The drive to the North Umpqua takes around 10 hours from home. Leaving about 2pm on a Saturday, I arrived before midnight. Just enough time to pull into the Camp Water parking lot and take a snooze.
Sunday was originally to be a half day of scouting and checking out Steamboat Creek. However, at the last minute I changed my plans. I quickly packed my things and left earlier on Saturday to get there for a full day of fishing.
Who was I kidding? I wouldn't be able to just walk around scouting for even a half day. Seeing others fishing and knowing I was right there, with my gear would be too much pressure. I made the right decision to fish a full three days (the fourth day was spent with Lee on Steamboat Creek). Who needed a day of scouting when I could simply scout it out with rod in hand?
In the morning, I really had no idea where to go. I mean, I was in the Camp Water and I knew pretty much every section of water had potential. Other than that, I wasn't sure which run/pool to visit first. So, I just wandered down to the water as the sun was rising. As the path reached the river, I went out and got my feet wet.
| Access | Camp Water and 15 miles surrounding | |
| Air Temp | Low 48, High 90's | |
| Water Temp/Visibility | ~50 F / 15+ feet | |
| Weather | Morning Clouds, Sunny otherwise | |
| Flow | unknown | |
| Time in/out | 5:00am, 8pm | |
| Leaders/Lines | Compact Scandi | |
| 15ft floating leader | All day | |
If you take more than five minutes to read up on the NU, or ask anyone about it, one of the first things out of their mouth is in regards to the wading. It is known to be a really slick river. On top of that you can be wading in ankle deep water and the next step is a 20 foot drop off. While I won't argue the popular perceptions. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I felt no need for a wading staff, and as long as I was careful, I stayed upright. With that said, the wading is definitely more tricky and you must be more tactful in your moves than the average gravel bottom river.
Navigating a run was mostly an act of finding the best way to wade out to a point and start casting. Fan out your casts to cover as much water as possible. When your done, slowly step down off your perch and move to the next. You have to carefully move up and down the very uneven floor, finding your way through a maze of boulders, ledges, and long slender, almost featureless peaks and valleys of rock that may or may not lead you to a good casting station. The best advice I can give you is to always plan an exit route. You could easily wade out to a position and half a heck of a time getting back if your only way out is upstream, against the current on a slippery ledge. You'll most surely slip and dunk yourself in a situation like this.
After an hour or so, I decided to move down river from Sawtooth. Although I didn't know it at the time, I moved past Station, Upper and Lower Boat, Upper Kitchen, and finally to Lower Kitchen. Again, I wiggled my way out to mid river where the main current was. The water was deep here. Casting a size 4 generic hair wing, I wasn't getting anything. Not that I expected some monster to come out and hook itself within the first couple of hours of being here. Or even over the course of my three days. However, I do like to see signs of fish lurking about. Whether they jump or I catch a glimpse of them below. Neither of of those things had happened. Not yet anyway.
Even though I had my 12' 6" two hander. There was no need for it. This river is pretty big, but it is divided up into narrow slots that can easily accommodate a single hander. Next time, I'll take my 7wt 9foot rod. There is plenty of casting room for overhead. And the few places that wouldn't allow for it, you could simply perform a roll cast or single hand spey cast.
After some time in Lower Kitchen, I decided to get out of the water and go further downstream. I was interested in exploring. In fact, I walked more than 2 miles down the North Umpqua trail, which is on the opposite side of the river from the road. Stopping at various pools and runs, there were a lot of very cool stretches to cast into. The scenery was beautiful and the river was technically challenging. Getting your flies to the right spot was difficult at times. Especially when the (10-20 mph) winds kicked up. It kept things interesting.
As the sun came out, it started to warm. It actually got very hot during the day. I started to seek out the shade to better my chances at catching fish. However, this thought process turns out to be flawed. As I'll relate some things I learned from Lee up in Steamboat creek. Fishing in the sun for steelhead is not such a bad idea.
