Alaska

It's been one of the best years Steelhead fishing I have ever saw this year. We have had more doubles and higher hookups than ever. The fish showed up later than normal on the Nestucca than they did on the Wilson but they haven't quit coming even when the water started to get low. We haven't caught many big ones this year but lots of nice ones. Last week we had a few days where over twenty fish were hooked and had a day with fly fisherman that hooked ten. I look forward to the next month as it should continue to be really good . I'll leave you with a picture of a fish of a lifetime that Darrel Hover caught last week.

What a strange year it's been weather wise. We had lots of downpours in September and then it dried up with very little rain through Thanksgiving. After the heavy rains that week we had the driest December I remember. When it rained and brought the river up at the first of the year the fishing has been pretty good since. The water is just starting to get low again but will not last long as we are going to get more this week. Expect a lot of the Brood stock fish to start showing up from here to April. I spent another Summer in Elfin Cove AK fishing for salmon and halibut at Cross Sound Lodge and the fishing is off the hook up there.   

January 20, 2011

Boy did the year go fast. I fished the week of Christmas and the fishing was decent with six to eight hook ups a day and real nice fish. The water jumped up and knocked us out until new years eve and we had to go to the Kilches for the first day as the guys were in from New York and couldn't push it back any to let the Nestucca or Wilson come into shape so we fished it with a lot of other people hooking two and losing both and missed the other two bites we had. The first I  fished the wilson in the afternoon and hooked five and landed four with one being 18 plus pounds of hatchery Steelhead. The next several days I was on the Nestucca river for some good fishing. We hooked six to twelve a day  with the exception of Friday the seventh where we only hooked four with a few more chances. Look for there to be plenty of fish when it drops into shape this coming week. The high water we had went to 17.36 feet and there will be some changes in the lower river that I'm sure  will change where the fish hold in a few spots. We seemed to average about two hatchery fish a day but look for those numbers to start going up as we are getting into the time of year for heavier returns of brood stock fish I had a lot of wild fish early this year which has been a continuing trend for the for the last five years. It's good to see the early wild fish making a rebound in numbers so remember to fish responsible over the wild stock it is in everybody's best interest. There has been some big fish this year Dean Blasquez landed this pig on the fourth of January after using up a half mile of river  and messing up a couple of bank anglers fishing time while we fought it where they were fishing sorry guys.  All fish were caught side drifting eggs and fish pills or drift fishing. Good luck

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December 16 2010

The Nestucca is still at a little over 8 feet and dirty. It is on a good fall due to colder temperatures and a low snow level. There will be plenty of fish if it drops into shape this weekend as there was plenty of fish before it went out. We had a lot of fish around from thanksgiving until the water went up. Logan Atkinson got the years first on a split salmon and steelhead trip the Saturday after thanksgiving. I got out again the following week and hooked six steelhead and a Coho. The Coho was part of a double to start the day off. 

May 19 2010

I will be leaving for Alaska in the morning for three months to fish for Halibut and Salmon. I will start fishing back in Oregon the first week of September and to get a hold of me this Summer email me or call the cell phone at 503/812-8228. I will have service when back at the lodge in the evenings. Good luck down here this summer.

February 6, 2010

Finally some wild fish showed up over here. The early run of hatchery fish are about gone and the Brood Stock fish have replaced them and there have been  quite a few up to about fourth bridge. The last week there has been a fair number of fish showing up daily as the ocean has been decent and that allows the fish to cross our shallow bar. The boat pressure has been high with as many as forty boats a day. With the water getting clear the fish get a little spooked after the armada floats over them so most of the success has been early in the day. I've caught most of my fish side drifting eggs with a few caught on yarn balls.

January 15, 2010

The Nestucca river came back into shape late last weekend and didn't stay in for long. I was able to get Gary Hepburn and his brother and father inlaw out on Sunday and went five for six with a couple of missed chances. Gary was on leave from Iraq and it took his whole leave to finally get him out . Next time you are complaining about our country give some thanks to those that serve so you have the right to complain. Monday the water was better but the fish from the day before shot up the river above where we fish but we managed to find three with two being broodstock fish. When Tuesday rolled around Bob and Tom showed up and these guys are the x factor when it comes to the weather as when they say it will shower it pours or if they say it will cool down with a chance of a shower then it snows. Well Tuesday was no exception as they endured the river coming up almost a foot with rain coming in sideways with fifty mile a hour winds. We still managed to hook four and land two. Good job guys and I swear that the sun does shine over here at times.

