Latest report from Oregon

2009! The dates are on most of the images

Since I am letting this website expire you can find the latest updates by clicking on this link ... www.tomwatersriverguide.com.

July 22,

OK, the fishing has been good. Trout fishing on the fly has been excellent. I have fished trout, smallmouth, salmon, and steelhead since my last update (not all on flies). Here are some pics ...

My son Andy with a summer steelhead from the Middle Fork of the Willamette below Dexter Dam

Eric Lieberman with a large smallmouth above Elkton. Eric is a big guy and that's why the fish looks small.

July 7,

I had a great opportunity to take Jerry Taketa fishing on the Mckenzie today. If you have not fished from Leaburg Dam

to Leaburg town you are missing some great salmon and steelhead fishing. I could not have written this opinion a couple of weeks ago because there were lots more anglers fishing for these fish. It always start about the middle of May and lasts into the last week of June. You will be fishing amongst many anglers to catch a salmon or steelhead. But with the extreme pressure in a small area from Leaburg Dam to the town of Leaburg the fish are difficult to catch. The reasons I think the salmon and steehead were easier to catch today come from two observations. One is there is hardly any anglers out fishing for them because they were hard to catch when their numbers were small and the fishing pressure was great. And today there are many more fish and fewer anglers on the river. Anglers give up if they aren't catching fish. I'm glad they gave up because there are lots more fish in the river today and half the anglers gave up.

Here are some pictures from today. We were using conventional gear.

Here is what you can expect to get from a 10 pound summer steelhead ...

And here's some of this fish after the grill ... one of the best eating fish!

June 26,

The fishing is picking up because the conditions are better than they were a few weeks ago. For you salmon and steelhead fisherman the Mckenzie and the Middle Fork of the Willamette are getting low numbers of fish. As compared to when? As compared with 2002 - 2004. Last year spring chinook fishing was closed on the Cascade Rivers above Oregon Falls. Last year the spring chinook count was 7000 fish. During the period of 2002 - 2004 we had runs from 80,000 to 95,000 fish! This year they are expecting 37,000 chinook. We will not make it. But things are better than last year and here are some fish we caught a few days ago on spinners and bait. Fly fishing is good for planted trout.

Stephen and Chris fly fishing on the Mckenzie

Chris has a Mckenzie River Rainbow in the fly rod.

My good buddy Mike Leroy with a steelhead ... and his beautiful wife Kym!

My youngest child! Mckenzie with her first summer steelhead on the Middle Fork of the Willamette a mile below Dexter Dam.

June 17,

The day before yesterday I made a wading fly fishing trip up the Row River from Killions Market up to the confluence with Mosby Creek. I took my camera and researched this area in detail. I had written about this area previously in "Fishing the Cottage Grove Area." Click here for the latest information on this section of the Row River.

May 24,

This water is still high on the Mckenzie but fishable. A few chinook and steelhead being caught. Very few. We put in at Leaburg Dam and floated to Deerhorn. We caught our limit of planted trout on bait from Leaburg town down to Deerhorn. Im sure flies could have taken them also but all we had was salmon gear. We also caught one huge native rainbow at 18 inches and another fine rainbow at 14 inches. So maybe there will be natives in the river this year.

May 1,

I have been out on 3 trips in April and I haven't run into a day of decent fishing. I fished one day hoping I might fight an early summer steelhead ... not. I caught only a few native cutthroats in the wild section of the Mckenzie. One day on this stretch I caught no wild trout ... sorry Craig. There were plenty of steelhead smolts headed downriver and it was hard not to catch them on a couple of my trips. My friend Allan Clines also reports no natives and bad fishing on the Mckenzie.

The upper Mckenzie was heavily planted with hatchery trout but I haven't fished this section. Fishing for planters might be good upriver.

April has to be the worst month for fishing in Oregon! Therefore I have no report!

March 22,

I have been out a a couple times in the last week and the fly fishing for trout is nothing to write home about. We had a warm spell about 3 weeks ago but has turned very cold since then. It snowed a little today. Unless the March Brown hatch is happening our local rivers are not productive for the fly fisherman or the spin fisherman. Drifting bait might produce but most of our rivers in the valley are closed to bait until the general trout season opens the last Saturday of April. Our coast rivers have some winter steelhead but it is late for these fish. But there is always some fish to catch in Western Oregon and your best bet would be fishing in our bays and off our getties on the coast. In fact I might plan a crabbing and bay fishing trip for the weekend. We should catch something good to eat! This is the time of year when we are all waiting for the Spring Chinook (starting on the Umpqua right now and May in our valley) and Summer Steelhead and warming days to get some insects hatching for some good fly fishing. The warmer days could happen any day now and the March Browns and the Grey Caddises should provide some good fishing ... I will be in touch.

