The middle of October is prime time on the Nestucca River for fall Chinook. The fish are fresh from the ocean, full of fight and excellent smoked, baked or barbequed. You can tell, I’m admitting that I was lusting for a fresh, bright salmon.
Joyce and I left our beach house about 7:00 a.m. on Friday, October 17 th. We don’t rush out in the morning anymore. We prefer to let the dawn onslaught of boats get ahead of us and spend our day behind them and under less pressure.
We stopped to arrange our shuttle at Nestucca River Outfitters (503-392-4269, www.nestuccariveroutfitters.com) in Hebo and get some tips from Pat on the current fishing. I told him we wanted to float from First Bridge to Farmer Creek and he asked what kind of boat we had.
“ClackaCraft,” I replied.
“Well, it’s pretty low, but you’ll be able to get through. Rich Youngers floated it yesterday in a ClackaCraft and didn’t have any trouble.”
In addition to our shuttle I bought a container of roe and two boxes of sand shrimp. Eggs and shrimp are a good combination for fall Chinook and as I said, I was hungry for a nice bright salmon, so we happily plunked down $20.00 for bait.
When we got to the put-in we found a vehicle parked under the bridge in the only spot to maneuver and back a boat into the water. Fortunately the fellows who parked were nearby and moved their car so I could get turned around. These people were perfectly pleasant when I asked them to move the vehicle. I guess people who don’t use boats fail to understand what it takes to get a boat launched or to move a boat around for a launch.
Joyce casts to rising cutthroat under the yellow foliage of a big leaf maple.
The river was probably the lowest that I’ve ever floated it and because of this many places where I would have used divers and bait for salmon just moved too slow to make a diver work. There were, however, lots of nice riffles that were perfect to fly fish for sea-run cutts. In the first one where we stopped to fish, Joyce hooked a fish that buzzed line off her reel before it came off. We stayed in this area for longer than we should have because of the trout activity that we had. Every fourth or fifth cast we would have a tempting pull at our flies. Then we saw fish rising consistently. We suspected they were taking caddis that we saw flying, but none of our nymphs, emergers, or dry fly patterns resulted in a hook-up.
At noon we pulled onto a gravel bar, got out our camp chairs and ate lunch in the warm fall sun. Right at our lunch spot we could see cutthroat rising. We caught a couple small ones and had hard hits from others that we didn’t see.
Gravel bar lunch stop with bright vine maple
The Rock Hole is a renowned salmon holding area. It is a deep hole with little or no current. As we floated down to it we could see salmon breaking the surface. The ones that I saw looked bright as they rolled, coming out of the water. Out came the float rods, the eggs, and sand shrimp. The bait offering floated through the hole again and again with no response. In several smaller holes where we saw salmon roll I used the float and bait again without result.
The riffles were where we found our action with sea-run cutts and, low and behold, a summer steelhead. Not only a summer steelhead, but a wild, no fin clip, summer steelhead. Where did a wild summer steelhead come from? The stock used for the Nestucca summer run steelhead is originally from the Siletz River. The Siletz is the only river which originates in the Coast Range that has a native run of summer steelhead. My first guess is that some of those hatchery summer-runs must be spawning successfully. On the other hand steelhead are notorious for straying, perhaps this was a fish from the Siletz?
About half way through our float we stopped at a place we had caught fish before. Within one or two casts I had a nice, 14” cutthroat. It was strong enough that it pulled line from the reel and ran off 15 or 20 feet of line. Often you will find cutthroat in small schools. Many times in the past we have taken four or five cutthroat from the same small run. Once the fish was landed and Joyce snapped a couple photos I turned the water over to her in hopes she would hook a fish or two.
A fresh sea-run cutthroat
Our favorite fly pattern for sea-run cutthroat is called the Borden Special. It was developed by Bob Borden years ago on the Siletz River and it has been a reliable pattern on many rivers. It was responsible for the largest steelhead I ever caught on the Deschutes River, a fish of 17 to 20 pounds. On silver salmon rivers in Alaska it will always produce.
