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OUTSIDE
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Fishing guide Drake Radditz, left, and Tim Trainor, right, fi sh while standing in a shallow part of the North Fork Nehalem River.
S
LET IT FI H
A good day on the North Fork Nehalem
dependent. But
I cast upstream of
conditions were
the waterfall — as
prime in early
instructed — and
January on the North
watch my Eait À oat
Fork Nehalem. The
down through the
river had dropped
braided green water
noticeably since
of the North Fork
Christmas, leaving
Nehalem River.
¿ sh stacked up
Guide Drake
Tim
Radditz had spent
Trainor mid-river in deep
holes. On the day of
the previous night
Comment
our scheduled À oat,
curing the steelhead
the temperature had
eggs now gobbed
onto the hook, treating them reached 0 degrees by ¿ rst
light and the fog was lifting.
with salt and borax and
It was a perfect day to cast
food coloring so they hold
together and look appetizing a line.
The best place to ¿ sh
to a ¿ sh.
for winter steelhead on the
At the tail end of the
North Fork is the canyon
drift, there it is: the silver
section downstream from the
À ash of an underwater
hatchery. It is also the most
steelhead, the bend of the
scenic. Waterfalls tumble
rod, the tenuous connection
and thunder off both sides
to a strong and wild thing.
of the canyon, bald eagles
Fish on.
glide overhead, tufted ducks
Angling coastal
and common mergansers
Oregon rivers is always
À oat nervously downstream.
unpredictable and weather
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Drake Radditz baits a hook with cured steelhead eggs.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
The results of a productive day of fi shing.
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. 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 ODFW
¿ sh hatchery and ventures
over three dangerous rapids
— known colloquially as
Jack, Queen and King —
and ¿ nishes at a tidally
affected, brackish takeout
roughly eight 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 simple catching.
That was mostly because of
Radditz’s knowledge of the
river, his varied equipment
and his recommendation
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 often 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.
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. Removing them
from the ecosystem means
less competition for their
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Tim Trainor holds up one of his catches.
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 Nehalem 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.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Fog is seen through the trees at daybreak along North Fork Nehalem River.
Guide Drake Radditz navigates the raft through one of the rapids along the North
Fork Nehalem River. The rapids can be dangerous, and sometimes deadly, and
should only be navigated by experienced rafters.
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Email editor Tim Trainor at ttrainor@eastoregonian.com, or call him at 541-966-0835.