It is now Feb. 2009 (Happy New Year!)

We caught some winter steelhead and even got to Charlestown (Coos Bay) to get some crab. The bay got rough and I wound up being cold and wet. I learned one important lesson on this fishing and crabbing trip. Crabs are selective scavangers. We had 6 crab traps out with different baits. Most of our baits were freezer burned meats ( chicken, fish heads, herring, beef ribs, etc ). The one cage that had a fresh steelhead carcus had (95%) more crabs when we retrieved our traps. I am a fly fisherman but I also like to eat fresh seafood I catch on our great Oregon coast!

December 21

We have been having real winter with lots of snow and ice. It looks like it's just letting up and reverting back to plain old rain. I think I've mentioned this in a earlier writing ... I hate getting out in miserable weather! When I was in my 20's, 30's, 40's and even in my early 50's it wasn't to bad. So my latest news for all the anglers who want to brave the snow, ice, rain just to fight the winter steelhead. Get to Elkton right away. There are lots of winter steelhead there and only a few die hard fishermen fishing in this god forsaken weather. Good luck!

December 4

The Umpqua at Elkton fished well for winter steelhead for a few days after a slight raise in mid-November. No one knew the fish were there except for my sons and Martin Thurber of Willakenzie Guide Service. The winter run doesn't usually get going until Thanksgiving. The weather turned dry after mid-November and we are now into December. All the coast rivers are too low to drift boat and only the Umpqua and the Rogue offer some fishing. My sister Sally and my niece Margaret came up from Livermore for Thanksgiving and they both loves to fish. It was lucky for them the weather was dry but they were a couple of days late for the winter steelhead on the Umpqua. We had one on but it came off. But we managed to get up to Dorena Lake and caught some nice trout on bait.

I forgot to mention crabbing is excellent at Winchester Bay ....

November 1

I have fished the Umpqua at Elkton a couple of times in the last two weeks of October. Not worth mentioning how I fared. Poorly. I also fished the Mckenzie for steelhead and did poorly. And I fly fished the Mckenzie for trout just a couple of days ago and it also fished poorly. The water is starting to darken due to the tanins released from the falling leaves. It looks like our fall fishing for trout is about over in our valley. I'm sure a few steelhead can still be taken on the Mckenzie if the water doesn't rise too high. The Umpqua might still produce if this rain we are getting does not drop more than 2 inches in the next two weeks. If it rains more than two inches I think all the fish that are in the lower river now will charge upriver to their spawning areas without holding in the fishing areas near Elkton. By then it will be winter steelhead season.

October 19

I had a wonderful trip on the Rogue River at Agness from Oct. 10 - 13. There was a plentiful half-pounder run this year. These little steelhead are the best fish on the fly. The hatchery fin-clipped half-pounders you see in the picture below were all fly caught. There's a couple of fin-clipped Silver Salmon jacks in the picture that were also caught on the fly. Then there is the picture of my summer steelhead caught on a Thomas spoon. This fish weighed about 12 pounds which is large for a summer steelhead - especially the Rogue River.

here's Ulla on the oars again. She really doesn't like to fish but loves to drive the drift boat through rough water!

Here is a picture a few miles below Agness. And there is Lynn Smart cooking some hot dogs on our trip downriver from Agness ....

October 1

I have been chasing salmon in Coos Bay, Winchester Bay, and the Smith River tide water. I used to fish salmon for sport when I fished many days out of the year for them. Now I fish for them as a food item. The price for salmon also makes me hungry for these fish. I lost a beautiful chinook at the net, released a huge silver which was not fin-clipped and lost a couple of fish when I was fighting them. So zero is what I have come home with. We are supposed to be getting our first real rain of fall starting tonight. When the rivers start to drop (if it gets muddy) I will be headed to Elkton on the Umpqua.

September 13

We fished half day steelhead with divers and sandshrimp and fished half day for trout with bait. Our float was from Greenwood Drive to Deerhorn. We lost a steelhead after a brief fight right at the start of our drift. To my surprise we hooked and landed 4 native trout from 15 to 18 inches. I haven't caught any decent native rainbows since the beginning of the season. So maybe next year will be the year when the native trout come back to this section of the river.

