Any one been on the North Santiam??

[Cohodependent]

The weekend is coming and was considering a trip down to the Samtiam. Has any one been there as of late or perhaps heard any reports??

[Johnny Mac]

Funny you should ask. :smile:

March 4, 2002



North Santiam River Report



Fish are running, and there is a lot of activity around all sections of the North Santiam River this week. On our recent club trip, there were 47 trailers at Green’s Bridge. Some floated down from Shelburn or Stayton, and some were drifting to Jefferson. The heavy use there indicates that the public is well served by this boatramp, and deserves maintenance and improvement.



Fish in the boat was a welcome situation for Al Saul and Hap Hampton. Both men are active in North Santiam River Guide and Steelheader projects, and catching a very fresh summer steelhead was well earned. In addition to having very successful technique and years of experience reading steelhead water, they were at the right place at the right time with the right tackle. Rumor has it that netting the fish was very interesting. Craig Noffsinger also caught a beautiful steelhead while we watched, but it was a prime winter fish that was released. We were surprised at the strength of this fish, and it went from one side of the river to the other in no time at all. It’s hard to keep up with a fish like that. The boaters saw around a dozen steelhead caught that day.



The Stayton to Green’s Bridge river trip had members from North Santiam River Guides, Albany Steelheaders, Salem Steelheaders, North Santiam Watershed Council, and several other guests. There were several shallow places along the 13 mile trip, and there was a little dragging of the bottom. Many boaters became more familiar with the different channels around the gravel bars and tree trunks. Many anglers became more familiar with places that steelhead lay, because we saw fish in many of the drifts. We also saw many that were caught, and the anglers will remember those productive places. When we put in at Stayton, there were boats launching on both sides of the river, and we counted more than 20 boats in our group.



The next general membership meeting for the Steelheaders is March 20, and the next River Guides meeting is March 27. Albany Steelheaders meet on March 6. The next club trip is from Mehama to Stayton on April 6. Some of the flyers had a typographical error and listed the wrong date for this trip, which is on Saturday, April 6. The trip will be discussed at the above meetings.



Smelly baits work best in dark water, and I recently listed WD-40 as a good scent. I was advised recently that it has been illegal to use WD-40 since 1999 because of the petroleum base. Please use some of the other scents, like Pro Cure, instead. One effective technique is to inject the scent into imitation baits, like colored worms. Some anglers glue Velcro patches on their lures, and saturate the pad with secret oils. The main household blender should not be used for preparing these scents. If decomposing sardines, herring, and crawdads are to be ground up for the preparation, the purchase of a special blender for that purpose is called for.



Sportsman’s Day at G.I. Joe’s on Lancaster on March 16 will have representatives from many different outdoor clubs. If you are interested in talking with people from diverse outdoor activities, there will be people to talk to. Clinic demonstrations of fishing styles will occur throughout the day. Club members will receive a substantial discount that day, and that includes people who join one of the clubs at the store. The event occurs from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Plan to do some of your outdoor shopping and provisioning there and then.



The log has been removed from the upper Bennett Dam boat slide. It had washed alongside the island, and was difficult to maneuver around. Thanks again to Larry Trosi and the water district for removing this hazard. The Mehama to Stayton drift is safer because of this removal. It is still tricky to learn how to use the slide, and it is helpful to watch experienced boaters do it the first time. It can be easy, but you have to learn how to do it first. There are still some rocks in the way, especially below the slide. It takes a little work to drag the boats back into the main current, but it is functional. There may be more fish around Shelburn, but this is an excellent drift with less traffic.



North Santiam River flow last week was typical for summertime. As Detroit Lake is filling up, the river level below Detroit has been around 900 cubic feet per second. After Mad Creek, Rock Creek, and the Little North Fork add their water, volume at Mehama has been around 2,000 cfs. When it rains, the river will rise, and the change can be dramatic. It is important to know what the variables are.



Lake Detroit is now 40 feet above the low level of the winter. It is still 70 feet below the full level of summer, and it is filling up at the rate of approximately a foot a day. A big rainstorm has the potential of causing Detroit to fill a foot per hour, but the recent lack of rains has caused much of the increase to come from snow melt. We do have about 150% of normal snowpack, and that is encouraging. Because of the shortage of water last year, it is reassuring to observe the increases.



Excellent numbers of steelhead are in both Santiam rivers and the Willamette. It is a very good time to go fishing if the weather permits. Al Saul can prove it, unless he already barbecued his steelhead. Thanks to Hap Hampton for putting Al into that magic spot.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I get this weekly from a great guy named Bill Sanderson.

[HT Buzzo]

Fished it yesterday in the snow. It was pretty high and I'm sure the barometer was going berzerk, but I managed to land a 36 in. buck around 4pm and lost two after that- pretty sure one was a summer. Those big nates sure are beautiful. That buck had 17 inch girth, was a fluorescent ruby red down its cheeks and sides, and had a gnarly kipe developing- it hammered a gold wart. Good thing I was using my springer rod with twenty lb mainline. We fished John Neal to the Rock Quarry. HT

[willametteriveroutlaw]

I heard of a springer being caught just below the jefferson bridge. Its heresay right now. Anyone know forsure? It would have been on wed afternoon.

[willametteriveroutlaw]

I heard of a springer being caught just below the jefferson bridge. Its heresay right now. Anyone know forsure? It would have been on wed afternoon.

[Grant Scheele]

That rumor starts everyyear about now and is never confirmed.