We are offering a shortened half day trip on our local waters for trout and steelhead November 1 -November 30th 2024. The cost of the trip is $425. The trip includes guided fishing from a boat and equipment for one or two anglers. The trip does not include lunch. The trip is designed to hit the best time of day, we recommend approximately 11:00am-4:30pm. This is a great opportunity to learn some of our close in to the Eugene/Springfield waters. Give us a ring to discuss options, water conditions and booking possibilities. Phone (541) 342 7005 TEXT 541-505-8061 Email: support@caddisflyshop.com
“Fly Fishing in Argentina: Exploring the Waters of Northern Patagonia and The Fascinating World of Golden Dorado” by SET Fly Fishing
Where: The Caddis Fly Angling Shop 168 West 6th ave, Eugene Oregon 97401
When: October 25th 6pm
Matias Claret of SET Fly Fishing will discuss the Golden Dorado as a species and why they are a great fish to fly fish for. In addition he will discuss SET Fly Fishing’s 3 Golden Dorado programs. For the final part of the program he will talk a bit about Northern Argentina as a trout destination.
Local wines will be served during the free presentation.
Please call the shop to confirm your seat. 541 342 7005. or Text us at 541 505 8061
Join the Native Fish Society’s McKenzie Chapter for a river cleanup at Armitage Park on October 27th at 10am. We’ll provide hot beverages, donuts, garbage bags, and gloves as we work together to clean the McKenzie River. Afterward, gather with us at Falling Sky Brewing for discounted food and drinks! Please RSVP by October 25 so we’re prepared for you!
We will also have a limited number of hip waders available to pick up trash directly from the shallows of the river
What To Bring:
Sturdy, weather-appropriate footwear and clothing
A reusable water bottle
Work gloves and waders, if you prefer to use your own
We hope you’ll join us! We welcome volunteers of all ages and abilities. Whether you’re passionate about conservation or just want to contribute to a cleaner environment, your help makes a big impact!
For any questions or additional information, feel free to contact Liz Perkin at liz@nativefishsociety.org
My name is Matt ”Gilligan” Koles. I am a fly fishing guide and local resident on the Truckee River in Hirschdale CA.
I have started, with the help of four others, www.truckeeriverpublicwaters.org to combat the public access issue in Hirschdale on the Truckee River, an access issue that is now going on five years.
Since 2019, public access in and around Hirschdale CA on the Truckee River has been significantly affected by a handful of new residents claiming public access below the high water mark adjacent to their properties is illegal. Threats, legal, verbal and physical, have all been used to shut down legal river usage in one of the most heavily used and iconic portions of the river downstream from the town of Truckee.
Confusing the issue is the fact that the previous landowners allowed public access for as long as anyone can remember. New ownership has changed this, and many local residents are confused as to what the issue actually is. Past landowners did not restrict access, but new owners have. They have all adopted an attitude to take advantage of people’s ignorance to the California state constitution as it pertains to stream access and navigability, not only closing their land to use, which is their right, but attempting to discourage the public’s legal use through cease and desist letters from a local law firm, verbal threats, and even physical and firearm altercations. Local river runners, anglers, and long time local guides have all been repeatedly harassed and intimidate.
It is legal to access the Truckee River in Hirschdale from all 4 corners of the bridge. Since the bridge is public, there is a 40 foot public easement from all 4 corners of the bridge. As long as you get in from the bridge and stay below the ordinary high water mark you are legal to fish or recreate on the river. The landowners do not own the streambed.
Since 2020, the aforementioned landowners have not only attempted to enforce these false rules, but have expanded to include blocking access to the river from the Hirschdale neighborhood, to their own neighbors from their property bordering the river. We now see “No Trespassing” signs right down to current summer water levels, blocking access for the public to use land below the rivers high water mark to travel safely and legally along the river.
Multiple public Fish and Wildlife parcels exist downstream of the bridge, on both sides of the river. In 2013 a Hirschdale resident and property owner took it upon himself to block CA Fish and Wildlife land at the end of Iceland Rd, a county road that has been utilized by the logging industry, an ice company, and the public for 150 years. In 2022 a gate was installed and locked by the new landowners halfway up Iceland Rd. past Hirschdale which is a county road. These landowners will harass anyone they see on Iceland Rd. effectively shutting down public access on both sides of the river for more than a mile. This has worked for them, people are scared, especially if they’ve heard stories of people having a firearm pulled on them, shown to them, and maybe more allegations that shots have been fired.
