They are like smelt, some years they come some years they dont. Necanicum gets them every now and then but not every year.

Trick · 03-19-2007, 04:56 AM

I saw a whole bunch of chums in th Big Creek hatchery this year. I'd say at least over a dozen.

Much lower on the Big C list of tribs then the Sandy, but they are certainly around.

The cutthroat was probally a spawning searun.

Mojo · 03-19-2007, 11:36 AM

The lower Columbia and the lower sections of the tribs below Bonneville have a chum run. Here is a link to a website with some lower Columbia Chum spawning information... http://www.fpc.org/spawning_home.html There aren't many of them left, but there is an annual return. If they are spawning in the lower river from Portland up to Bonneville, I'd suspect some fish would try to colonize the tribs like the Sandy.

Mojo · 03-19-2007, 11:40 AM

Also check this out...
http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/Salmon-Habit...m&pageid=19467

From this document...
"The Willamette/Lower Columbia River TRT identified 16 historical demographically
independent populations of chum in the Columbia River: the Youngs Bay, Grays River,
Big Creek, Elochoman River, Clatskanie River, Mill Creek, Scappoose Creek, Cowlitz
River fall-run and summer-run, Kalama fall-run, Salmon Creek fall-run, Lewis River fallrun,
Clackamas River fall-run, Washougal River fall-run, Sandy River fall-run, Lower
Gorge tributaries fall-run, and the Upper Gorge tributaries fall-run populations (Myers et
al. 2003)."

Matthewc · 03-24-2007, 12:36 PM

I have talked to several people from the nature conservancy board and Mary Wood herself whom owns the land at one location where they spawn. They have all stated that these fish spawn in November. That confirms my thought that the August fish is indeed very early for an Oregon chum...

Stay tuned for Columbia Basin Chum, Plight of the Underdog...the Documentary..Coming in 2008.