River Mill nookers

birdhunter · 07-16-2001, 11:00 PM

Well I made a trip up to River Mill on the Clack this evening with the hope of finding a nice bright summer steelie. Instead we found lots and lots of springers. Yes, thats right, we harassed the dark fish. Only fished for a few hours in the evening, but my buddy and I managed to hook and painfully lose two chinook on our light gear. Heard of one other steelhead being caught in the hole below us.

I was throwing one of those Flash Glo spinners in the pool below the dam and wasn't doing very good. We could see 60 or so chinook in the water, w/ a nice mix of dark, brown and surprisingly bright fish. Both hatchery and wild too. Tied on some yarn above my spinner and soaked it in shrimp scent. First cast out there had a 25 lb springer come up from the depths and nail it right in front of me. Pretty cool to see them hit. Fish wasn't too bright, but wasn't dark either. Had him on for about 5 minutes and got him near shore once. Hatchery fish too. He finally managed to break me off when he ran back into the pool. Like I said, we were planning on steelhead and 10 lb test on a noodle rod in those rocks just didn't cut it. I surprised he stayed on as long as he did. Oh well.

A few minutes later, my buddy hooked another springer on a chartruese spinner. Fish tailwalked across the surface and spit the chartruese blue fox right back at him. Didn't have any other hits after that. Might of had something to do with them letting water over the dam and muddying up the hole a ton. Still, it was nice to hook into some fish. There were about 7 people or so there in the evening, so it wasn't too crowded. Plan on going back w/ bobber and eggs later this week. Also some heavier line and poles. Will post results.

Hoosier Daddy · 07-17-2001, 07:27 AM

Sweeeeeeeet.

birdhunter · 07-19-2001, 09:10 PM

Well we bobber fished River Mill again this evening w/out any success. Eggs couldn't stay out there 5 minutes w/out being nibbled off by ********* or smolts. Didn't see nearly as many salmon jumping and the river has dropped a little. Between the river level and clear sunny skies the bite was off. Met ampersat and some of his buddies fishing there. They picked up some ********* and smolts, but hadn't hooked into that big chinook by the time I had left.

We did have some entertainment for the evening though. My buddy snagged his line on a rock a little ways out from shore and since he was wearing shorts, decided he could wade out there and get it. He made it out just fine, but on the way back in he slipped and got dunked in the river. Came out soaked and swearing up a storm. Made for a cold, uncomfortable remainder of the evening as I didn't want to leave the fish. Better luck next time Jim.

There still are a few nice chinook in the system. Floated Barton to Carver w/ Smiley on Tuesday afternoon and saw a beautiful bright chinook just above Carver. Thing must have been about 20 lbs and was holding behind a rock maybe 10 feet from us when we went past. We didn't get any steelhead, but seeing that marvelous, wild fish really made the trip worthwhile.

Navigator · 07-19-2001, 10:09 PM

Thanks for the post Birdhunter. I had given up on River Mill for the season. My mistake!

Coot22 · 07-20-2001, 08:54 PM

hey birdie...

Erica caught her first steelhead today! She is getting hooked bad by fishing. She is loving it and so am I!!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] We were at thirty-two and got it on a wee wart (orange of course). saw a ton of fish caught too! thought i would let you know. oh, by the way, not going to the coast on sunday...going to the deschutes, I will explain later.

-Cody