Recently landowners have put up no trespassing signage interpreting their own high water marks very close to the river north of the Hirschdale bridge. On the West side of the river there is signage very close to the river stating the same. We believe the high water mark is best determined by a professional, not a local landowner.
These landowners call the Sheriff anytime they feel someone is encroaching on their property, legally, or illegally. The department has been used as a weapon by the landowners, who seem to feel helpless to enforce the public’s right to access, and in some alleged cases, have suggested to the public that we just stay away from the area to avoid conflict. This is completely unacceptable.
The County of Nevada is not keeping their citizens safe and effectively fallen on deaf ears about the situation in Hirschdale. On the Nevada County website, District 5 supervisor Hardy Bullock claims he’s rectified the public access situation in Hirschdale, but sadly that is not the case, https://www.nevadacountyca.gov/3342/Responsible-Hirschdale-Recreation-Access
Hischdale has long been a heavily utilized public access spot for recreation due to the fact the river is not too fast here, has nice banks for swimming, fishing, walking the dogs, etc. The fact there is a county bridge allowing access has kept Hirschdale heavily utilized by the public for river access for many years.
We feel the best course of action is to establish high water elevations, and enforcement of the public’s right to access the river below them safely, and stop the harassment of the public while accessing the river legally.
Update: Thanks to pressure from Truckee River Public Waters, on September 30th, a meeting with the landowners, their lawyer, the CA State Land Commision, and county officials including local law enforcement happened. The goal of this meeting was to delineate the ordinary high water mark. While this did happen, stakeholders such as Backcounty Hunters and Anglers, TU, and Truckee River Public Waters, and the public, were not invited. While we did attend, we were not invited to walk the riverbank with the above said officials. There was a gentlemens agreement on where this OHM will be set. No GPS coordinates were taken by the State Lands Commision, their hydrologist eyeballed the OHM. This is something that ordinarily takes months. Private landowners will be posting stakes at that location all up and down the riverbank. We hope that these stakes are not misrepresented by the private landowners and are encouraging other stakeholders to be present.
We would love to have your support at www.truckeeriverpublicwaters.org. It’s free to be a member. Access issues can happen anywhere anytime, and the governing agencies are not going to do a damn thing unless you call them out on it.
This is one of Simon’s most productive fall flies. Fall anglers need to have October Caddis on the mind; if you don’t, let this serve as a reminder. They can be clumsy fliers, and ovipositing females can make a big meal to hungry trout. Fish can get especially keyed in on their pupal form subsurface. October caddis emergence primarily happens in the evening; much like the pupa, the adults are especially active at night. If you can’t fish all the way up until dark, you may go the whole fall season only seeing a few adult insects. The same holds true for pupa emergences. The nymphs emerge overnight leaving only a shuck on stream side rocks. Despite their nocturnal emergence, trout will still take a dead drifted or swung October Caddis Pupa during the day. They are so used to eating these high protein meals, that anything large and orange catches their attention no matter the time of day. This fly was originally tied on a #10 with a 4.6mm bead. With much more testing between when we filmed and now that we are posting, Simon has revised the recipe to use a smaller hook and bead. The larger size is a great option as flows bump, but the #12 with a 5/32 bead is most versatile. The ostrich this fly uses gives a super buggy and “juicy” look to the pupa. The body is built up with chenille, but any junk material would work great. A collar of CDC and Partridge gives the impression of legs and full wing pads. This fly works phenomenal dead drifted as well as swung. You always could let the fly swing on the end of your indicator drift. The super pupa is responsible for Simon hooking many large trout this fall and bringing some beasts to the net. It is just too good to pass up for a hungry trout.
When wet, this fly quickly transforms from a fluffy orange nymph to a super juicy looking October Caddis pupa.
