This has been an interesting winter on the River. The weather has cooperated, a typical El Nino weather pattern of below average precipitation and warmer temperatures. And the fish have cooperated as well with a good run and some big fish (not that I have hooked any). Steve and I saw a spawning pair in late March and the male was the largest fish I’ve seen outside of the Babine – we estimated it at 25 pounds.

We’ve also seen more people fishing the fly water in the winter than anyone has seen before. On the nice weekends in February and March there were days with people at every pullout from the Deadline to Steamboat Creek. There aren’t many places left where people can fish over a healthy run of big wild fish and it showed this winter – lots of people and lots of out-of-state license plates. This is a very important period for steelhead management on the River. As discussed in this issue, ODFW is beginning the process of developing a winter steelhead management plan. This effort represents a real opportunity for protection of one of the few healthy steelhead runs on the west coast while establishing a framework for recovery of other populations. However it also represents an opportunity to codify the hatchery and harvest perspective in place now. We have been told plainly that the plan will include harvest of wild North Umpqua steelhead. We would like to hear from our members about this issue.

“We have reached the time in the life of the planet, and humanity’s demands upon it, when every fisherman will have to be a riverkeeper, a steward of marine shallows, a watchman on the high seas. We are beyond having to put back what we have taken out. We must put back more than we take out. We must make holy war on the enemies of aquatic life as we have against the gillnetters, polluters, and drainers of wetlands. Otherwise, as you have already learned, these creatures will continue to disappear at an accelerating rate. We will lose as much as we have lost already, and there will be next to nothing, remnant populations, put-and-take, dim bulbs following the tank truck.”

Club News & Notes:

On January 9 a meeting was held at Steamboat Inn to kick off a group effort for influencing steelhead management on the River. Thanks to Jim VanLoan and the Inn for hosting the meeting in the library and providing lunch to the participants. In addition to most of the Steamboaters board, we had representatives from the NU Foundation, Pacific Rivers Council (including several members of their science panel), Umpqua Watersheds, TU, Native Fish Society, the Wild Salmon Center, and McKenzie Flyfishers. We decided to focus on two areas:

1.)Influence the spending program for the mitigation money paid by PacifiCorp to Umpqua National Forest as part of the relicensing of their facilities on the upper North Umpqua. This mitigation money averages nearly $500,000/year for the 35 year license period and represents a huge opportunity to improve water quality and steelhead habitat, and to collect data on the steelhead population on the Umpqua National Forest.

2.)Participate in the development of ODFW’s Coastal Winter Steelhead Management Plan, which will include the North Umpqua winter steelhead. The format for the process is not clear yet, nor the opportunities for our participation.

We have discussed our ideas for use of the mitigation money with officials from Umpqua NF and Partnership for Umpqua Rivers, and recently sent a letter to Umpqua NF, co-signed by TNUF, Umpqua Watersheds, and Native Fish Society, outlining our vision for the use of these funds and requesting participation in the planning process.

Our April board meeting was attended by Tim Walters, ODFW’s Umpqua Watershed Manager and Laura Jackson, Umpqua Basin Fish Biologist. We discussed the upcoming winter steelhead plan process and how we could participate.

This is what we were told:

There is no firm format or timetable yet established for the plan.

The plan will cover all 21 coastal winter steelhead populations identified in the Species Management Unit and

likely will include the summer steelhead SMU (which includes two populations: North Umpqua and Siletz Rivers).

There will be no separate plan for the North Umpqua.

The plan will include harvest of Umpqua Basin wild winter steelhead.

Public participation will be through a single Stakeholders Group selected by ODFW for the entire plan.

Plan options will be developed by staff and reviewed by the Stakeholders Group.

The plan will be reviewed by the InterDisciplinary Scientific Review team which is organized by ODFW. (Peter Tronquet has served on stakeholder groups for two plans, the Rogue River Spring Chinook and currently for Coastal Fall Chinook. He said the review by the IDSR team is limited to the methodology of the plan formation and development, and is NOT a review of the science or management proposals. For the Rogue springers, there wasn’t even a fish scientist on the IDSR).

Tim and Laura agreed to meet with us to discuss concerns and proposals we may have. We have again retained Dr. Eric Knudsen, who provided us with an excellent analysis of some of ODFW’s management strategies and particularly the 2005 Biological Assessment supporting harvest of wild Umpqua River steelhead. Dr Knudsen will prepare recommendations for us to promote, and provide us with analyses of management proposals.

Litter Pickup and Picnic

Just a reminder to put this on your calendar: the litter pickup, picnic and annual meeting will be held again this summer on August 14th. As usual, we'll meet at 9:30am in the Bogus Creek parking area. Details on the picnic will be available at a later date.

Steamboaters Winter Social

Jeff Bright put on a beautiful show for 65 Steamboaters and guests on March 6 at Kowloon Restaurant. Jeff has fished and guided in British Columbia for years and his photographs are outstanding (you can view them at his website, www.jeffbright.com). He started with a presentation on the Dean River and the bright robust steelhead just out of the saltwater, followed by the Skeena and Copper Rivers – awesome river canyons with awesome steelhead. Jeff also delivered a strong conservation message, stressing the need for constant effort to protect these fish and their home waters – even the largest and most beautiful steelhead face continual threats from harvest and habitat destruction.

