Where are all the fishing reports???

[JeannaJigs]

I know that illness... luckily im 3 minutes above the hatchery, and dont start work until 1:30 in the afternoon... so i dont catch it often.

Green with envy. I'm trying to get on at the hospital for third shift. Work all night, fish during the day.

 

[benkearney]

Siuslaw below Whitaker Creek is bumper to bumper boats and shoulder to shoulder on the bank. Didn't see one tight line all morning.

 

[JeannaJigs]

Predictable

 

[plumb2fish]

hit the slaw at o'dark thirty and there were boats anchored three deep in every hole for the first 1/2 mile an hr. before daylight. Saw total of 4 fish caught for 50+ fishermen from daylight til 4 pm. I landed a kelt and only had 1 other bite. Slow is all I can say. maybe 100+ people a day fishing a small coastal stream is a problem?

 

[RunWithSasquatch]

Nutty to me, more or less curbs my urge to hit that river for steelhead. I guess its good for me, I hope they all stay down there.

 

[plumb2fish]

Nutty to me, more or less curbs my urge to hit that river for steelhead. I guess its good for me, I hope they all stay down there.

Wouldn't be so bad if that was river wide, but the 100+ I speak of is just in the mile below the acclimation site. 60,000 smolts released...1-2% average adult return..1200 fish tops. 900 of which will go towards whittaker, that leaves 300 for lake creek.
These fish start showing up in December and run through April...180 fish a month...

 

[JeannaJigs]

Nutty to me, more or less curbs my urge to hit that river for steelhead. I guess its good for me, I hope they all stay down there.

I migrate but the awesome thing about the alsea is it's broke down into so many different drifts. There's basically only two on the siuslaw. And most everyone just hits the first 2 miles. Way too much pressure in one area. Those fish are probably freaking out cause everyone uses wayyyy too much lead. There probably getting pelted in the head with the stuff.

 

[Damon79]

Wouldn't be so bad if that was river wide, but the 100+ I speak of is just in the mile below the acclimation site. 60,000 smolts released...1-2% average adult return..1200 fish tops. 900 of which will go towards whittaker, that leaves 300 for lake creek.
These fish start showing up in December and run through April...180 fish a month...

You are very right about the insane number of people on the Whitaker drift. But you are way off on your numbers of fish. There is that many smolts released at both Whitaker and Green Cr sites.. Plus another 20,000+ released from Letz Cr. I have seen a good year with nearly 4,000 adults returned to Whitaker trap, in fact that was in '09. An average year at Whitaker is closer to 1800 adults. When the river drops below the 7' mark, the lower river below the confluence with Lake Creek is very much fishable. Allthough the lower river is best between about 6' and down to around 4.8'. Red Hill gets really bumpy if the water is lower than that.. Seen quite a few boats hung on the same dang rock..Good fishing though, from a boat of coarse..

 

[plumb2fish]

You are very right about the insane number of people on the Whitaker drift. But you are way off on your numbers of fish. There is that many smolts released at both Whitaker and Green Cr sites.. Plus another 20,000+ released from Letz Cr. I have seen a good year with nearly 4,000 adults returned to Whitaker trap, in fact that was in '09. An average year at Whitaker is closer to 1800 adults. When the river drops below the 7' mark, the lower river below the confluence with Lake Creek is very much fishable. Allthough the lower river is best between about 6' and down to around 4.8'. Red Hill gets really bumpy if the water is lower than that.. Seen quite a few boats hung on the same dang rock..Good fishing though, from a boat of coarse..

Damon,
The numbers I listed come from the ODFW web site for stocking. I do know that the S.T.E.P. program raises smolts but have been told that they are in fact included in the #'s released by ODFW. I do know that there were some "excess" smolts a couple of years ago that were released into Horton Mill pond. Some of those returned as adults...program discontinued...They do release 120,000 smolts on the Alsea and only had 2000 return last year. Maybe we can get one of the S.T.E.P members to chime in on this to get some clarity. Or one of the NWSH that volunteer at Letz...

 

[plumb2fish]

I sent John Spangler from ODFW an E-MAIL to see if he would tell me the actual #'s of smolts released and where they are released from...we'll see if I get a response...NWSH does 15000 at Letz according to their website and ODFW does 60000, STEP doesn't list any #'s just that they raise/clip release smolts. So my Q's were are they additional How Many and Where at.
I also sent Don Jordan an E-mail...Florence STEP member...

 

[plumb2fish]

We release (above whitiker trap) 65,000, we also release 15,000 at Green creek. ODFW is proposing to begin releasing 15,000 at Turner creek next year, which will come out of the 65K @ whitiker. They are wanting to install a trap there possibly this summer so it will start "fishing" next winter for STW's. We are trying to get the numbers increased, but that may not happen soon.
don
FYI. We had 56 STW in the trap Sat. spawned 7 Females and 6 males.

See you on the water
donjordan
So with the 15000 at Letz that means 80000 for siuslaw(whittaker-letz)and 15000 for lake creek.That is still 1600 fish on an average year to Whittaker...but 320 a month is better than 180...that 10 fish a day for 100+ anglers...lol

 

[Damon79]

Those numbers do not match the numbers discussed by STEP members at a NWSA meeting last year. I too am a member of the NWSA and Letz Creek releases 20,000+ each year. We dont see the return numbers like we should, but my opinion of that is due to being fished so hard. These fish do not have much of a chance to make it to Letz Cr. with so many people below Whitaker. I can not honestly remember exact numbers discussed at that meeting, but it seems like the numbers were much different. 65,00 at Whitaker seems right, add the 20,000 from Letz Cr, and the number released at Green Cr. I can't remember. I know that there is nowhere near enough fish in the system for the number of people that fish it. Todd Linklater has a great idea of introducing a hatchery run of Steelhead to the Middle Fork of the Willamette, but seems to have been shot down by most people in charge. We also had some key people in the NWSA that disagreed with the idea, and why, I will never know. The Siuslaw gets TOO MUCH pressure, and if there was another system that was as close, it would help immensely. Maybe that is a whole other discussion topip in itself. Tight lines and good luck out there..