In this video Simon ties his take on a Midwest classic. The Pink Squirrel nymph was invented by John Bethke of the Driftless area in Wisconsin. His two sons still guide in the area, and Simon was lucky enough to have a trip years ago with one of the sons. Upon talking to the two brothers over the years, he learned they both have lived in Eugene/Blue River years ago and have fished our waters extensively … small world. Traditionally it was tied on a scud hook, used spiky squirrel dubbing, and loads of pink chenille for the collar. This fly is a staple on the limestone spring creeks of the Driftless area. Many people who have fished those creeks are familiar with the fly. Nowadays, many fly manufacturers have several spinoffs of the fly too, so it is a familiar looking fly. There are a plethora of food choices in the rich streams of the Driftless, mayflies, craneflies, caddis, small stones, loads of scuds and annelids, etc. The original fly is suggestive of an egg sucking scud, but could make a great imitation for mayflies, caddis, and cranefly larva. The fly serves as a true attractor pattern. Simon tweaked the fly for our Willamette Valley waters. He slimmed down the body and added a large bead to get the fly down in our waters. A super hot collar of Senyos Fusion Dub acts as a smaller, but brighter hot spot. Simon likes to fish this fly under a dry during the summer and in the winter in tandem with a larger stone. He has had luck with this fly all over Oregon, in Northern California, Central Washington, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and of course in The Driftless Area. Sizes can be changed depending on your need. Simon likes to size down in the summer for fishing tributaries and lower/slower water.
Here is the original Pink Squirrel tied by John Bethke of Wisconsin
Over the past decade, Native Fish Society and other southern Oregon conservation groups have been working to protect the wild native fish of the upper Rogue River from the harmful impacts of large jet boats. And now we ask anyone and everyone who cares about the upper Rogue River to weigh in, once again.
Thanks to the help of local Rogue River advocate and conservationist Bob Hunter, Native Fish Society has put together easy talking points for you to pull from to let your voice be heard. At the least, we ask advocates to submit the Action Alert below, and/or write a personal note to the Oregon State Marine Board by emailing Jennifer.cooper@boat.oregon.gov asking them to put a 15-horsepower restriction in place on the upper Rogue River above Gold Hill.
The Oregon Marine Board is having a public hearing on October 2 at 8:30 a.m. at the Rogue Community College Medford Campus Room HEC 129A/B to consider rule-making to regulate jet boat use in the Upper Rogue River (between Gold Hill to Lost Creek Dam). Public testimony will be taken from 1:30 to 4:00 pm. Testimony will be limited to 2 to 3 minutes. Invited groups will be testifying in the morning. Please consider attending and providing verbal and written testimony. To provide oral testimony virtually, register with Jennifer Cooper via email at jennifer.cooper@boat.oregon.gov no later than 5 pm on September 27th, 2024.
Written Testimony
Written testimony is also accepted until October 16th and can be sent to: Oregon State Marine Board 435 Commercial St. NE., Ste 400 Salem, OR 97301 or e-mailed to: jennifer.cooper@boat.oregon.gov
Please let the Marine Board know that no jet boats should be allowed to operate in the Upper Rogue River above Gold Hill and that you support a 15-horsepower limitation on all watercraft operating in that section.
Please let the Marine Board know any personal experiences you have had with jet boats in this section of the river and how jet boat operation has adversely affected your safety, use, and enjoyment of this section of the river, and your use of the public and private lands along this section of the river, including TouVelle State Recreation Area and Denman Wildlife Management area. Personal comments and letters are the most effective.
Important Talking Points:
Jet Boat Operations Adversely Affect Water Quality, Fish and Wildlife.
No regulations on jet boat use are in place to protect spawning Wild Native Fish or essential spawning habitat – aka spawning gravel, which are vulnerable to the turbulence created by jet boats and their wakes. Studies of jet boat impacts on rivers in Alaska, New Zealand, the Snake River, and elsewhere highlight the damage that jet boats can cause to salmon habitat. The risk of harm increases with the frequency of trips and in the upper reaches of rivers where the channel is smaller. Rogue Jet Boat Adventures, a commercial company that operates out of TouVelle State Park claims to have served 14,000 customers last year with its three boats (a 25-passenger, an 18-passenger, and a 10-passenger boat). These huge jet boats roar up and down this fragile, narrow section of the upper Rogue River multiple times all summer long, and now, mini-jet boats, which are just as damaging, are starting to appear. The operation of these boats disrupts the river ecosystem in ways that are harmful and not natural.
Spring Chinook Salmon in the Rogue spawn in this section of river and they are struggling to survive. These fish have been petitioned for listing and could be on the Endangered Species List any day now.
Fish use energy when disturbed by jet boats. Summer Steelhead and Spring Chinook spend numerous months in the upper Rogue River storing energy to spawn in the fall and early winter. Commercial jet boat tours disturb these fish throughout the summer season.
