North Santiam this morning

[hooksetter1]

I hit the upper North Santiam this morning for steelhead, beautiful day! While no steelhead came out to play, I did manage to hook this 17" HATCHERY trout on the 3rd cast of the morning.

Ate a 4" black Pick yer Pocket, must have been hungry! Strangely it had no adipose, and to my knowledge they do not stock the North Santiam with trout. Would this have been spillover from Big Cliff? I noticed they opened the system to retention of hatchery trout (out of season otherwise he would have come home with me), just trying to figure out how they got there.

On another note, a while after I got there a survey team arrived with a pretty sweet cataraft/Yamaha30ph jet setup. They ran a bunch of guys upstream to the weir, and had a rescue team setup down below at the Packsaddle boat ramp. I asked what they were surveying, and apparently ODFW is considering replacing the current Minto weir setup. This is the first I've heard of it, is there any news out there pertaining to this?

[salembassin]

Thats a healthy hatchery fish, I was under the impression that they werent stocking below the dam but I caught some hatchery trout around the Mehama area last year. Maybe they are planting again?

[AndyK]

Originally Posted by hooksetter1

Strangely it had no adipose, and to my knowledge they do not stock the North Santiam with trout.

Check out the Spring 2010 edition of Flyfishing & Tying Journal. There is an article by John McMillan about why some rainbow trout migrate to the ocean and why some don't. The trout you caught might be a "steelhead" smolt that did not migrate. It could also be a stray from another system.

Another interesting point in the above mentioned article is that Steelhead "hens" occasionally spawn with resident male rainbows.

[Cliff]

Originally Posted by AndyK

Check out the Spring 2010 edition of Flyfishing & Tying Journal. There is an article by John McMillan about why some rainbow trout migrate to the ocean and why some don't. The trout you caught might be a "steelhead" smolt that did not migrate. It could also be a stray from another system.

Another interesting point in the above mentioned article is that Steelhead "hens" occasionally spawn with resident male rainbows.

Yeah, I was going to say, I think theres a solid chance that is a steelhead smolt that didnt want to go out to the big blue and just stayed in the river.

[motoxaaron03]

I had a plug takedown on the South Santiam a couple years ago. It was ~18" hatchery trout also. I let it go cause trout season had not yet opened. Perhaps what I had caught was also a non searunning steelhead...

[DT]

So...... as I see it, you did in fact catch a steelhead with the spey rod this morning.

[kayakkid]

Big cliff dam was broken late last fall. Most of big cliff lake was emptied. I heard a large number of the lakes planted trout ended up over the dam.

[jb79]

either way you look at it its beautiful fish on a fly rod and you weren't at work!!!

[hooksetter1]

Thanks all for the replies and insight! There are certainly some interesting variables when hatchery fish are added to a system.