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Snow Melt hampers winter run steelhead anglers

March 11th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Late last week the N. Umpqua dropped into great shape and the fishing picked up. Wednesday-Saturday yielding results for many of the anglers on the river. Late Saturday the river starting rising back up, cold water from low elevation snow melt making it difficult to get the fish to move to a fly. In addition higher water made the already difficult N. Umpqua even more difficult to wade. The Umpqua is never a great place to take a swim in your waders, add super cold high water to the equation and it becomes dangerous. There are plenty of fish in the system and they are still moving up river. Watch the levels, when the Umpqua starts to heading back down it will be time to go.

Tags: North Umpqua River Fishing Reports

2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Mark // Mar 11, 2008 at 5:14 pm

    Ive never fished the north umpqua before and was wondering how the river levels correspond to ability to wade. In other words if Steamboat Creek is runnin 1000 cfs, is it possible to wade the river below the creek. My guess is no, but i have a long drive to get there and any info i can get would be appreciated…..Mark

  • 2 Chris // Mar 13, 2008 at 4:29 am

    Mark,
    My general rule is that when the combined cfs of Steamboat creek and the N. Umpqua above copeland creek (both of these cfs readings avail on the usgs site) equal over 2500 I will have some trouble wading most of the good water on the N. Umpqua, in addition it spreads fish out to the point that I find it way tougher to find a fish. I will say that the “camp water” the water between Mott Bridge and Steamboat Inn (the most famous and fished section on the river) will fish at higher water, say up to 4000 cfs, but that is stretching things. It is thought that 50% of the winter steelhead in the N. Umpqua spawn in Steamboat Creek. Since Steamboat Creek flows into the N. Umpqua right at the Mott bridge and the camp water it’s a great place to start.
    Hopes this helps
    Chris

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