The Borden Special
Joyce went through the run with the Borden and hooked a couple of small cutthroat. I also like small Muddler Minnows as a follow-up pattern for cutthroat. Once Joyce finished I waded back out with a Muddler for a couple of casts. It didn’t take much time to hook up. This time it was the steelhead. When the fish first jumped, I thought to myself, wow, if I land this fish it’s going in the smoker. Of course, I was thinking all the summer-runs in this river are hatchery fish. After three more high flying jumps and several good runs the fish came into the shallows. Imagine my surprise when I saw the adipose fin fully intact. I rolled it over and confirmed that it possessed all of its fins. Joyce snapped photos again and I gratefully released the fish to continue wherever it was headed.
A small summer steelhead being released.
The rest of the day was a bit anticlimactic. We caught a few more small cutthroat and we tried with floats and bait for salmon without any success. At the take-out I found it somewhat ironic that even with $20.00 worth of good bait we had caught all our fish on five-weight fly rods, floating lines and flies.
The point is not that flies are better than bait. I firmly believe a skilled bait angler will usually do much better than one using flies. I also believe that it takes a lot of practice and skill to become a good bait angler. So I need to admit that I’m not a good bait angler. I’m only a passable fly angler. This is where luck comes into play. Luck trumps skill every time.
SAFE for Salmon
This is a tough time to be a Columbia River commercial fisherman. The Coastal Conservation Association wants all commercial fishing outlawed for the lower Columbia. And truthfully commercial fishing with gill nets on the lower Columbia is an outdated idea. Nowhere else in the United States is there a gill net fishery allowed in a river.
Taking a person’s livelihood is a hard thing to do. Times change, however, and the time for Columbia River commercial fishing has run its course. It should be ended. The issue with Columbia River gill netting is the listed and endangered salmon and steelhead that swim the river. When salmon and steelhead are caught and released in the sport fishery the mortality rate is three to 10 percent. Mortality rates for salmon, when released from gill nets, is 14 to 40 percent, depending on the size of the mesh. The commercial fishery is very hard on wild salmon and steelhead. To protect these endangered fish, gill nets in the Columbia must go.
Commercial fishing doesn’t have to be eliminated. A group of former biologists and scientists (Bill Shake, Jim Martin, Rod Sando, and Don Swartz) has come up with a plan that will allow commercial fishermen to continue to harvest salmon. SAFE (Select Areas Fisheries Enhancement) is a plan to release more hatchery salmon smolts in off channel areas in the lower Columbia. When they return as adults they would be available to commercial fishermen.
Because this would be a terminal fishery there would be little or no interaction between wild and hatchery fish. Wild fish which would be heading further upriver to spawn would not be present in the terminal, off channel, commercial fishery.
This program, if adopted, would move juvenile hatchery salmon from some hatcheries in Columbia tributaries to rearing areas near the mouth of the Columbia. It would make more fish available for both sport and commercial fishermen in the lower river.
The list of organizations that support SAFE for Salmon is growing and so far includes the following; Association of Northwest Steelheaders, Northwest Guides’ and Anglers’ Association, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, Oregon Council of Trout Unlimited, Oregon Wild, and Puget Sound Anglers.
Commercial fishermen are not happy about the SAFE idea. They feel it is a first step toward their total elimination. I think they are wrong. I think it is a way to preserve their livelihood. Some commercial fishermen make the claim that because their fathers and grandfathers fished in the Columbia, it is their right and heritage to fish in the Columbia. That’s a weak argument. My father and my grandfather had ice delivery routes in Baltimore, Maryland. Because they were ice delivery men does that mean I have a guaranteed right to earn my living as an ice delivery man? Sorry, the world changes. Commercial fishermen should recognize an opportunity to continue to fish commercially and take it. Otherwise they will become the “ice man.”
You can learn more about SAFE for Salmon by visiting their web site www.SAFEforSalmon.com or call 503-631-4747.
