FRIDAYEXTRA !
The Daily Astorian
Friday, January 15, 2016
Weekend Edition
Photos by
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Fishing guide Drake Radditz reels in a steelhead in the North Fork Nehalem River.
S
LET IT FI H
A GOOD DAY ON THE NORTH FORK NEHALEM
varied equipment and his recommenda-
tion of where and how to ¿ sh. It required
good casting and constant line mending,
but when the bait swung naturally in front
of a steelhead, there was a strike more of-
ten than not. On casts that were less than
perfect, Radditz would often whisper,
³/et it ¿ sh,´ which meant not to panic
and abandon hope, but to let the bait À oat
downstream and see what happened.
Sometimes that worked, too.
I was well aware that it is rarely that
easy.
By TIM TRAINOR
EO Media Group
I
cast upstream of the waterfall — as
LQstructeG — aQG watch m\ EaLt À oat
down through the braided green wa-
ter of the North Fork Nehalem River.
Guide Drake Radditz had spent the
previous night curing the steelhead eggs
now gobbed onto the hook, treating them
with salt and borax and food coloring so
they hold together and look appetizing to
a ¿ sh.
At the tail end of the drift, there it is:
7he silver À ash of an underwater steel-
head, the bend of the rod, the tenuous
connection to a strong and wild thing.
Fish on.
Unpredictable and weather
dependent
Angling coastal Oregon rivers is al-
ways unpredictable and weather depen-
dent. But conditions were prime in early
January on the North Fork Nehalem. The
river had dropped noticeably since Christ-
mas, leaving ¿ sh stacked up mid-river in
deep holes. On the day of our scheduled
À oat, the temperature had reached de-
grees by ¿ rst light and the fog was lifting.
It was a perfect day to cast a line.
The best place to ¿ sh for winter steel-
head on the North Fork is the canyon sec-
tion downstream from the hatchery. It is
also the most scenic.
Waterfalls tumble and
Not hungry in January
Guide Drake Radditz navigates the raft through one of the rapids along
the North Fork Nehalem River. The rapids can be dangerous, and some-
times deadly, and should only be navigated by experienced rafters.
thunder off both sides of the canyon,
bald eagles glide overhead, tufted ducks
and common mergansers À oat nervously
downstream. On other trips, Radditz has
seen plenty of elk and once a bobcat. The
river À ows elegantly over bedrock, and
the lack of a graveled bottom is rare for a
watershed in the region.
A short climb and walk
From the raft, it is hard to believe that
a state highway is no more than a short
climb and walk away.
The usual guided day À oat begins at
the Oregon Department of Fish and Wild-
life ¿ sh hatchery and ventures over three
dangerous rapids — known colloquially
as Jack, 4ueen and .ing — and ¿ nish-
es at a tidally-affected, brackish take-
out roughly 8 river miles downstream.
Through the canyon, bank access is dif¿ -
cult and the serious rapids keep away all
but the most experienced river runners.
We fell into a day of shockingly sim-
ple catching. That was mostly because
of Radditz’s knowledge of the river, his
Steelhead are not hungry in January
in the Nehalem. They eat eggs of their
own species because those may have
been fertilized by a competitor. Remov-
ing them from the ecosystem means less
competition for their own offspring,
should they be lucky enough to spawn
successfully.
Anglers have similar concerns, though
thankfully we don’t resort to cannibalism.
But escaping from the crowds and cutting
down on competition is a way to increase
the odds of success. The North Fork Ne-
halem is harder to get to by car than more
well-known North Coast rivers, its best
holes are dif¿ cult to access by foot and
hard to ¿ sh from shore, and rafting it can
be dangerous and sometimes deadly.
If you make it to this spectacular stretch
of water, you will be rewarded —
whether the bite is on or not.
VIEW MORE PHOTOS OF
FISHING ON THE NORTH FORK
NEHALEM RIVER PAGE 3C
»
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