During this two mile hike downriver, I was catching smaller fish. Most of them were in the 15-18 inch range. Actually, I was catching a lot of fish. I lost count somewhere north of 20. It was starting to get annoying. The idea was to catch a larger steelhead, not these little guys. I started putting on bigger and bigger flies. And then at some point, in mid afternoon, I decided to put on a waking fly.
The NU fish are known to take waking or chugged flies. While I've never caught a decent fish with these methods, I figured this was the best place to try it. So, I put on a size 4 I tied a while back. It was big and pushed a lot of water. The presentation was easy. Cast it out and start disturbing the water to try and attract fish. After having the fly on for about 2 casts, I noticed that it was getting attention!
At first, I saw mostly smaller fish coming up from the depths (we are talking 10-20 foot depths in this particular pool) to check out the fly. They'd mostly turn at the last second. But, I'll tell you, this was exciting to see. The water was so clear, I could see them coming from pretty deep down. I caught myself laughing out loud a few times as these guys slashed at the fly.
I was slowly working out the line on each cast. With not more than 20 foot of line out, I cast again. As it swung downstream to the same ledge I was standing on, I saw this flash of silver. A jerk on my line, then it went limp. My arms were shaking. I couldn't tell how big the fish was, but my mind was racing.
I carefully tried to recreate that same exact cast, and here he comes again! This time he took the fly under. I clinched my teeth as I held my rod still, waited for some weight, then yanked back. I got him! He fought hard and when I landed him, he wasn't really that big. But it was my first decent sized fish on a waking/chugging fly. It was only appropriate that it happened on the NU, and my first decent sized fish of the three day trip. He measured approximately 23 inches. I quickly removed the hook and placed him in the water. Holding him until he powered off at an amazing speed back into the depths.
I was pretty shaky after that. I decided to just sit on a rock and chill out before heading back to shore. After all, I was perched out on a precarious ledge that I didn't really want to slip off of into the deep/fast water because my rubbery legs couldn't support my body.
I continued down river further. Fishing anything that looked like holding water. One thing I learned about the NU. The holding water here is not exactly the same type of holding water you may see on other steelhead rivers. The river structure is so unique, that the fish tend to be in very deep water. Not necessarily at the bottom, but against large boulders or against ledges. I can't tell you how many times I saw large fish holding a foot or two down, but in 20 foot deep water. And of course, on other occasions, I did see fish quite deep. Mostly likely stressed for one reason or another.
During my walk down stream, I often questioned exactly where I was. It wasn't until a day later, driving in the car on the opposite side of the water that I realized I was about two miles down stream from the Steamboat Inn. The walk back would take a while.
After finally getting back, I took more time to figure out what run in Camp was what. I asked a very nice local guy where Station was, and he pointed it out and a couple of other runs too. He and everyone else I had talked to were not having much luck. Over the course of three days, no one admitted to catching a fish over 20 inches. The amount of hookups and tugs were low too. However, I did witness one other person catch a good sized fish on the third day.
I started to question if there were that many big steelhead in the river. However, in the evening, large fish were jumping. And large fish could be seen from Mott bridge. And, as I'll comment more on in my day 4 entry, the steelhead return is an average count. These fish just seemed to have lock jaw.
After a trip to the car for some food and water, I wandered upstream of the bridge. There was some good water here too. I could actually see a few large fish clinging to the side of a ledge within casting reach. I first tried a few wet flies. Then a skating fly, then chugged it. The fish didn't seem to react at all. So I stepped down and caught a few more smaller fish off this same ledge. These guys were very active. I could see them come up from some really deep water to take a fly on or near the surface.
The sun was setting, and I ended my day in Upper Kitchen. Had a really big tug, and caught a few 15-18" fish. I was exhausted and went back to the car for some sleep.
Day two through four coming soon (with pictures and video)!
1 comment:
Rick
Love the storie allway's had a special place in my heart for the NU it's where I learned to fly fish/flytye 33 years ago,went back there earler this month on buisness did'nt fish but took time to visit all the old holes to see if they've changed,stoped by the blue heron fly shop he said the same thing NU fish like big flies wish I would have brought my gear but planning on going back next spring/summer just to fish,tight lines my friend.
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