south coast chrome

[cascade pinner]

We've been getting some good returns across the board this fall after a lull for the past 4-5 years. It starts in august with the bigger rivers that traverse the coast range....then as the months go by the smaller and smaller rivers start to get theirs. I have a couple of rivers that I hit every year late season.....small coastal streams that are perfect for fly fishing and a 16' driftie is the biggest boat on the river.

Had 5 days in a row last week......got grabs every day.....

Releasing a wild hen:

http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pV_bXZZnQ4CQBjXa0wHh6RfKaZgRYqB2mbyZeH1NPac8cU7e fAvEbAf3kUMJYz2TZ0YYgAem974AUMbHxrChuow/salmon%20023.jpg?psid=1

About to kill one:

http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1ptMiG6axqTkCNtYFj0XOJvStS1R357cNNkVwKX1ayXU0B0hx uzRZf0CvHakO29z-Uenxg1Kutm8ud0L7_K941kw/salmon%20014.jpg?psid=1

This old toad grabbed a fly on the dead dangle:

http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pWup067zTJgpAjAutUMwy3IKv52N5QxeIRBHEFN37LLJ1CxH-f0aFmucS8T2ERyN5w5KFxGGglwA3AuBKwkUgtQ/salmon%20038.jpg?psid=1

Then got all excited when he got picked up.....!

http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pEXBuoz_PihK5fs3NJlKrdHMX5hpSP9G_O2tciygsEzjG2SR 6XRIRsO7tl6d3gZ-6OwcW64EkBSdkMiRGDo9vsg/salmon%20039.jpg?psid=1

[cascade pinner]

fresh chromage still charging in from the ocean......

http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pmMi6TsMxv1vegSQBUD_pczqjlm06BFJX6e_9jBKVUzHpdhZ GNUsf9na2WdwPPqVMIwDNpAN0WluQQTSiHl3ewA/elk%20river%20salmon%20007.jpg?psid=1

Hatchery hen, just above the tide by 3-4 miles.....the adipose is a misclip/re-grow. Sea lice still hanging on......

http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pR640S3f0jRE_4PIVTTaao9Q1JVxMZpRpXhooqsCWzVzFZkM _MKY6MyAYTAMAcP9AVjRBw-gAeT5dWa8gFa7wjg/elk%20river%20salmon%20008.jpg?psid=1

http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p44PEEV56CfAKqkgvm1kkeQpM1rmeZkuHH7RyivHf2iFskIK AUyQqEG9rIqIK2Y_38eSDoH66jfBaOohbuglcxA/elk%20river%20salmon%20009.jpg?psid=1

Hoping for one more salmon trip before winter steelhead really gets going.....

[schwerty]

This makes me really want to take a trip to the coast!

[DeathVan]

I'm friends with Gus Gustafson up here on Kodiak (former Mt. Bailey operator)
I'm taking it you're in Oregon, not South Coast AK

Is this a late run? We were done well over a month ago

Nice fish for sure

[cascade pinner]

I'm friends with Gus Gustafson up here on Kodiak (former Mt. Bailey operator)
I'm taking it you're in Oregon, not South Coast AK

Is this a late run? We were done well over a month ago

Nice fish for sure

Ya....south coast of oregon.

Run timing is pretty cool.....when looking at it from the range of a species (like chinook/kings) perspective or at a smaller scale like within a river basin.

The small coastal streams in OR (originate in the coast range) don't have much for snow/glacier melt because the range is pretty low elevation and doesn't get much snow, so they are dependent on rain to raise the flow to allow access. During the dry season, the rivers drop to almost nothing and the relentless north winds along the coast will pile up sand over the mouth and actually block access for the 2nd half of the summer.....until rains raise the river and blow it out. So the fish in small streams return late(r) because they can't even get into a lot of the estuaries until late October.

I live on the Umpqua. Half of the basin drains a high elevation area that gets deep snowpack and half of the basin drains low elevation rain-dominated areas. The North gets summer steelhead and spring chinook because of the steady cold flow all summer. The South gets fall chinook and winter steehead that take advantage of the rainy season flows.

Up in AK, winter precip is snow and a lot of the rivers freeze up....so most of the salmon take advantage of glacial melt during the high summer, when flows are highest.....so your timing is usually mid-summer thru early fall when the high country freezes up again....

The runs that I've been fishing lately are some of the last chinook runs that come in to OR streams....but I've heard of chromers getting caught in January mixed in with winter steelies.

I haven't talked to Gus in 6-7 years....hope he's doing well up there....heard he had a B&B or something....

[DeathVan]

Thanks for the information. I hadn't thought about wave action blocking small stream runs, that's interesting.

Yup, Gus has a B&B, The Red Barn. I see the old Mt. Bailey vans around town or out the road quite a bit (that's how I started talking to him about skiing, had trip planned for MtB about 10 years back but my buddy got in an accident the night before we were going to leave, big bummer)

I grew up in Oregon (Coos Bay, Eugene, Portland...) Wish I would have gotten into fly fishing back then, there is obviously some great action down there, but I have a pretty good opportunity to make up for time lost up here. Kings were a blast this year.

Have a great season both fishing and skiing, I'm jealous of your La Nina, we'll see if it helps or hurts us up here (can't tell yet)

here's some island stoke
http://i977.photobucket.com/albums/ae254/DeathVan/P7140317.jpg