One day back in the early 70’s, when you could still see the river from the road, I was fishing over a steelhead in the Upper Clay Creek pool. Joe Howell was standing on the bank calling the casts and drifts for me as I couldn’t see the fish from my stand on the river. After the first fly and several casts failed to faze the fish, I decided to change patterns.

While tying on another fly, Joe hollered down “What are you tying on?”

A Thor, I replied.

“No, not that one” he yelled back.

“Why not?” I queried.

“Cause all you’ll do is Thor mouth him” was his smart-assed reply.

I nearly slipped of the rock from laughing so hard. When I settled down enough to make the cast, the response was immediate and positive--I had a steelhead on! Not for long, however, much to Joe’s delight and my chagrin he threw the fly and bolted away with a “thor” mouth..

The Thor was always one of my favorite follow-up flies. It was successful often enough that I had confidence in it, especially in size 6 or 8 on a bright day. And, it was quick and easy to tie. The pattern was originated by Jim Prey, probably in the 40’s or 50’s for Northern California coastal rivers and named for his friend Walter Thoresen. In the 60’s and 70’s it was a popular fly on the North Umpqua, but like so many of the old traditional patterns, has fallen into a state of disuse. I don’t even use it much any more and I can’t tell you why.

Too many new, pretty flies to tie and try, I guess.

In 2010 ODF&W instituted catch and release for wild steelhead. The results have been spectacular.

When the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife established catch and release on the fabled North Umpqua River during the winter spring steelhead run, you knew that some interesting things were going to happen. You could expect that there would be more fish, and in particular, more large fish in the fly water and that was flat out exciting.

January 12, 2010

I rolled out of bed that morning to see a river that was finally down to 3,000 cfs and that beautiful steelhead green. When I checked the barometer it is totally bottomed out! Holy cow, something is gonna happen today! Gotta tie up some Captain Nemos. I’m totally out. Dammmit! I haven’t hooked a fish since the big one at Upper Baker way back in early November. That is way too long! I hurry to tie up a couple Nemo…that’s enough, gotta go.

First stop is the “Famous” and it looks perfect! Only a minute later I am on the middle stand, stripping out line and there goes the first cast. Several casts later, as my fly swims near the middle rock …was that a flash, or did I just imagine it?

Next cast “WHACK”, a fish is on! It is a decent fish, a bright buck of around 8 pounds. There aren’t any easy places to land it and in the ensuing melee I grab the leader to help slide it in, it flips violently; pow…leader breaks, fish gone, Nemo gone, crap! No matter except only one Nemo left. I’m not complaining, a winter hookup after only 2 casts is pretty fine.

Next stop is Upper Baker. Nothing there, but when I climb back up the bank Reno Red is there. I’m not sure I’ve ever talked to him before, but we shoot the breeze. For some reason I mention to him that I don’t pound this pool, I just hit it once through and go. He tells me he’s been real successful just fishing through it and then going up to his truck for 10 or 15 minutes and then going back down to fish it again etc, etc. It’s probably not a bad idea…at least it explains why it seems like he’s there all day long in the winter. I decide to run all the way up to Upper Mill Run…it ought to be just about perfect at this flow. It’s open when I get there. Excellent!

I head down the trail and hop out on the middle rock. Two casts later a powerful fish absolutely hammers the Nemo and screams off down river. The pull is so strong that I am afraid to attempt the jump back to the rock near shore for fear it might jerk me off balance and cause me to miss the spot, slip and hit my head and drown. Instead I slide off the rock and find myself nearly up to my wader tops and me with only one free hand. Now I wish I’d made the leap so I could take the “high-road”. The “low road” is hell, scrambling under the brush and a slippery, sloping bottom, with that monster of a fish relentlessly pulling. At some point there is a thunderous splash…the thing has come out of the water and smacked back down out there.

I finally reach a place where with my free right hand I can crawl and drag myself up on the bank and begin frantically downstream after the thing. When I finally catch up to it, it is on the shelf at Mill Run and I can see it clearly and it can see me. We are both looking at each other while we catch our breaths. It is laying in a crevice in the ledge that is about the same size that it is and it is huge! When my breathing has slowed and I am ready to resume, I tighten up on the reel to resume the struggle, the monster says “not today bub,” and “pow”, it is gone! Later in the day, out of curiosity, I wade out on the ledge to measure the crevice. That fish was clearly over 40 inches! Frank later tells me that a fish that size could BE AS MUCH AS 30 POUNDS!

I believe it may be the most exhausting fish I’ve ever fought. Holy Moly!

Hopefully it is the harbinger of things to come.

Pat McRae’s recently published book “The North Umpqua Chronicles” is available for purchase at The Blue Heron Fly Shop, Steamboat Inn, The Caddis Fly Shop, and Angler’s Book Supply.

Longtime North Umpqua angler Anton Wratney passed away January 25, 2009. He was an early member of Steamboaters (member # 108) and loved staying at the Inn with both the Moores and Van Loans. Tony (or Anton) served in the U. S. Army in the Second World War as an infantryman. He was almost always a cheerful person and eager to share “most" of his fishing knowledge with newcomers.

Please contact Dean for more information: (541) 731-9649 or dean@5riversguideservice.com

Ralph Lampman, a graduate student in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University, is looking for volunteers to assist in his study of Pacific lamprey on the North Umpqua. He needs volunteers to help with lamprey trapping at Winchester Dam, spawning and redd surveys, and lamprey measurement and tagging. Contact Ralph directly at: ralph.lampman@oregonstate.edu or (971) 227-0862.