Marty's Drift March 2004

Shows and Recent Fishing Trips

Weather in Oregon the past couple weeks has been great. Skies have been clear and temperatures have been in the upper 50s and low 60s. I finished my part of the show season at the end of February. The sportsman’s shows are fun, but also tiring. The fun is the chance to see people I’ve met over the years in towns that I only visit once a year. It’s always great to see customers from previous years who stop by the display booth and relate stories of fishing trips they have made with their ClackaCraft boats.

However, it is nice to be finished with traveling and have some time to go fishing. Last week I was able to fish the Nehalem River twice, once on Tuesday 3/16 and again on Saturday 3/20. The Nehalem is the biggest river on the north Oregon coast. If it rains hard, it goes out of shape fast. Many years it is too muddy to fish through the late winter/spring season. The clear dry weather we have experienced for the past couple weeks put the Nehalem in perfect condition. Tuesday my old friend Peter Suriano and I met Jeff Mishler and Rob Russell to do a two-boat float on the lower river.

The put in for this float is just a slide from the road to the river. You put a rope on the bow eye and slowly lower the boat to the riverbank. Make sure you have enough rope. The nice thing about ClackaCraft boats is that the bottoms are slippery and they slide down the bank easily.

Jeff and Rob are both accomplished two-handed rod fishermen. Peter is developing his two-handed rod skills and both Rob and Jeff gave him a lot of help. We stopped and waded to fish the nice runs on the drift. This was good water for swinging flies. Big marabous, rabbit strip leeches and tube flies in an array of colors were what we used on sinking tip lines. We didn’t hook any fish ourselves, but some of the other boats fishing that day hooked fish on jigs and plugs.

On Saturday my wife, Joyce and I returned to fish the Nehalem again. This time we fished along with Norm Ritchie, president of the Northwest Steelheaders, Rod Brobeck, executive director of the Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation, and Sharon Schaub, business manager for the Steelheaders. This time we fished with plugs, spinners and jigs. Neither Joyce nor I hooked anything, but Norm landed a small wild steelhead. The day was beautiful. Most of the day I was comfortable in waders and T-shirt. We had our two dogs with us and enjoyed their company.

The Nehalem fishery is a catch & release fishery. We are lucky to have it. If this run were weaker, even catch & release would not be permitted. And there are threats on the horizon for this fishery. The Nehalem flows from the Tillamook-Clatsop State Forest. The Oregon Department of Forestry manages this forest and their current management plan provides no protection for rivers, streams, wildlife habitat or community drinking water.

Fish Grow on Trees

I know the title isn't very original, but it certainly is true. Over the past five years that I have been working at ClackaCraft we have enjoyed a steady increase in our local boat sales. Not so coincidentally our steelhead and salmon runs have also improved. When there are good returns of our anadromous fish, business is good in the sport fishing industry.

Just to the west of Portland lie the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests. From these forests flow eight major salmonid bearing rivers: Necanicum, Nehalem, Miami, Kilchis, Wilson, Trask, Tillamook and Nestucca. There are five species of salmon present in these streams; cutthroat trout, steelhead, chum salmon, coho salmon and Chinook salmon. Because wild populations of these fish are already low, wild fish may no longer be kept if caught.

The current forest plan for the Tillamook-Clatsop State Forest, proposed by the Oregon State Department of Forestry, will cut 85% of the forest over the next 20 years for timber production. A cut of those proportions will do several things to the rivers in the forests. First, it will destabilize the slopes above the rivers. Much of the terrain in the Tillamook-Clatsop is on 50 to 90% slopes. Harvest taking place right now is being done on many 70 to 80% slopes. Timber harvest being done on small up-slope streams, even if not fish bearing, causes water temperature to increase. On the majority of the rivers that flow from the Tillamook-Clatsop State Forest summer temperatures already exceed what salmon and trout can tolerate, causing poor survival for adults and juveniles alike.

The Salmonberry River is one of the main tributaries of the Nehalem. It has a healthy run of wild, late winter steelhead. The habitat of the Salmonberry was relatively intact 10 or 12 years ago. Today everywhere you look you see clear cuts, some on private land and some on State Forest land. There is no protection for fish in the Department of Forestry’s plan for the State Forest.

In the past six to eight months a group has developed to work for protection of the Tillamook-Clatsop State Forest. Oregonians for a Balanced Tillamook (Balance PAC) is a political action committee circulating an initiative for the November 2004 ballot. You can view the initiative at www.tillamook5050.org. The Tillamook 50/50 plan ensures that 50% of the Tillamook-Clatsop State Forest will be managed for conservation, recreation, fish and wildlife habitat and clean drinking water. The rest of the forest will be managed for sustainable timber production. The Tillamook 50/50 plan will provide jobs in both the timber industry and the recreation industry. It will provide better habitat for wildlife such as spotted owls and murrelets, and it will protect drinking water supplies for communities. Riparian zones will receive more protection for more stable riverbanks and cooler summer time water temperatures. This is an issue that every Oregonian concerned with a healthy economy and healthy environment should support.

Give Marty a call at: (503) 655-9532

You can also call Idaho Falls at (800) 394-1345.