Nestucca River - Oregon

[The Nuts]

I'm heading to the Nestucca river in Oregon this Friday through Sunday for steelhead. Thought I'd check in to see if anyone has ever fished this river and knows anything about it.

[primetime]

My grandpa caught a summer on the 4th of July. I think it's decent for steelhead

[AJFishdude]

I've fished the Nestucca a total of two times, both in this season. The first was in October for late Chinook and the second was in January for Steelhead. I fished a few different spots but only had luck at one, so I will only talk about it (and only the Steelhead part). The area I was fishing is known as "Three Rivers" and how you get there is by driving down Old Condor Bridge Rd. off of Highway 101 for about a mile. Just before the end of the road right as it makes a right hand turn you will see a house immediately next to the road on the right side and a field on the left. There is space next to the fence on the field side, but the one day I was there for Steelhead it seemed to fill up fairly quick, and on a weekday morning too (we got there about 45 minutes before sunrise). Keep in mind that was mid January though, so it may not be as busy now. Anyway, there is a sign next to the gate leading into the field explaining that you can enter if you put $1 into a can next to the sign. Pay the fee, and follow the tire tracks through the field for about a quarter mile to where you reach a nice gravel bar on the river. FYI, you should be able to find the spot I am describing if you look at Google Maps. You will be on the north side of the river. Right across from the gravel bar there is a creek/small river that flows in on the south side, and just to the west of that there is a boat launch also on the south side.

On to the fishing part. The day that I was there for Steelhead there were probably about 12 guys in that stretch counting both sides of the river. Lots of stuff was being used, including corkies, yarn, plastic worms and yarn balls on the bottom, as well as jigs floated on top. Not a lot happened that day until about 9 or 10 if I remember right. Across the river at the most upstream point where the creek flows in there is (or at least was that day) a nice spot where slack water meets up with a riffle, but you basically have to cast almost right into the bank to get to it. Anyway, I saw one guy pull a nice and bright 7 or 8 pound hen out of that spot drifting corkies on the bottom, and so I decided to give it a shot with a peach/red/orange yarn ball on the bottom. After a few minutes of doing that I was able to get a 4.5 pound buck. I may have had shrimp oil on the yarn, but I can't remember.

So that is what I know of that river. Good Luck.

[bob johansen]

The Nestucca River is among my fondest river memories. My dad had a dairy ranch that had the Nestucca River on the edge of the lower pasture. I caught many steelhead from that river and met my future wife there in 1943 near the huge swimming hole just below the junction with Three Rivers. Fishing guides used to take anglers down the river and some probably still do.

[AJFishdude]

Hey Bob, have you ever done much fishing on the Trask? I hear that it has an excellent run of late summer Chinook that can get pretty massive.

[bob johansen]

Bud's Springer 1.jpg (49.57 KiB) Viewed 26465 times

Hi AJFishdude - I haven't fished the Trask much but my brother lives in Tillamook and fishes it quite a bit - And, yes, some of those Chinook are massive.

[AJFishdude]

Very nice, I was going to fish the Trask with some friends last October for Chinook but we ended up doing the Nestucca instead. Someday I may end up giving it a try.