Upper Nehalem around Berkinfield

[east high]

New to the forum. The wife and I recently bought a cabin out at Fishhawk lake and I'm wondering if any of y'all have fished Fishhawk creek and down into the Nehalem around the Birkenfield area. I caught my first cutthroat floating a parachute adams on the lake surface last Saturday night, so I know there're fish in the system.

 

[portlandrain]

There's some great fishing for the entire length of the Nehalem for cutthroat! I grew up in Vernonia and used to fish that river daily as a kid. We used to put on shorts and old tennis shoes and just walk down stream through the water, fishing as we went. This time of year the algae is probably blooming so it makes it tough to fish spinners, but as the summer hits that will slow down and the fishing will be great. Look for deep shady pockets where they can stay cool, and below and rapid areas where there's a lot of turbidity. I used to throw roostertails mostly, but any spinner will do the trick depending on the day. A lot of the fish up that way are on the smaller size, but they fight pretty well. I bet you can catch ten in a couple hours on a good day, or at least a couple on a bad one. I threw 10 casts at spruce run about 2 weeks ago and caught two just like that.

 

[east high]

Thanks portlandrain. You're right about the algae... gobs of it in the lake right now. You're also right about a lot of fun in a little fish. Like I said, this was my first cutty and I was surprised at the fight it put up when it saw me ha.

 

[GungasUncle]

Congrats on the new cabin - never seen Fishhawk in person, but pictures and reports of it make it sound like a pretty spiffy private fishery. I am a little surprised it opens during the late stream trout opener, since it's a reservoir. Do salmon and steelhead make it through a fish passage into the lake? Only reason to open so late is for out migration of smolt.

The Nehalem itself has a very good trout fishery for resident rainbows (or if you will, steelhead that say "screw dat" to migrating to the sea and decide to stay fresh with their resident cutthroat cousins) plus the coastal cutties. Has a good run of sea run cutts too. If you're fly fishing - try swinging soft hackle wet flies, it can be a kick for those cutties. Nymphing works well too.

Would love to see some pictures of the area that come from something other than the HOA website. The thing that surprises me - they say there's no gas motors on the lake - man powered or electric only, but they have a photo of a family enjoying time on the lake in a party barge (big pontoon boat) - never seen one that can be pushed along by an electric at anything other than snail speed. It looks like a GREAT lake to fish from a belly boat, kayak, or personal pontoon (cataraft type, not party barge type).

I would try my hand with an intermediate sinking line, and some woolly buggers in there. Black, olive, crimson, and brown would be my first choices. Same setup will work in the Nehalem too - them fishies eat buggers pretty well.

 

[east high]

It's a nice, quiet little lake. There's a fish ladder at the dam to allow fish up into the lake and above. You're right about the no gas motors party barges - they just kinda put along. I saw a guy trolling off the back of a little row boat a few months back. That was entertaining . I definitely need some kind of boat as there were lots of fish jumpin out in the deeper parts that don't have walkup access.

I am fly fishing. Caught the fish on a dry in the PM with lots of surface activity. Went back out in the morning and didn't see much so I tied on a little wet hackle spider and noticed it didn't get down too far. I guess it is time for a sinking line!

 

[GungasUncle]

Yep, you need either some sinking poly leaders (or versileaders - same thing, one made by Airflo, the other by Rio) - I like the 10 footers because they cast better in general than the short 5 footers. I would snatch up the intermediate variety first, maybe followed by the "fast sink" which is something like 3.6 inches per second sink rate. Those two will pretty much cover most situations that a sink tip would be appropriate for, and you'll get down into the 4-6 foot zone pretty quick. If you need to get down deeper than 6 feet, you would be better served by a dedicated sink tip line or a full sinker.