The Oregon (salmon) Trail

[tacklejunkie]

Dang I was driving around on the 22 out by Salem with my chick yesterday and found a BUNCH of anglers lined up on a river I don't know the name of. All of them had bait casting gear and it was a tiny tiny river, so I'm assuming they were after salmon. No other reason to be using bass gear in that tiny water. This was VERY close to the beach as well.
I was just at the collective and the guy there was telling me I need to get away from the open water on the Clackamas and go further upstream to where the creek narrows out a bit and I will catch a salmon there.

So looks like the bite is still on, in some places, worth of shoulder to shoulder fishing with baitcasters, and I need to still keep trying to figure out these fish and hit up two new spots I just found.
Arg I'm gonna get one of these things somehow!
the guy at the collective was saying chartreuse also, so that Cary fly above must be what they're trying for salmon with.

Info fresh as it comes!
Imma get one of these things. They're saying the salmon run was big this year. I still don't know a damn thing about these fish. Lol!

Oh, did I mention I was out on a date while dragging her around looking for salmon in her hometown? Haha
I'm evil.

[sweetfish]

Good Luck Casey. I hope you get that salmon. When my brother was salmon fishing in Idaho, he used some kind of Carolina rig setup to get his salmon. He was using some type of fish eggs as the bait though.

[City Dad]

"I've roamed in foreign parts my boys,
and many lands have seen,
but Columbia is my idol yet
of all lands she is queen."

That's carved on a stump somewhere up there i think

[tacklejunkie]

I was told people here will pull a gun on you for your salmon spot! Lol
Sounds about right, considering how I was robbed of my campsite earlier this year.

the dispensary guy says I can use a corky yarn rig. He said it's like a cork bobber and a piece of yarn on a hook and that will get them. I'm like whaaaaaaa?
Am I on Mars?

[tacklejunkie]

Ok research on the "yarn and cork" rig comes up with these ugly things.

If you ask me, a flashminnow looks tastier.

I'm seeing a common theme here. Larger-than-trout-sized neon lures.
Noted!

it it would also appear this is what I am seeing the old-timers up the Clackamas throwing around.

Or something relative to that.
Kinda like the sliding bobber rig but with a one ounce bullet and 30lb line.
I don't even have the gear to fish that kind of stuff.

Casting a rig like that would be likely to create some sort of bolo effect. Might get a few UFO reports off that one.

im gonna walk up to the salmon guys and throw a trout swimbait in the water and see what kind of reaction I get. Haha

[City Dad]

some guys fish steelhead with ghost shrimp under a slidding bobber too.

We only trolled and always with a Hotshot plug. I don't see why casting one (or a similar bait) from the shore wouldn't be effective as long as you were getting down near the bottom. (My brother hooked a salmon on a perch-colored Rapala once when we were fishing for smallmouth.)

[DarkShadow]

The Oregon Trail, eh?



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So, if Salmon in river, that means there are eggs in the river. Eggs in the river means trout gorge on them during spawning season. Very interested to see what pans out if you do target trout.

Any smallmouth in the river? That's what I'd be throwing clousers at wooly buggers at.

[Prowler_Tuber]

great report looks like you had it all to your self

[DarkShadow]

Cary Special. the only wet fly you'll ever need. in peacock hearl it's great for trouts

You told me the same thing about the CD Tilapia Special Wet Hackle w/ CDC and a foam post fly at Balboa.

Still haven't caught a thing with it.

[Skyler]

You told me the same thing about the CD Tilapia Special Wet Hackle w/ CDC and a foam post fly at Balboa.

Still haven't caught a thing with it.

He didn't use enough Ritz cracker wrappers on yours...