SUMMER RUN FUN.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

LEABURG - A pair of bright summer steelhead lay on the stringer at Steve Boone's feet as he cast into the McKenzie River downstream of Leaburg Dam early Monday morning, hoping to hook yet another.

A few days earlier, having two fish on the bank would have meant Boone was through for the day. But on Friday the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife raised the bag limit in the upper Willamette Basin to three steelhead per day.

That was official confirmation of what dedicated steelhead anglers in the Willamette Valley already knew - the summer of 2004 is shaping up as a banner year for the sea-run rainbow.

State fish biologists recommended the increased bag limit after calculating that more than 30,000 summer steelhead are likely to move through the Willamette Falls fish passage near Oregon City this season. More than 6,200 had cleared the falls by the end of April, and the cumulative count was approaching 15,000 when the decision was made to raise the limit.

A run of 30,000 steelhead, which includes both hatchery-bred and naturally produced fish, is "well above average," the ODFW said in announcing the rule change.

The high return means that plenty of fish in excess of hatchery broodstock requirements will be available for harvest.

Indeed, Leaburg Hatchery has already "recycled" 229 steelhead this year, after first marking the fish by inserting a pink plastic tag in their dorsal fin. The fish were trucked downstream to Deerhorn Bridge so anglers will have another shot at them as they work their way back to the hatchery.

"We're certainly way ahead of last year," hatchery manager Tim Wright said. "I think we ended up (recycling) only something like 300 last year."

And anglers are catching a lot of steelhead before they reach the hatchery.

"I was out there the other night and saw guys hooking fish left and right," Wright said.

The catch rate was a little slower on Monday, because the water level in the McKenzie had risen a couple of feet.

But anglers were still seeing plenty of action.

Fishing on one side of Boone was Ron Davisson, who had an 8-pounder on the bank and who had caught a 5-pound steelhead the previous day fishing in the same area.

"We've had four or five on the bank here this morning," Davisson said. "The bankies have actually been doing better, from what I've seen here, than the guys in the boats. I mean those guys are catching 'em, but not as many, not as often."

Fishing just to the upstream side of Boone was Chuck Swagerty of Springfield, who hooked two steelhead Monday morning and had both of them break his line.

But his luck was not as bad as the young angler who, fishing downstream a ways, hooked the first steelhead of his life, only to see the top half of the rod come unseated as he fought the fish.

Not only did he lose his steelhead when the line snapped, he lost the half his rod when it fell into the current - not to mention his spot on the bank.

When the steelhead are biting, getting a prime spot on the bank just below the hatchery outflow usually requires showing up before the sun.

"This is a good place to go fishing, but if you want a decent hole, you've got to be here before daylight, "Swagerty said. "You can fish an hour before sunrise, and for about 15 minutes of that it's pretty dark, so then you fish with `glo-corkies' and you've got all these little moons running through the water."

"Sometimes, those fish just go crazy at that, but not today."

Glo-corkies are a glow-in-the-dark version of the standard corky, a lightweight bead that can resemble an individual salmon egg or a small cluster of them.

A corky and small piece of yarn, perhaps sprayed with a bit of shrimp or other fish scent, have been effective baits on the McKenzie this year.

But you don't have to get fancy to hook an aggressive summer steelhead.

"Last night, I saw a guy hook four or five of 'em just using a piece of red yard," said Davisson.

Other anglers reported catching steelhead with spin-n-glo lures and with sand shrimp.

Whatever the bait, the key is using just the right amount of weight - enough to keep it down where the fish are, but not so much as to cause it to get stuck on the bottom too often.

"You've got to keep it bouncing on the bottom - and with the river this high, you've got to use more (weight) than you might normally use," said Davisson, a Leaburg area regular who termed this "one of the better years I've seen" for steelhead fishing.

The newly adopted bag limit allows anglers to retain one additional adipose fin-clipped steelhead in any waters above Willamette Falls that are open to steelhead angling.

The change will remain in effect through Nov. 23, at which time the rule reverts to two adipose fin-clipped salmon or steelhead.

A missing adipose fin identifies a fish as hatchery bred.

A pink plastic tag through the dorsal fin identifies it as a steelhead that has already returned to the hatchery, only to find it wasn't needed there and would be trucked downstream to run the gantlet of anglers again.

Anglers are asked to turn in the plastic tags from any of those fish that they catch, in order to help document that the recycling program - much of which is done with volunteer labor provided by the local chapter of the Association of Northwest Steelheaders - is effective

The tags may be turned in at the kiosk at Leaburg Hatchery, or at the Eugene G.I. Joe's, which is sponsoring a steelhead "derby" that provides an incentive for turning in recovered tags.

The angler who turns in the most tags between now and the end of November will receive a $100 gift certificate from G.I. Joe's. The names of four other anglers who participated by turning in at least one tag will be drawn at random, and each will receive a $50 gift certificate. The drawing will be held Dec. 15.

While the McKenzie River gets a lot of attention, it is not the only local river that draws returning summer steelhead.

The Middle Fork Willamette River also gets a good return of summer steelhead, including some that were released as smolts in the Springfield, Glenwood and Eugene reaches of the river so that they would stay in those areas when they returned as adults and provide an urban fishery.

The Santiam River system in Linn County will also get a sizeable share of the fish returning this summer.

Summer steelhead are not the biggest fish in the McKenzie River right now. A strong run of spring chinook salmon should provide another couple of weeks of good fishing, as salmon counts at Willamette Falls are just now starting to tail off.

But the steelhead anglers at Leaburg aren't tempted by salmon.

"Most of us would rather catch a steelhead than a chinook," Swagerty said. "The reason we like to catch steelhead is they're just a whole lot more fun when you get 'em on the hook. ... The other day I had one that jumped more than ten times. Yep, he just kept jumping and jumping and jumping."

And, unlike the spring chinook run - which produces a monthlong flurry of activity, then dies off - the steelhead will be around to provide fun all summer long. Some of the best fishing, in fact, is usually in October and early November.

CAPTION(S):

Ron Davisson nets a summer steelhead hooked by Steve Boone on Monday on the McKenzie River near Leaburg. The bag limit was increased to three per day after biologists indicated a greater run of summer steelhead.