We have fished this river from the south, all the way up to detroit over the last year. Methods for Trout, steelhead and salmon have included,,, Drift bobber with eggs, worms, pink worms, and shrimp tails, and fly fishing nymphs and swinging.. Same methods for drifting as well. Our favorite spots have been, john neel park, north santiam rec, big cliff, and mehema as well as stayton bridge. We have had not one bite ever! I really dont get it and am needing to find out what the deal is. I have spent way too much. I will try the salmon river next. Is this river really that hard to catch fish? I cant even catch a damn trout. Im pretty good at reading water and know where fish should hold, but they never seem to be there.. End Rant. Not to mention all the gear I have lost along the way

Boards kind of quiet. You might not get anyone to chime in on this one.

H

Its ok I really just needed to vent I guess. lol Thanks for the reply though

I have fished the North Santiam a few times and have had very little success. I did catch a ton of trout though, using a #2 rainbow blue fox. If I were targeting Salmon I would go to one of the deep upper holes with a nice rock ledge and jig herring. Just thread the herring on your line, put a treble hook in the bottom, use a 1 or 2 oz dropper, cast, let sink to bottom, lift, let it sink to the bottom, kind of like fishing worms for large mouth. For steelhead, I would probably stick with spinners until you find some spots that hold fish. Cast and swing them through tail outs, or cast directly upstream and bring it straight down river near the bottom.

Yeah, from what I hear the Santiams are kind of difficult to master. I like float fishing and we have fished the North a few times without much luck. I just don't think they get a very good run of fish. A few fish here and there is what I hear unless you fish the meat holes.

Yea they are tricky. I figure if I get a steelhead or salmon on this system before I die of old age I will have definatly scratched a goal off of my list

I don't have much experience there, but when I lived near Portland in the mid to late 80's we fished it for summer steelhead often. Known as a boating river, in those days anyway, we used a drift boat and pulled plugs. The North Santiam kicked out a 11.5# summer steelhead and several others on a single trip. Other trips always produced a fish or two. Back trolling silver and black wee warts were the trick. Local guides tended to used K-11 flatfish....Tailouts in the AM and fast curent near the top of rifles in the day.

I know we put in near the dam but cannot remember where we took out some 8 miles down river.

You may consider taking a drift on the river with a local guide and see what's up. Often the local knowledge is priceless. If you do decide to do this make sure your guide is local and has many years of experinece on local waters. Good Luck and keep on fishin!

Tight LInes
Osprey