September 1

This has been my busiest year so far. Lots of fly fishing, steelheading, drift boat lessons, and even a few sightseeing trips. I floated a sight seeing trip yesterday from Greenwood Drive to Deerhorn on the Mckenzie. There were only 3 drift boats out and they were catching steelhead. Seems everyone is fishing on the coast for our fall runs. Here's a warning for everyone parking at the Lane County Fee areas ... they are giving out tickets to everyone without a paid permit. Most of these parks don't have a fee station that you can buy a permit. You have to go to Joe's and some other places that are posted on a sign. This really sucks and I hope everyone complains to Lane County for not putting up fee stations so a person can purchase a permit on the spot. Here are my most recent shots of some steelhead we have been catching ...

This is Mark Van Alst with his first Mckenzie River Steelhead

August 26

Once in a while I get to go fishing and land some fish. This picture was taken yesterday in the drift from Leaburg Dam to Leaburg town and my boat was the only one on the water!

August 22

The Mckenzie below Leaburg Dam got a raise of almost a foot in one day so I decided to fish with my son Andy on the Middle Fork of the Willamette below Dexter Dam. This water did not get a big raise. We floated from the dam to Jasper. If you float this section you must be aware of the piece of water from Pengra Boat Landing to the Jasper bridge. The river divides into 3 plus channels about a mile downstream of Pengra. All I can tell you is to stay right, especially near the confluence of the Middle Fork and Fall Creek. At the very last piece of water before you meet Fall Creek you must stay right (even though the main flow is in the middle) to avoid drowning! After I got advice from several people to stay right I still decided to go down the center channel since this channel had the most flow and the right channel had very little water. I am a veteran on our waters and I stopped above a corner I could not see around. I got out of my boat. I am wearing my felt bottom wading shoes. I wade across this channel and see that there is a log jam below our boat. I have to drag my 17 ft. aluminum Diamond Back drift boat upriver in fast current to be able to take the right channel. I barely have the muscle to to it! But I do do it!

The reason I am telling you this tale is to inform you that our rivers in the Willamette Valley are under the control of the Army Corp of Engineers (and other agencies) who decide how much water to release from our flood control dams. If the river levels raise quickly you might as well as kiss good fishing good-bye. This is why I decided to float the Willamette instead of the Mckenzie. This river did not get the big rise.

There is one more fact I must mention...we are into a early fall. It was misting all day as I got out of my boat to drag it upriver. The temperature the day before was 90 plus degrees! I am in my shorts and wade above my belt line. Yes I get cold. I am sure Andy and I could have caught more steelhead or trout if I didn't get stuck on this section between Pengra and Jasper....the trout were rising well in this overcast early fall weather....Here are a couple of pics from this trip...we released the small Chinook Salmon and kept the fin-clipped summer steelhead for dinner.

July 22

I can't believe how time is flying! Busy, busy and more busy! I have been fishing lots of days and have been catching. The trout fishing on the Mckenzie is good and lots of steelhead are being caught below the Leaburg Dam. And lots of steelhead have been caught on the Middle Fork of the Willamette below Dexter Dam. If you're into steelhead fishing you'd better get out soon. These fish usually stop biting at the last of July and through August. I will report again sooner. Or at least I will make the effort.

June 10

There are plenty of steelhead on the Middle Fork of the Willamette and very few people are fishing for them. Yesterday there were no other boats from Dexter Dam downriver. Today there was one other boat and they put in many hours after us. We had the whole river to ourselves for two days. Today we landed two steelhead and lost one that got wrapped around the oar. Here's Andy again with two steelhead ...

I cooked the fish the same day ... June 9

June 9

I have been trout and steelhead fishing. Here's my son Andy with some steelhead ...

June 20

I took Ron Gomez and his wife Cindy down the Mckenzie from Deerhorn to Hendricks for some trout fishing. We used spinning rods and bait as requested. Here is a picture of Ron with a 8 pound steelhead we caught while drifting a nightcrawler for trout.

Cindy also had good luck. Here she is with a large planted rainbow.

And we also caught some good sized native rainbows ... my first time in over 4 years. We caught one 16 plus inches, one at 14 inches, and one at 12 inches. I believe the good sized native trout are back on the Mckenzie. Here is the picture of the 16 plus incher just before release ... my net hoop measures 16 inches.

June 16

The rivers are becoming fishable and I teamed up with Jon Payne of "o2fish" for a company fishing trip. We had the Mckenzie trout fry lunch. Here is a picture of Jim frying up lots of trout that were caught during this trip.

June 4

We had more snow this winter in over 60 years! This has meant very high water levels on all our local rivers. I was lucky to get out a few times in April when the snow was still frozen in the hills. May started the melting and the rivers have been impossible to fish correctly. It just rained a bit the last couple of days and the rivers are rising again. I had to cancel a few trips for this reason. I will be reporting as soon as our rivers become fishable.

