Winter Steelhead Fishing in the Coos, Coquille and Tenmile District
By Tim Akimoff
Trying to plan a one-week Oregon coastal winter steelhead fishing blitz is nearly impossible. Rarely does the weather cooperate in such a way that you can travel the entire coast and hit every system while it’s in shape.
Such was the case in the Coos, Coquille and Tenmile District. When we passed through Oregon’s Bay Area, the rivers were high and off color, and it was raining heavily.
A District of its own
Mike Gray is the District Fisheries Biologist, and even though it was pouring rain, he spent some time with us on one of Oregon’s more interesting steelhead streams.
“Starting on the north end, the Tenmile Creek and Eel Creek, that are below Tenmile Lakes and Eel Lake have a fishery, Gray said. “It’s kind of a unique fishery area. These streams, after they come out of the lakes, they flow towards the ocean through a dune area. The creeks have a lot different character than the rivers with the gravel bottom. It’s just sand bottom and pretty consistent width and depth. Not a whole lot of pool, riffle ratio. But we do have people that fish for those steelhead that are returning from out hatchery program that comes out of Eel Lake.”
Fishing for steelhead while surrounded by tall dunes and water the color of tea doesn’t seem right at all, but one angler told me he’s seen many 40-inch steelhead come out of that little river.
“Traveling south, we have the Coos Basin,” Gray said. “And in the Coos Basin, probably the biggest river is the South Coos, that’s primarily up above an area call Dellwood, which is an old mill site for Weyerhouser. The South Coos fishery is all on Weyerhouser company property and you have a permit access system for going up there to fish. We have a hatchery acclimation of smolts, and we release those about five miles up above Dellwood. That’s a big river in terms of the Coos.”
The other major split of the Coos system is the Millicoma system.
“On the West fork Millicoma, we have the Millicoma Interpretive Center, which is a place where we do a trap,” Gray said. “We collect brood stock there. It’s also kind of an educational facility for kids. We bring classrooms of kids up there. They help us to spawn, both salmon and steelhead. And then we acclimate and release smolts out of there for a steelhead fishery.”
It’s a popular steelhead fishing area, because it’s where the rivers have split a couple of times, so it’s a smaller river, and it’s within the Elliott State Forest, Gray explained, so it has a good watershed above it.
And if you’re an angler who enjoys solitude, the Elliott State Forest is a great place to find it.
“Up in the Elliott State Forest, there’s a fishery for people who like to catch & release for wild steelhead,” Gray said. “They can go on up into the Elliott and probably have miles of river to themselves and have an opportunity to catch a wild steelhead.”
There are some really nice county parks on the East fork Millicoma River, including Nesika County Park, which has water similar to the West fork. But the East fork has miles of public access for bank anglers.
“Both the west and east Millicoma are primarily bank angling,” Gray said. “Same with the South Coos River. People will put in some pontoons. None of those in the Coos are much of a drift boat system.”
For drift boats, there is the Coquille River up above Myrtle Point to about Powers, Gray said. There are lots of sections to float with a drift boat and several small parks for bank angling access.
But the frequent winner of the area’s popularity contest goes to the North Coquille and Laverne County Park.
“Probably 2–3 mile of bank angling access,” Gray said. “Pretty popular. There’s camping there and cabins. The north fork is another place where people like to fish for steelhead around here.”
Wild Steelhead
When the coastal districts built out a multi-species plan several years ago, (basically a way to manage several species of fish with overlapping needs) some management of fisheries was shifted around.
“We had strong hatchery programs in all of our tributaries, so we were just strictly fishing on hatchery fish for years,” Gray said. “When we went through the coastal multi-species plan a few years ago, one of the things we did was shift our hatchery smolt release from the East fork of the Coquille up to Laverne park, so that has bolstered the hatchery return there to the North fork Coquille.”
And the East fork of the Coquille became a place to build out a naturally producing run of steelhead. The results of which are that anglers may keep one fish per day and three fish per season.
Naturally producing fish are an important aspect of fish management, in that they tend to deal with adverse conditions better than hatchery fish, and brood stock can bolster production as well as engage anglers who want to get involved with conservation efforts.
Where should I go if I’m new to the area, and what gear should I bring?
There are a lot of fantastic rivers in the area, and it can seem intimidating to even think about picking a spot to start out.
“On the east and west Millicoma, it’s a little more low-key,” Gray said. “You might have a hole to yourself and kind of learn the ropes.”
As far as gear goes, Gray grew up like many of us did, bouncing the bottom with a piece of pencil lead, an 18-inch leader and a corky or maybe some bait.
“Something that’s become more popular in recent years is fishing a slip bobber,” Gray said. “Putting a bobber stop on your line which you can adjust, allowing the bobber to go up to a stop, and you adjust that based on the depth of the river that’s out in front of you. Under that fishing a jig, you can keep that gear up off the bottom. Float that down and watch for that bobber to get pulled under by a steelhead.”
And if you happen to visit the Coos, Coquille and Tenmile District on a day where all the big rivers are blown out, don’t worry, there is a lot of variability in those systems, just like there is on any other coastal system. You just have to know where to go.
“When the bigger rivers are blown out, try Tenmile Creek,” Gray suggests. “The water color is great. The lakes above it tend to act as a settling pond. It takes a huge storm to blow out the Tenmile system.”
But what if fishing in sand dunes isn’t your cup of tea?
“The west fork of the Millicoma, the watershed up there in the Elliott State Forest, is pretty intact and pretty in shape,” Gray said. “Even when we’ve had a big storm up there, it might go out of shape for a day or two, but it tends to come back into shape a lot easier.”
Laverne Park up on the North Coquille is also a good spot to check out.
“We have some great steelhead fisheries,” Gray said. “We’re kind of seeing a low abundance this year. But we’re right in the middle of the best time. Mid-January through the month of February. Our fishery goes clear through March. Usually by the end of March there’s not much left for steelhead. People are starting to shift over to trout or warmwater or surf perch.”
January, February or a little bit into March is the time to fish for steelhead here in the Coos, Coquille and Tenmile District.