 

[plumb2fish]

Thanks Damon for your efforts with NWSA. I am coming OFF as an argumentative a$$ and want to apologise for that. I am just wanting to know what actual #'s are and see if we san come together to do something to change current practices.
It seems there are a few rivers to the south (coos systems & coquille systems) that have a lot more fish and a lot less people...I heard through the grapevine that this is a result of fishermen coming together and demanding change from the powers that be....

 

[Damon79]

No worries... I agree that the only way to change the current state of OUR rivers, is for everyone to speak together, loudly. Demand changes to be made. I have never fished any other rivers besides the Slaw and the Siletz on two occasions.. I have zero knowledge of any other coastal rivers for winter steel.. I have friends who fish them, but still I never have.. I recently sold my prize possesion, my drift boat. I did so because we were getting ready to move to Eastern Oregon, and now that has changed.. So here we sit, Steelhead season, no boat, and no interest in combat fishing.. I have not even bought a fishing license yet, that is SICKENING for me.. Between all the high water lately and the constant reports of bumper to bumper boats, shoulder to shoulder bankies, I dont have the desire to get out there like normal. Every year I watch the number of people increase, but the number of fish do not. Maybe ODFW should post a creel checker at the common boat ramps to get a much better idea of how many people are there, how many fish are actually caught, and compare those numbers to how many fish are expected to be in the rivers at any given time.. Sure to be alarming to anyone who gives a crap.. The Siuslaw could be, and very well should be an AMAZING steelhead fishery, and at times it is. But the times are much greater that in 50 boats between Whitaker and Wildcat, equals an average of at least 80 people, and most often may be a dozen fish caught. ALL DAY LONG... The NWSA is huge group of people that are there to speak in our favor, but even they can only do so much.. There has been much debate over the NWSA and the local chapter of the CCA. One of which is very much pro-fisherman, and one that is more pro-fish. They need to come together and become the largest group of sportsmen that the government has ever seen. Maybe then we could see change. Or on the other hand, we should elect the officials in charge at the ODFW.. Once again, maybe a topic for discussion on a differnt forum.. Tight lines.

 

[JeannaJigs]

I had a guy at the gas station trying To convince me he caught 6 fish in his boat today.

He seemed suspect lol.

I might give it a go next Tuesday but I dOnt see myself dealing with it on a weekend when I can get fish elsewhere lol. It's unfortunate really.

 

[Damon79]

Very possible. I have had ten fish days down there. But those are few and far between.. Only a couple guys I know of that can do 6 fish consistanly. Most people that fish down there a lot know who Leroy is.. If he is not catching fish, there is not many fish being caught.. Just my opinion..

 

[JeannaJigs]

Haha yep I know who Leroy is. I highly doubt this guy even had one fish in his boat. Just the way he was talking. What is there to gain from making up fish counts? Fisherman....a lying breed lol. I suspect it will start picking up over there pretty soon. If it doesn't, it's not gonna.

 

[Damon79]

I have not talked to him in a while, but he catches more fish on that river than just about anyone down there. Has likely logged the most hours of fishing time too though..

 

[plumb2fish]

Leroy had 2 in the boat on Saturday from the first trip through....Really SLOW

 

[crusty old fisherman]

first off you have to realize that buckner hates hatchery fish he would rather they didn't exist so in order for us to get more fish he needs to retire.

its sad that in short driving distance from eugene there are 8 rivers that were plum full of hatchery fish as late as the mid 90s ; they were removed from all but 3 rivers by the year 2000. lane county sells the second highest number of licence and tags in this state but we have the least amount of hatchery plants, and any time they decide some other area needs more plants ODFW see's fit to take part of ours.

if you remember right they wanted to take 2 million chinook smolts from us and dump them in the safe zones for the gill netters 2 yrs ago. they back pedaled when sagehtti brought it up to the media and I actually drew the first attention to it on ifish when I seen the motion be sent through in the ODFW commitee minutes.

we as a group need to step up and fight for our fish we should have never let buckner by with removing hatchery steelhead from the north fork siuslaw, indian creek, deadwood creek, north fork smith, smith river main stem, and with the move from greenleaf creek to green creek on lake creek the number of plants shrunk from 35000 to 10 to 15k depending on whos story you believe.

I am really not sure what the chapter of the cca for our area is doing but it apears as it is absolutely nothing.

my assumption about the cca same as other orginazations that have come and gone is that they come in with ideas and swoop up the membership fees then poof we get nothing in return.

we have to do this ourself no one is going to come in here and fix this for us.

one year on ifish I proposed that the members not buy a licence in the month of january, sit out fishing for a month and let them see we are not going to put up with it any longer. the consensus from 95% of the people on there was go ahead and do that I will catch your share.

I am not sure what the answer is to fixing the lack of fish in our area but I am sure if we sit here doing the same thing we have done since the early 90s we are going to end up with no fish to fish for unless we want to drive to coosbay or portland.


crusty