April 27

We have been fishing the lower Mckenzie from Hayden Bridge to Armittage Park. Fishing is fair using wets and dries. If the river could drop a few more inches the fishing would be better. Here are some pics.

This is Scott Javine with his lovely girlfriend Nicole

April 13

We floated from Hayden Bridge to Harvest Landing on the lower Mckenzie. We fished from 11 am to 3:30 pm and caught some wild trout (cutts and bows) and lots of summer steelhead smolts that were headed downriver. There were no March Browns on this stretch but the caddises were abundant. The fish took wet flies better than dries. I would rate this fishing as fair.

April 3

We floated from Deerhorn to Hendricks on the Mckenzie and the bugs were out! So were some wild trout. The day was clear but the March Browns came up in good numbers for a cloudless day. We caught some wild rainbows and some nice cutthroats. I was surprised to see some cutthroats in this section of the river. They are usually in this section later on in the year. The grey caddises that usually follow the March Browns were getting active around 4 pm when we were taking out. These caddises should be on the water in the next few days. Fishing has started!

March 14

The big news is that the salmon season for commercial salmon fishing might close south of Cape Blanco. What did they expect? Or any commercial salmon fisherman on the California, Oregon and Washington Coast. When farm raised salmon first come into the market it was precisely the same situation...salmon stocks in the wild were low. Farm raised salmon augmented the short supply of salmon on the west coast. Farm raised salmon helped tremendously as it kept salmon available for the general public. As more and more consumers bought farm raised salmon the wild stocks started seeing a rise in population. When the populations became stable enough to harvest the commercial salmon industry began a smear campaign against the salmon farming industry. After you get through all the bullshit it comes down to the commercial industry criticizing farm raised salmon as not "natural" or "wild" or full of chemicals .... Now the commercial industry faces the same problems it faced only a few year ago. A shortage of wild fish. What the commercial industry should have done is form a partnership with the farmers. They can still do this. I have been fishing for wild salmon in our rivers since 1969 in our rivers and I believe that farm raised salmon or any fish (aquiculture) is the solution to our future. It is the same as maintaining our forests, farm lands, hunting wildlife, building codes, and all the other restrictions that come from many people wanting a resource with limited capacity. Someone has to manage it or it will become extinct.

March 12

We have had some great weather lately but I haven't been out. I heard some March Browns are hatching. Some one call me! I have the March Brown special for $180.00 for two fly fishermen. Check out my rates. I finally got around to writing about the fishing in the Cottage Grove area. Check this out if you want some info about the fishing down in Cottage Grove. I'm sure I'll be out soon and I will keep you posted. I forgot, my son Eli got a couple of wild winter steelhead on the lower Umpqua last week...

February 8

The rivers are still too high to fish...

January 26 -- 2008! Can you believe it? Another year is history!

Ulla and I are in Kona, Hawaii with our friends Chuck ( Hooked Up Sportfishing) and Beverly Wigzell for a short vacation in winter. After Ulla took some sea-sickness pills she was happy to get a short nosed spearfish that is local in Hawaii waters. This fish is excellent tablefare and we took it. But we released a striped Marlin. And of course I had to let an unknown fish back into Kona waters.

December 15, 2007

I personally have no fishing reports since I have been framing pictures and the people who have called me for fishing got rained out. But I do keep in touch with a few good fishermen who are young and the latest report is ... the lower Umpqua at Elkton has been red hot. It has been fishable for the last 3 days and people are catching Winter Steelhead. I have not heard about the Siuslaw or the Alsea. Crabbing in Coos Bay at Charleston has been very good. Rock fishing is also good in this bay. The heck with the Winter Steelhead ... I want to eat dungeness crab and white meated ocean fish! Back to the Umpqua at Elkton ... it is supposed to start raining and the river will rise ... so get out here now!

Nov. 6, 2007

We floated from Deerhorn to Hendricks on the Mckenzie on Nov. 4 and there were no trout to be seen or caught. As I have mentioned earlier this section of the Mckenzie has not rebounded from the silting several years ago. If there were some wild trout in this section we would have caught some trout. To prove my theory I floated from Jasper to Clearwater Park on the Middle Fork of the Willamette yesterday and caught lots of wild rainbows. This section of the Middle Fork is not planted with trout. It is not as good as the Mckenzie before the silting but 100 times better than she is today. After catching and releasing my wild rainbows I was thinking of another question ... "why were all the fish in this section of the Middle Fork all wild rainbows?" In the past 90 percent of the trout I catch on this stretch are Cutthroats! So here are the most recent pictures ...

An 11 inch wild rainbow before release

Henry watches

This is a big rainbow but it gets away

Ulla was on the oars today

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