February in Oregon is generally time for cold days on the water chasing Steelhead.  With the El Nino year, it has been surprisingly mild, with many days reaching 60 degrees, flowers and trees budding early.  Although the fishing hasn't been lights out, I've had some good days with good fish.  Here are some that succumbed to my jigs.

This last picture is one of my buddies on the Salmonberry River.  Three years ago, this river was devistated by floods and mud slides, which wiped out the train tracks and many of the tressles which used to meander along this truly scenic river.  Many of the deeper runs were filled in with gravel and silt and the river ran brown pretty much every time it rained for two years.  Home to some of the biggest and strongest Steelhead around, with many exceeding 20 lbs, it is slowly recovering and with each high water event it is slowly dredging itself and should be pretty much fully recovered in another year or two.  The fish have returned to spawn in good numbers so we look for productive fishing in the years to come.  Having gone through this during the floods of '96, mother nature is one amazing creature.  At this point, they have decided not to rebuild the rails, with a price tag exceeding 20 million and the only user the timber companies, wich ran one train per day to the mill and back.

JustDave

Yeah it was a good one.  There used to be a bridge where Matt is standing.  We were only able to get about a mile upstream before the tracks ended in a big washout the removed another tressle.  It was about a thirty foot drop to the river, straight down.  Even crazy Matt wouldn't go for it.

JustDave