I have a new favorite river: the Siletz.
SILETZ RIVER JUST ABOVE WILDCAT BRIDGE. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)
Fished it last Saturday for summer-runs between Wildcat Bridge and the upper end of the gorge. That’s the stretch of the Central Oregon Coast stream which is only open for vehicle traffic on weekends, and though it seemed as if every steelheader in Lincoln County was out fishing that morning, my father-in-law and I still found plenty of places to wade through the brush to the water.
The Siletz up here is a mix of deep pools, small cataracts, pockets of boulders and quick runs. It winds through the Coast Range beneath a canopy of extremely verdant trees — or maybe that was just my polarized glasses. But the water is clear: You can see right to the bottom in the more languid waters. However, the fish that struck the big lures I was tossing hit in the faster stuff. I was using rvrfshr spoons and Blue Fox spinners; the Siletz Watershed Council asks anglers to use gear that juvenile fish are less likely to hit.
JUST BELOW THE GORGE, THE SILETZ POURS OVER THE TOP OF LAYERS OF SEDIMENTARY ROCK DEPOSITED MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO IN THE PACIFIC BEFORE THE COAST RANGE FORMED. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)
Plum Creek’s logging road above Moonshine Park provides good access and plenty of pullouts. Many of the wide sports are marked with plastic garbage bags. Anglers are encouraged to pack out their trash; while I did pick up someone’s bait container, I found the Siletz to be among the cleanest rivers I’ve ever fished along. Pretty refreshing, actually.
Most of the fishermen were focused on “The Gorge” area, perhaps due to ODFW’s report last week: “Summer steelhead angling is excellent on the Siletz with fish spread upstream throughout the gorge area.” It appeared that most were float fishing or tossing hardware. June and July are said to be the peak of the summer season.
WALGAMOTT WORKS THE GORGE. (JUERGEN ECKSTEIN)
For me, the tastiest looking water was actually the most difficult to get to. As we drove through a large clearcut above Steel Bridge, the water several hundred feet below and about a quarter mile through logging slash looked pretty darned good. Two other cars had the same idea; they had parked at the last good access before the road climbed up onto the mountains. We parked well below them and hung onto a helpful rope to get to a nice run just above the bridge. There’s plenty of tough-to-reach water up here ripe for anglers such as yours truly who don’t mind wading. Next time I’m in Newport to see the family, I told myself, next time.
CLEARCUT HILLSIDE, UPPER SILETZ RIVER. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)
This is all logging country up here. As we turned around at Gobblers Knob, a semi pulling a huge flatbed came grinding up the road to yard an equally huge bulldozer out of the woods. You can bike up the road during the week. The river is open to 900 feet below Siletz Falls at River Mile 64.5.
One more note, there’s some talk about Polk County damming the South Fork.
While I’d originally planned to go out on the ocean for the coho opener with Andy Schneider — and probably should have gone with him to Astoria for sturgeon — the trip up the Siletz was pretty darn satisfying. Can’t wait to hit it again!
