I have been working on the river and in the Oregon wilderness for better than 40 years now and I was pretty naive to a whole list of environmental changes that I remember watching happen. For instance, from 1980 to 1985 we received more than 40 inches of rain each[Read More…]
Anglers Log
Water levels at ‘wonderful’ stage
As I prepare this week’s Angler’s Log, the McKenzie River at the Vida gage site has fallen to about 2 feet, an ideal range for fishing and boating, and will continue to recede as we inch closer toward summer. You can also easily correlate the current conditions on the McKenzie[Read More…]
Heat, spring runoff slow chinook action
“Spring runoff” is a condition that merited your consideration a few years ago. But the recent unseasonable heat wave accelerated the melting of our ample statewide snowpack, causing the rivers and streams that drain the west Cascades to spike upward to levels where the probability of a quality angling experience[Read More…]
Snow pack, rain pushing up river levels
As I prepare this week’s Angler’s Log, the patter of raindrops is clearly audible on my roof and my most immediate observation of the upcoming week’s fishing conditions is that it is hard to overlook how persistent Old Man Winter has been this year. Last week’s precipitation pushed the McKenzie[Read More…]
A year with no chinook …
“Hyper-local” is not just a saying but a business model that The Chronicle has been true to, and in my biweekly fishing report I do the best I can to highlight those hyper-local fishing locations for you. I do occasionally go off the rails, bringing you narratives of some of[Read More…]
Gear up for spring trout fishing season
It’s a function of the lengthening daylight hours to chase the chill of winter and usher in the spring each year. The sunshine buds out the river’s edge foliage and, most importantly to anglers, stimulates the first of the aquatics to release their hold from the bottom of our local[Read More…]
Conditions are hit-and-miss post winter storms
With the largest part of the energy going into California, a recent series of storms slammed into the West Coast, bringing gusty winds, heavy rain and some snow, but mostly rain to all the western states. To the good fortune of Oregonians we have for now escaped the catastrophic flooding[Read More…]
Oregon steelhead production remains consistent
Reports of winter steelhead finding their way home to Oregon’s coastal rivers have been modest although somewhat persistent throughout the length of the far western part of our state. In part one of a two-part series I will give you a general overview of all the winter steelhead possibilities on[Read More…]
Casting about for the right licenses
I do have some positive winter steelhead news and I will get to that a little further down the column. With the winter solstice upon us, we have entered a season of renewal and it’s time to renew those soon to be outdated fishing licenses and other game retention tags.[Read More…]
Braided lines a key to success all year
Oregon anglers historically saw the first of the winter steelhead arrive in our coastal waters about the end of November. But it’s been a couple of decades since Oregon anglers have been able to consider the Thanksgiving holiday weekend as the kickoff of the year’s winter steelhead season. For many[Read More…]