Wakes and hydraulic turbulence from jet boats dislodge sediment, vegetation, and aquatic life from the banks and riverbed causing increases in river turbidity and masses of vegetation to float downstream covering essential macroinvertebrates (food source for juvenile and adult native fish) and winter steelhead redds.
Jet boat wakes can disturb spotted sandpipers and killdeer that nest on gravel bars and kingfishers and rough-winged swallows that nest in streambanks.
The Upper Rogue River riparian areas are important nesting and feeding areas for a wide variety of bird species, including eagles, osprey, and great blue herons. The noise and the wakes from the jet boats disturb birds and disrupt feeding activity.
There is an incentive for jet boats to alter the river channel to keep navigation pathways open, especially in low-flow situations. In at least one instance, a jet boat was observed using its jets to illegally scour out a channel in a salmon spawning area to allow boat passage through a shallow area. The area has not reestablished itself, and it is no longer used by salmon for spawning.
The rules of Denman Wildlife Area prohibit the use of motorized watercraft to protect wildlife, yet jet boats are allowed to speed up and down the section of the Rogue River that bisects the Denman Wildlife Area, disturbing wildlife and refuge users.
The in-water work window for this section of the Rogue River is June 15 to August 31. This is to protect salmon and steelhead. Jet boats can cause more disturbance than a work project in the river and should not be allowed to operate outside of this timeline.
Jet boat use in the Upper Rogue River is not safe for people on the jet boat or for other river users because:
The river in this area is too small and often too shallow to safely accommodate jet boats and other river users.
There are many blind spots on the Upper Rogue where jet boats need to travel at high speeds to navigate. The tour boats operate without spotters and routinely enter these blind spots where a serious collision is just waiting to occur.
In many areas there are limited pathways for a jet boat, maneuverability can be limited and there are many inexperienced boaters on the river, and in places where people are wading and swimming.
In many cases, the jet boats need to operate at high speeds just to navigate shallow rapids.
The wakes created by the jet boats are also a safety hazard to people floating the river, people wading or swimming in the river, and fishermen and guides either fishing from a boat or wade fishing. The wakes can swamp a small inflatable and can knock over people wading in the river. The jet boat tours are part thrill ride and the boats travel at high speeds, do 360’s, and create large wakes.
Jet boat use in the Upper Rogue River is incompatible with traditional uses and has increased user conflicts.
Historically, the Upper Rogue River has been a place to peacefully and safely live, recreate, and enjoy nature and the outdoors. This area had mainly been used for non-motorized boating from drift boats, rafts, inflatables, kayaks, and paddle boards; guided, bank, wade and boat fishing; hiking, birdwatching, picnicking, dog-walking, swimming and just a place to peacefully enjoy the outdoors.
Jet boat operations in the Upper Rogue River are not compatible with these uses. The public’s use and enjoyment of the river and these public lands are adversely affected by jet boat operations and threatened by the future proliferation of jet boats in the Upper Rogue River.
Jet boats push other users out of the navigation pathways and the wakes chase people out of the river all together.
The noise from jet boat operations is pervasive and disrupts the peace and quiet on the river diminishing the quality of people’s experience.
Fishing becomes disrupted by jet boats zipping up and down the river, especially commercial tour boats making multiple trips, and the unsafe wakes they create. A tremendous amount of aquatic vegetation is knocked loose from the boat’s jets and wakes, that foul fishing lines and lures, making it virtually impossible to fish when jet boats are operating.
Jet boat operations are also injuring and adversely affecting the businesses of many guides who operate or used to operate on the section of the river now dominated by jet boat tours. If jet boat use, especially tour boat use were allowed to increase throughout the Upper Rogue River, this would greatly curtail the ability to guide or fish.
Thank you for taking the time to make your voice heard! If you have any questions regarding this process or would like to discuss jet boats on the upper Rogue more, please email us at info@nativefishsociety.org.
After a summer of fires and hot temps, its safe to say most of us are ready for fall. Cooler temps are inbound and the trout are just as excited as us. Fishing lately has been good with intermittent hatches of insects popping off in the valley. Flows are lower on valley tributaries and the main rivers are swelling from dam releases. There is so much to do in the fall that it can be overwhelming. The most challenging thing to do this time of year is picking what you want to do.
