Upper Sandy River Report

[garyk]

10/23/2003

Fished the Sandy from 11am-6pm. The water was very discolored with gray mud, visibility about a foot or so. Headed down below the popular holes and had the river to ourselves. After about three hours without a bump we headed back up and joined the crowd at the mouth of Cedar Creek. Fishing a little upstream we both fair hooked and fouled a couple on spinners and then switched to the flyrods (7 wt. and 8wt.) – the first time we ever attempted Sandy coho on flies. Over the next couple hours we both hooked a handful each, about 1 in 3 was fair-hooked (which was about three times better than the drift fisherman). We both began with floating lines. I had better action using a rig that works well for chum salmon: a deep-sinking shooting head comprised of 5' of Deepwater express, backed by 15' of Amnesia mono, and then the running line. For flies, we used egg patterns.

Lots of fish present, the majority were way too dark for me to be interested in. Perhaps 10% of the many fish I saw hooked were bright enough to keep.

We actually had a pretty good time considering how dirty the water was. In clearer conditions I think you could have a kick with a flyrod (plus snag and lose a lot less gear). I’m looking forward to next year.

[Navigator]

Thanks for the report. I was wondering what it was like up there.