Willamette Valley Summer Steelhead: 

(Hot Fish, Hot Flies, and Urban Fun)

How many steelhead are these fisheries producing? 

Here is what a look at the catch statistics show for the 1985 through 1997 seasons.  These are among the most recent figures on the ODFW website, and they paint a fair picture of summer steelhead catches in the Valley.  These statistics indicate that the McKenzie usually produces a catch of 1 - 3 thousand fish, the Middle Fork produce several hundred to a few thousand fish, and the North and South Santiam each produce a catch of 1 – 6 thousand fish.  Not bad for summer steelhead fishing in the most densely populated, urbanized valley in Oregon.

Where to go fishing?

Where can an average fly angler go to fish for Willamette Valley Summer Steelhead?  The answer is good news:  there are probably summer steelhead laying in glides, riffles, and pools within an hour and a half of anyone who resides in the upper Willamette Valley. 

Try the North Santiam, close to Salem.  Try the South Santiam – close to Corvallis.  And for those south valley residents in the Eugene area, the McKenzie and Middle Fork are within an hour of town.  These semi-urban summer steelhead waters can produce fish on a fly from March through November.  A boat helps provide access to more water, but plenty of summer steelhead are enticed to a fly by anglers with only wet feet for transportation.

Where are the Hot spots?

Unfortunately, the highest concentration of these summer steelhead is near the smolt release location or places where hatchery fish are re-cycled downstream from the hatchery.  The first few pools below Foster and Leaburg hatcheries, for example, tend to collect a pile of fish and people.  These areas can produce high numbers of fish but expect to fish elbow-to-elbow, and be prepared, every once-in-a-while, to endure some cruddy social behavior.

In contrast, the Town Drift on the Middle Fork Willamette below Dexter Dam is an area where smolts are stocked away from a hatchery, and summers tend to be pretty well distributed throughout this drift, providing less incentive for anglers to crowd into a small area.

When to fish?

A point worth of noting is that the summer steelhead you catch in April, May, or June are relatively prime fish; the fish I have caught in September and October are fun, but usually show the wear-and-tear of enduring several months in freshwater and have thinned down and darkened-up quite a bit.  So if you want the hot chrome fish, go early.

Competition?  You bet!

After about 3 decades fishing the South Santiam I have learned not to be discouraged on days when, as a fly angler, I am outnumbered twenty-to-one by gear anglers.  These summer steelhead are still very susceptible to eating a fly.  No kidding.  In fact, a few of these fish prefer a nicely swung fly to a Hot-Shot.  Not every day.  Not in every hole.  But there are days when fly fishing in the middle of a crowd of gear anglers is very productive.

What are the secret patterns? 

Hold on tight now, here comes the truth:  these fish will eat almost any fly.  My friends and I have caught summer steelhead on trout nymphs, Green Butt Skunks, Freight Trains, Silver Hiltons, String Leeches, Purple Matukas, black Teeney Nymphs, and Orange Boss Flies, to mention just a few.  Oh yes, little egg patterns are rumored to be effective too, but I have my doubts on that line of reasoning.  I have never caught a summer steelhead on a Clouser Minnow, but I am still trying – but I will connect some day, I guess.  And don’t ever hesitate to tie on a scraggly old Muddler.  They work.

The best time of day? 

Given a choice, I would fish early or late in the day.  But I am often not given the choice, what with work (I love my work), family (a great joy), and normal household maintenance (an annoying necessity). 

Anyway, I have found that it is impossible – yes – impossible – to know when one of these close-to-home summer steelhead is most likely to take my fly.  It has happened in the middle of the day under a scorching, cloudless sky.  It has happened on the very first swing of the morning.  It has happened at dark, after a fishless day when I resolved to reel in my line for the last time.  These summer steelhead have come to my fly in the sweetest, most perfect part of a run, and they have also come to my fly from water that was certainly too shallow, deep, slow, or fast to hold a steelhead.  Shows how much Mr. Expert knows.

Here’s a fishin’ story –

I once had the joy of hooking-up on a fly that was swinging so close under the stern of a drift boat – that the fish almost jumped into the guy’s boat.  I had been fishing a run for at least 20 minutes before a boat dropped into the head of the hole.  The oarsman was making clear his intention to not disturb the water I was fishing.  I called out to him and invited him to run his plugs down the river right in front of me.  You should have seen the surprised, happy look on his face –obvious from 50 yards away.  Thanks, he called out, I’d love to give it a try.  This was an opportunity to create some good karma; we both had a chance to fish the water of our choice; and his boat probably stimulated the fish to take my fly.

And another fishin’ story –

I’ve also experienced complete disregard of basic fishing courtesy.  One afternoon, I had just climbed out of my boat to wade-fish one of my favorite fly runs.  So there I was, just working my fly line out of the guides, when a boat with three guys in it came zig-zagging down the river and into the head of the hole.  Straight across the river from me, they dropped anchor, smack dab in the water that I was going to cast to.  I was breathing calmly and smiling.  They don’t know what they are doing, I said to myself. 

All three guys got out of the boat, shoved Coors cans in the top of their waders, and spread out in front of me.  The big oarsman lobed a six-inch slinky at my feet.  I figured it was a mistake, an over-cast from where he intended to land his gob of eggs.  But no.  He continued to plunk his gear in the river within ten feet of where I was standing, and my fly swung through the same water he was dredging with his eggs. I thought maybe these guys were beginners, convinced that they didn’t understand how positively unacceptable their behavior was, and absolutely confident that they wouldn’t hook a fish. 

Not so.  Those guys were locals. They were going to fish the hole no matter who was in the water in front of them.  And then, to cap it off, they hooked three steelhead, yarded them in like ten-inch hatchery trout, clobbered them with a huge club, threw them in the bottom of their boat to wiggle and thump around, popped the top on another beer, and yee-hawed –while I stood there reassessing my sense of goodwill toward all anglers. 

Turning away from the dark side, I just smiled, waved, climbed back in my boat and pulled anchor.  The tailout is better for fly fishing than this upper end, the big guy yelled at me as I slipped out of the hole.

Thanks, I called out, I’ll give it a try one of these days.

2007 Season –

Last season (2007) I fished 8 days, landed 6 summer steelhead and lost 3 fish swinging flies with a Spey rod. I also had about a dozen good grabs that never materialized into solid hook-ups.  This might sound decent enough, but it included several 14-hours days.  I also know now, after years of dehydration and sunburn, to plan on applying plenty of Gatorade, a heavy dose of sunscreen, and a wide brim hat.

Overall –

Willamette Valley steelhead are accessible all summer.  These fish are never easy to catch on a fly, but they will come to almost any fly, and they are a lot of fun to catch.  Don’t loose too much sleep trying to figure out their habits and intricacies, just go fishing, do some exploration, and drift your flies through some likely (and unlikely) looking water.  You will have fun and might – just might – bring home a silvery (hatchery) summer steelhead for the weekend barbecue.

2008 prognosis?

As of mid May, over 3 thousand summer steelhead have been counted at Willamette Falls.  Daily counts have ranged from one to two hundred fish.  How many summer steelhead will make it into the upper Willamette this year?  Don’t know.  But there are already enough to fish for, so don’t pass it up if you get a chance.  Heck, there is always the joy of casting practice and watching swallows work mayflies in the afternoon.

Shuttle Services are available as follows –

South Santiam:  Tom Holley – 541 401 2059

North Santiam:  Bob Lusk – 503 859 2880

Mckenzie:  Ed and Virginia – 541 8960526