Current Hatches
October Caddis is generally the insect that comes to mind in the fall. Their pupa are a high calorie meal for trout and easy to spot being bright orange. Emergence generally occurs at night, but trout remember what the pupa look like during the day. Adult activity is most prevalent in evenings ad mornings. On overcast days you’ll see the adults too. Next up are Blue Winged Olives and Mahogany Duns, the fall mayflies. Both of these insects are triggered by cooler temps. Mahoganies will hatch most days with hatches becoming more abundant in the weeks to come. BWO’s are especially common on cooler and overcast days. Small caddis are still around and make great searching patterns on small creeks. Hoppers and Beetles are winding down, but fish will still take terrestrials. Your days are dwindling for the Hopper bite, so get after it on these last few warm days. Lastly, the Nocturnal Stone is a late-season stonefly that is hard to pass up if you’re a hungry trout.
This Pearl/ Fire Perdigon is a great fall nymph. Think orange for your subsurface presentations.
Dropper/Tandem Rigs
Fishing a Dry Dropper is still a viable option this time of year. These make great options for your buoyant dry fly: Water Walker Nocturnal Stone #8-10, Burkus Bearback Stone (okay) #8, or a darker colored Single Stack/Double Stack Chubby. You can run nymphs below the October Caddis Dry flies listed above, just opt for a smaller lighter nymph that wont drown the dry fly. The way I like to fish tandem rigs with October Caddis adults is to tag a small Mayfly behind it. Any of the Mahogany Dun, BWO , or other searching suggestions listed above would make for an awesome trailing nymph. The large October Caddis makes it easy to track those small dries for old eyes. When fishing a Mahogany or BWO hatch, my trailing nymph would be a very small unweighted nymph, cripple/emeger, or soft hackle such as: Orange or Olive Soft Hackle #14-18, Galloup’s Peacock Hares Ear, BWO Soft Emerger #18, or a Harrop’s CDC Biot Mahogany Dun. The key here is to have one visible dun or high floating emerger to watch, and behind it is another fly sitting in the film or subsurface. The trailing fly is seen as the easier meal and is often the one eaten.
Swinging Streamers/ Wets
Swimming flies can be effective this time of year; cooler weather has trout coming out of their summer heat induced lethargy and will now move further for food. This can create some explosive takes on small wet flies. Cast diagonally upstream and toss in a few upstream mends. This will give your fly time to sink. When it is downstream of you, pinch the fly line and the line will come taut. This will cause the nymphs to swing towards your bank, and rise to the surface mimicking a hatching insect while doing so. All of the October Caddis Pupa listed above in the nymph section are great options to swing. For nymphs and smaller caddis try these: BWO Soft Emerger #18, Orange or Olive Soft Hackle #14-18, Peacock Soft Hackle, or a Tungsten Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail. In quicker water trail one of these behind a tungsten nymph or one of the larger October Caddis Pupa to help get it down. Split Shot can also be your friend, however I tend to avoid using it and find using a heavy nymph makes casting easier. Swinging small streamers can be effective in higher flows, mimicking disoriented sculpins, small trout, and baitfish. Here are some we like, feel free to trail it with a small soft hackle or even better an October Caddis Pupa: Scuplzilla Jr #8, Tactical Jig Zonker, Thin Mint #8-12, or a Croston’s Belly Flop Sculpin.
Anadromous Fishingby Robbie
The steelhead angler has a plethora of options to choose from in fall. Things on the Willamette have slowed down for swing anglers due to water temperatures, but the McKenzie remains more consistent. Positive reports have come out of the Deschutes and other Columbia Gorge Rivers. The North Umpqua is open but fishing has been “two weeks of hard fishing for one fish” slow. Expect the water to cool down next weekend which will really turn “the bite” on. Fall is a great to try skaters on our local steelhead. The next 6 weeks or so should be excellent steelheading locally with great fishing through November on desert rivers.
Now is a great time to swing up a steelhead. Temps are dropping and things will only get better.
Salmon fishing has been incredible on the ocean and estuaries for conventional fisherman as well as a few brave fly anglers. Light rain is expected midweek that should make upriver salmon angling viable for a few days. Upriver fly season on the coast really kicks off in October following the first big storm. Chinook are harder to trick, but coastal Coho can get silly following the first fall storm. Salmon prefer stripped presentations, but a combination of swinging/stripping can work as well in the right water.
