Based on video monitoring (through mid-November) at Upper and Lower Bennett dams near Stayton, approximately 5,200 summer steelhead moved into the upper North Santiam this season. That’s about 20 percent of the nearly 25,000 summer steelhead that passed the Willamette Falls this. year Coho season on the North Santiam from Stayton up to Big Cliff…
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The North Santiam River level is dropping and the water is cold. Clarity is tolerable. Some new steelhead are coming upstream, and we now have 412 fresh steelhead in the river system plus quite a few left over summer steelhead, some of which are still good and some of which should be returned to the…
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Under new rules adopted by the Fish and Wildlife Commission, Oregon’s sturgeon bag limit will be reduced to one fish per year beginning in 2013. The new rule covers all Oregon waters including the North Santiam, all other inland rivers, bays and estuaries. The ruling supersedes a two fish annual bag limit set last September as…
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The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife updated the sport fishing regulations and Winter Steelhead Guide for 2013 today. 2013 Sport Fishing Regulations The Willamette Zone Sport Fishing Regulations for 2013 on the ODFW website do not appear to have changed. Printed versions should be available at ODFW offices and from license sales agents by…
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On a recent hike along Pamilia Creek, I came across this clump of Indian Pipe growing under a dense stand of large Douglas fir. It caught my eye, because even though it’s a herbaceous plant, it looks more like a fungus. In fact, I always assumed Indian Pipe, like many fungi, lived off of the…
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[box type=”alert” size=”large” style=”rounded”]The boat ramp at Shelburn is a little difficult to pull into from upstream because of two large branches sticking out in the waves just above the ramp. It is possible to see the branches from upstream and to row around them, toward the middle of the river, and then to cut…
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Devil’s club or devil’s walking stick is a large shrub native to the cool moist conifer forests. It is found from Alaska to western Oregon and eastward to western Alberta and Montana. This native shrub always catches my eye in the late summer. Those clusters of showy red berries remind me of Christmas. I’ve…
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Watching salmon spawn is not necessarily voyeurism. Scientifically, it is an interesting process and if we understand it we are able to help the salmon be more successful with their reproduction and also to be more successful with our fishing techniques. Some of the salmon started spawning the last week of August and the first…
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The weather has been great, and is likely to continue. Water temperature is in the mid-fifties both going into and coming out of Detroit Lake. Niagara water has been between 56 and 59 degrees, tolerable for steelhead and salmon. Water temperature at Green’s Bridge has been between 64 and 71, much too warm for sporting…
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The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife stocks hatchery reared trout at many locations in the North Santiam Canyon. Click on any of the fish icons shown on the following map to learn a little more about the locations that receive hatchery trout. View ODFW trout stocking sites in a larger map
The decade of the 1930’s was an era of large government building projects. Many undertaken to counter the economic hardships of the Great Depression. The 1930’s also saw the population and industrial development in the North Santiam Canyon finally reach levels that would economically justify a flood control project. So the Detroit Dam complex, which includes…
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You can learn how the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife raise Chinook salmon and rainbow trout at the Marion Forks Fish Hatchery. There’s also a large pond where visitors can feed adult rainbow trout. The best time to visit is May through October. There is camping nearby in a U.S. Forest Service campgrounds, but…
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