So, with the nice weather yesterday and having no rain for a week, I figured the streams on the valley side of the coast range might’ve calmed down. I went out yesterday to explore the headwaters of the Tualatin. I don’t really know anything about that area, but looking at the googles it appeared there’s several popular water falls/swimming holes up there. Unfortunately I get there only to find the only road in gated outside Cherry Grove. But there was a guy just pulling in as I got there, so he said it would be open for two hours. Not sure if he was with a private timber co or water district guy. Need to find out how to get a key for the gate…
So I fished a few pools for a couple hours, both dries and euronymphed. No action on dries, but the perdigons pulled out lots of dinks, several 6-8” cuts, and hooked in to two “monsters” (12”+?) that I didn’t land. I know, the ones that got away, BUT at least I know they’re there. That was super surprising! This all between the gate and Lee Falls. The water was hella cold, snow just a couple hundred feet up. I forgot my neoprene booties, as I intended to wet wade, so after I slipped and went in accidentally, I said screw it and waded in the tenny runners. That didn’t last long. But that was okay as the rig soon pulled up and honked his horn saying it was time to go.
After that I headed over to Gales Cr. I fished the area up off hwy 6. Water levels were up as well and much cooler. But oddly not nearly as cold as the Tualatin. The action was slow on nymphs, but they were hitting a caddis on the surface. I also hooked in to a decent fish stripping a crawdad/sculpin sort of thing. Results were pretty much the same lots of dinks, several 6”ers, but this time did manage to land a couple 10-12”ers with several other swipes and denials from hood sized fish. It was a fun day, much improved results since the summer. Can’t wait to get back out!
So I fished a few pools for a couple hours, both dries and euronymphed. No action on dries, but the perdigons pulled out lots of dinks, several 6-8” cuts, and hooked in to two “monsters” (12”+?) that I didn’t land. I know, the ones that got away, BUT at least I know they’re there. That was super surprising! This all between the gate and Lee Falls. The water was hella cold, snow just a couple hundred feet up. I forgot my neoprene booties, as I intended to wet wade, so after I slipped and went in accidentally, I said screw it and waded in the tenny runners. That didn’t last long. But that was okay as the rig soon pulled up and honked his horn saying it was time to go.
After that I headed over to Gales Cr. I fished the area up off hwy 6. Water levels were up as well and much cooler. But oddly not nearly as cold as the Tualatin. The action was slow on nymphs, but they were hitting a caddis on the surface. I also hooked in to a decent fish stripping a crawdad/sculpin sort of thing. Results were pretty much the same lots of dinks, several 6”ers, but this time did manage to land a couple 10-12”ers with several other swipes and denials from hood sized fish. It was a fun day, much improved results since the summer. Can’t wait to get back out!