Coho salmon fishing in the Willamette Valley is an option. The run is expected to be great. The Santiam Drainage and mouths of tributaries on the Mainstem Willamette should kick off in a big way in a week or two. The Valley Coho fishery is a developing one with developing regulations. On the Santiams there are lower river deadlines until October 15th. Read the regulations.
Mack’s Canyon is a classic summer steelhead fly on the lower Deschutes.
Conditions/Location
Flows on our local Mckenzie and Middle Fork Willamette River are elevated, but not blown out. This is part of the new annual fall drawdowns on our local reservoirs to aid in salmon passage. This makes for great conditions for floating the rivers in a drift boat or raft. If you are wading on foot, it helps to return to water you are familiar with during higher water and wade slowly and carefully. The tributaries in the valley will not have the same surge of water, so those make good options on foot. They also get too cold and high to fish well in the winters, so enjoy them now. High lakes are great right now, many of them have trout cruising the banks, so you can fish them from shore. Many of those fish will happily take a small dry or streamer. Surfperch is great this time of year if you catch the tide right. Steelhead locally is still fishing well and makes a great option locally. Chinook and Coho are trickling in and people have them in mind as well. Fall can be overwhelming with options both fishing and non fishing related; we can’t pick for you, but are here to help with whatever you decide.
Make the most of the nice weather and daylight while we still have it. Hand-selected seasonal flies will be on the back table for your convenience. As always, swing by or give the shop a ring. We are happy to help you out. (541) 342-7005
The McKenzie Watershed Council is holding their McKenzie River Cleanup on Saturday, Sept. 28th! There are still plenty of land areas and stretches of river to claim as your own for the cleanup and there’s a free BBQ at Hendricks Bridge Park following the work. Click here for more details and to sign up!
Chasing Chrome, Tying Steelhead and Pacific Salmon Flies, by Jonathan Farmer is a noteworthy entry into fly tying books. This book falls into what I classify as modern steelheading (salmon fishing too), post- intruder style flies fished with skagit lines. Modern anadromous fly fishing literature is lacking in entries.
Jonathan Farmer’s first book is thoughtfully laid out by Marty Howard. The 11×9 size accommodates step by step instructions well. Farmer first covers material theory and then presents how to tie twenty-three signature flies. Quality fly images and excellent instructions make up the bulk of the book. Thoughtful commentary on fly development and fun fishing anecdotes abound the pages. Patterns are broken down into weighted shank flies, unweighted flies, tube flies and summer steelhead flies. The book concludes with a gallery of flies to feed the reader’s creativity, prefaced by the author’s color preferences for each species. As with all fly tying recipes: materials, colors etc. can be swapped out to make the flies your own! Farmer has additional helpful information and few signature flies on various Youtube channels.
The book is not without a few quirks. Some images, cover art included, are unexplainably low resolution. All the necessary fly tying images remain quality so it does not affect the book’s usefulness. It is evident that the author is an avid, obsessed angler who wants to pass on his knowledge to others. The instructions, theory and ideas are helpful to any seasoned or budding angler. Do not expect grand steelheading tales or mastery of prose a la Trey Combs or John Larison. I think this book pairs well with a well crafted IPA and Zap-A-Gap. Hold the fine Mediterranean wine and cheese.
This book is an excellent resource for fanatical salmon fisherman, steelhead bums, and those who want to tie beautiful flies that catch fish.
The fate of threatened native fish in Oregon’s Upper Willamette River Basin remains in limbo after a federal agency missed a key deadline to file a report to Congress on whether eight hydroelectric dams are still necessary.
Why it matters: Altered river flows and blocked spawning routes caused by the dams have put Chinook salmon and steelhead trout at increased risk for extinction by 2040, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report.
Advocates say drawing down water levels will allow safer passage for fish and help rebuild dwindling populations.
The big picture: In 2022, Congress directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study the impact eight dams in the Willamette River Basin have on threatened native fish and whether ending hydropower generation would be necessary or economically beneficial. The report was due at the end of June.
Though the Corps missed the original deadline, a spokesperson told Axios that the report is under administrative review with the assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works.
Context: Thirteen dams were built along the Willamette River between 1942 and 1969 — stretching from rural Oakridge near Eugene up to Salem — primarily for flood control.
Eight are hydroelectric dams part of the Columbia River Power System, which is operated by the Corps and the Bonneville Power Administration, and only contribute 2% of power generation for the entire system.
