Matt and I decided to skip the higher water on the Mckenzie on Sunday and head up to the Siletz river where the flows are more managable. The Siletz heads in some of the highest mountains in the Coast Range and hosts runs of spring and fall chinook and winter and summer steelhead. The summer steelhead run peaks in June so we were a little early but as summer wears on and the flows become lower you can’t float a drift boat.
At 3.75 feet the “around the town run” from Illahee Park to Greenthumb Park is easy to float and judging from a couple other boats coming down as we launched at Illahee you can also run down from Twin Bridges to Illahee. Moonshine to Twin Bridges is not recommended. If the river is running at less than 3.5 leave the driftboat at home though locals still float the river in pontoon craft.The “around the town run” is unlike anything I’ve ever floated– there is easily enough river to provide full day of fishing but the takeout is less than one mile from the put in. In truly disorienting fashion the river makes a long loop around the town of Silezt bringing you almost full circle. The takeout is about one mile after a green bridge on the right.
The only notable obstruction is a downed cottonwood that almost completely obstructs the main channel. The tree is located a few minutes downstream of the concrete bridge right after the put-in. Your safest bet is to avoid the whole scenario and walk your boat through a skinny side channel on the right. That’s what we did and it went much better than the boat in front of us which got pinned in the branches of the tree and was really lucky to make it through there gunwhales up. No shame walking your boat–better to live to fish another day.
The river itself is fishy looking in that stretch with multiple riffles, nice runs and deeps pools. We didn’t observe any steelhead early but did see one that had been dressed out by someone recently. As the day wore on and we reached a long flat I decded to turn downsteam and haul getting us into fishier water. After about a minute of really pulling through the shallow flat it was like we stepped on a steelhead land mine–a school of fish scattering in every direction. A few were pushed a little downstream and held where we could see them. The spooked fish didn’t want any part of our swung offerings.
There are fish in the river now and the run is still building. If we continue to get intermittant rain the river should remain floatable into June. Another good rain could lead to fabulous fishing on the Siletz. If the river drops, its best to focus on the Siletz Gorge which is strictly a bank fishing affair. One more thing, when heading up to the Gorge keep an eye out for a 25 mph zone shortly after you make the left towards Moonshine–if you don’t you might be sorry, I was.–KM
Contact Us:
13 responses so far ↓
1 Matt Siegmund // May 29, 2008 at 11:54 am
How is the bank access on the Siletz?
2 Matt Stansberry // May 29, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Up on the Gorge it’s awesome, if you can stand some high gradient hiking. Town run isn’t great, but you can cover it in a Fish Cat or inflatable kayak when the water gets lower.
3 Joe // May 29, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Is Greenthumb Park also known as Old Mill? There’s quite a ledge at the end of the ramp at Old Mill, and I’ve been wondering what the take out is like there…
Thanks!
4 Matt Stansberry // May 29, 2008 at 3:59 pm
That sounds like the same place. If the water gets much lower, that ramp is going to be really tough. We had a hard time at 3.75.
5 Karl Mueller // May 29, 2008 at 4:50 pm
If you are going to be wading the Gorge I’d recommend studded boots. The underlying geology is different from the Tyee sandstone of say the Siuslaw and is Siletz Volcanics and it can be darn slippery!
Twin Bridges and Moonshine Park is the only bank access outside the Gorge. Moonshine is a splash and giggle/RV zoo in the summer.
IMPORTANT: The Gorge is in private ownership and is only open on the weekends.
6 FM // Jun 8, 2008 at 5:29 pm
so the report header says “Too sacred to talk about specifically, sorry”
… and then a detailed report follows giving information on exactly where, when, and how?
wtf?
simply lame
7 Karl Mueller // Jun 8, 2008 at 5:46 pm
FM,
I’m not sure that I understand your comment or that you understand the headline which simply meant that I didn’t catch any fish.
8 FM // Jun 9, 2008 at 4:47 am
Coastal Steelhead Fishing Reports:
Too sacred to talk about specifically, sorry. Smaller coastal rivers are in great shape and it’s an opportunity to spot and stalk wild steelhead. While many rivers are super low and the fish are spooky, get out and learn where fish hold in these low water conditions. Click on the link above for the latest report.
9 Karl Mueller // Jun 9, 2008 at 6:04 am
FM,
That heading was put up during the winter thanks for bringing that to my attention.
10 FM // Jun 9, 2008 at 6:47 pm
so then perhaps ’splain to me how 100 coastal rivers with winter steelhead is more sacred than a mere 3 coastal rivers with summer runs?
sdrawkcab
11 Karl Mueller // Jun 9, 2008 at 7:03 pm
There are a couple of back country rivers and streams that have excellent numbers of wild winter fish that a few of us fish extensively and personally I don’t want to draw a map to. I didn’t write anything about anything being sacred–I’m a fairly profane guy myself– there are a number of people who post to this site someone else wrote the sacred bit. I wouldn’t have used that word. Also, there are more than 3 rivers receiving summer run fish on the coast. I can think of 8 of the top of my head.
What is the offense here? The Siletz is no secret river. There are hatchery summers there for the taking. One only needs to check the regs to figure that out. The number of hatchery fish is far in excess of the wild run meaning an angler is more likely to hook a hatchery fish than a wild one. I don’t think that this post is going to drive massive amounts of pressure to the Siletz . . . it is far from most of our readers home water. There are any number of Amato publications, etc that discuss the Siletz.
12 Rob Russell // Jun 20, 2008 at 8:30 pm
FM’s right, but I can’t point any fingers–I’ve been guilty of spilling the beans many times over. Sending newbies to “secret” rivers is lame, but the caddis fly is building/maintaining a business, marketing via the internet, so what choice do they have? Do the resource and those already close to it pay a price? Is it nothing less than resource exploitation.
I’m moving to Eugene and was thinking about checking out the Siltez this weekend. one google search and I’ve got a ton of info. is that too easy?
I suggest a thoughtful, considerate discussion of this issue over beers sometime soon…
-RR
13 Ben Ramirez // Aug 28, 2008 at 5:41 pm
The siletz river is an amazing system, and one that I greatly cherish and admire. Of course I don’t like a bunch of “newbies” trampling through the reaches of my favorite holes but that is bound to happen on a river like the Siletz. We were all a “newbie” at one time and if it wasn’t for some of Matt’s and Nate’s words from the once great establishment known as the Scarlet Ibis, I would have still been trying to fight my way through the crowds of the North Fork Alsea. I think that the important thing is to do our part to keep the river clean and really emphasize proper fishing conduct. I had an encounter last week with some fisherman that did everything they could to force my friend and I to leavc a big hole that we were fishing. Most likely to hide the fact that they were going to get snag happy the second I walked out of sight. I left with a racing heart and a sinking feeling that these fish were going to be ravished by fisherman that shouldn’t even be allowed on the river.
Lets all do our part to maintain a code of conduct on the river that makes others want to naturally follow.
Cheers!
Leave a Comment