What they’re saying: Kathleen George, a member of the Grand Ronde Tribal Council, told Axios that less than 3,200 late-run winter steelhead native to Willamette Falls returned on average from 2008 to 2020 — a 70% drop from 1970, when data was first available.
Bob Sallinger, the executive director of Willamette Riverkeeper, supports drawing down water levels so fish can reach the gates and continue downstream to spawn. He told Axios in an email statement it would be a “win-win” for the Corps and save the agency “nearly a billion dollars.
August of 2024 has been one of the coolest I can remember. The Willamette Valley has largely escaped the smoke and water temperatures have been holding steady at cooler than last summer temps. August is never a month with significant hatches but despite a lack of bugs fishing has held up nicely. Recently both the McKenzie and Middle Fork of the Willamette Rivers had reservoir release related water bumps. Steelhead and trout fishing has been rock solid through the entire system. Per normal the upper reaches of both rivers and their tributaries have had the best dry fly fishing. Fishing attractor patterns like Dry Humpers, Purple Haze and terrestrials like, Henneberry Hopper and More or Less Hopper. Hopper dropper rigs remain effective but shrink your dropper a bit, try Berry’s PCP, Jigged Perdigons and Pheasant tails.
Steelhead fishing has really been better than solid with fish distributed throughout the McKenzie and Willamette. A ton of steelhead have been hooked on trout flies this year above Leaburg Dam. Why? The Leaburg canal is not operating and the Leaburg hatchery is not producing it’s typical effluent into the lower river, so steelhead don’t smell home. Summer fish keep trucking through the fish ladder at the dam, and we don’t really know how far they will go. Cold clean water smells good to these fish and anglers have hooked them as far up as Paradise campground. Its been a prolific steelhead season on both of our local watersheds. Best flies for steelhead include M.O.A.L Leech, Loop Leech, Sylveynator, and Coo Coo for Cocoa Puffs. A wide range of patterns will catch these fish.
We have seen hatches improve steadily with overcast days and even the odd rain shower. Pale Evening Duns, Blue Winged Olives, Mahogany Duns and smaller caddis have been around in the evening. Nocturnal stones have already been seen on the lower Mckenzie and Willamette Rivers near Eugene.
We will undoubtedly see another warm up but this respite from the heat has really been great for our local waters. River levels are perfect for great fishing to come. Hatches will improve and steelhead keep coming over Willamette Falls. Things are setting up for a great fall fishing season.
About 10 years ago a friend and I purchased a raft for fishing in Canada. We left it at the B&B where we stayed each fall to spend a couple weeks fishing. The raft was a great help in fishing and learning the rivers; we fished for steelhead to greater or lesser success (it is steelhead fishing after all). However, over the years, weighed down with boots, waders, rods, etc., that first step into or out of the raft made entering or exiting the raft very difficult. And since it is illegal to fish from a boat or a raft on the rivers in Canada where we fish, we spent our days wading rocky bottoms in various depths and currents and continually getting into, then out of, the raft to fish. It was exhausting.
Craig Hendersen owner RaftStep
After one day of increasing frustration I absentmindedly thought, “We need a step!”. That realization sat for a bit but then I started futzing around with the idea of making a step for a raft. Lots of attempts were discarded but eventually the final form was developed. I originally thought of the step as something just for my aging friend and myself, but during the process of developing and testing with friends and guides I recognized that it might be of value to other older people facing the difficulty of entering and exiting a framed raft.
But the difficulty getting into a raft from the bank or the river and then getting out again, is not just related to age. You could say it’s universal. It requires a good deal of balance and strength. An interim step provides a vital point to transfer body weight from one foot to the other. Placing a hand—or two—on the frame, I was able to easily put one foot on the step, pull the other off the bottom to inside the raft and onto the floor. The body weight transfer from outside to inside, using the step, was helped by the stabilizing effect of one or both hands holding onto the frame.
Also—and this was a huge revelation—when I first tried the step I immediately felt a sense of balance and security that was missing without the step. The step not only makes it easier to enter and exit a raft, it makes it safer and more secure.
So the RaftStep was born. I realized it was such a good idea, and such a necessary product, that I Patented it. RaftStep is made with first rate industrial materials— stainless steel plates and hardware— and fits all rafts with tubes with diameter of 1 7/8” and smaller.
To see instructions on altering RaftStep length and other information go to RaftStep.com.