January 8, 2010

The holidays are over and now maybe the crowds will lighten up a little which will really help the fishing. I was able to fish Christmas week and part of the week between then and New Years and it really got crowded. This is the first year that I have had to deal with anyone to speak of as it seems with people out of work and some local websites help the people really showed up. We had some decent fishing with the exception of the 28th which was out of control as there was over fifty boats on the river and it could have still been ok but the water was clear and with all the boats running over the fish holding water the Steelhead were running for their lives. I floated to the ramp and fished as we went and replaced the trip for the customers as that wasn't the experience that I sell. On a lighter note we have had plenty of fish and it should just get better as the season goes along now we need to get a break from mother nature. I have been off the river for almost two weeks because of water levels and am hoping to get back out this week.

We should start seeing the brood stock fish showing up soon as I caught my first on the Dec. 23 last year to go along with the natives and the last of the Alsea fish. It will be nice to get back at it and with a Elnino year predicted with are supposed to have a drier spring than normal. At least you can fish with  low water unlike what we have been getting. I would like to get a solid spring in before start to fish for Spring Chinook in the sled. The preparations for Alaska are already starting as I'm going back up to the Nushagak river in June again so if you have any questions don't be afraid to call and ask.      

December 21, 2009

The rivers took a good rise last week and started to come into shape late in the week. By Friday the Nestucca was showing good color but was a little high although it was fishable. There was a lot of fish showed up here as well as on the Kilches with the Wilson and Trask Rivers still being a little off color. Most of the fish on the Nestucca are the early Alsea fish with the largest percentage going up Three Rivers due too planting changes from the fisheries managers for the area  . This has brought back the typical dead line trash that frequents dead lines at hatcheries with law enforcement having to get involved late last week. This is a shame for the people that would like to fish a small stream with plenty of fish so as usual a handful of bad eggs spoils what could be a good experience for all the rest. I got out Saturday only as Sunday was supposed to  be a bust which didn't happen we caught two Coho and two Steelhead which seemed a little slow to me. I'm supposed to fish the rest of the week if the weather will allow it. Good luck.     

December 11, 2009

The last week has been brutally cold with temperatures in the low teens every day. The river has started to freeze in the slow places and got very clear. I would stay home until after the rain next week as they are calling for freezing rain. On a better note I took my daughters boy friend out last Sunday in the heavy east winds and freezing temps and still managed to catch his first winter and loose a couple of more. It was blowing so hard that I hit rocks going up river and had to wait for a gust to settle down to go down river. As everyone knows I side drift with fish pills and eggs most of the time and I was getting low so I called Jimmy Davis of Mad River Manufacturing and said hook me up and boy did he. Jimmy has came up with a replacement plastic egg for the Jensen egg and they are scented as is his Steelhead worms you will want to give these a try as well. They work very good for drift fishing as well as side drifting. I prefer the anise flavored plastic eggs for Chinook as well as Steelhead. Good Luck

December 4, 2009

The Steelhead season is shaping up to be a good one as the winters showed up early this year. We caught our first one the first week of November and there has been quite of them caught since. I targeted Chinook as that's what my clients were here to catch but watched plenty of winters get caught in the lower drifts. I had my first trip of the year cancelled the evening before the trip( very late I might add) it was a first for me as I got cancelled twice from the same guy. The first time was for his buddy not showing up from N.Y and after telling him I had a single rate he was all for it. Fast forward a couple of hours he calls back and has to cancel again due to personal reasons .I have tried to run this business without charging a deposit working on a honor system and this year it hasn't worked out to well. I have had more canceled trips this year than the last five combined. It seems that people are reading another website and getting dismal reports and choose to call it a lost cause. From this point forward I have no choice but to charge a non refundable deposit to first time customers and it is hard for me to do. Enough of that I went fishing with a buddy yesterday so the lost day wasn't a total waste and caught some nice Steelhead good luck out there it is going to be a good one.

Boy what some wild weather we have had this fall. We couldn't get it to rain long enough to get the river up for the month of October then in November we can't get it to stop long enough to get it down into real good shape. Last week we had mixed results with Monday being the best I only had one person as the other half of Matts party cancelled late Sunday night. Boy did he pick the wrong day to cancel as the day started off fast with a  couple of dark fish and a bunch of missed opportunities. As we worked our way down the river we were going to hit the lower river about perfect for the huge tide we had that day. When we got down to the money spot you couldn't get a bobber through the hole without it diving under. These fish were straight out of the ocean and very mean and wanting to bite it couldn't get any better. After we each kept a fish and were looking for a hatchery fish we got passed as we hooked another that we would end up releasing when a private group decided that they needed to start casting their bobbers into the fish we were fighting come on guys find your own spot to fish. I chose to call it a day to keep from having the day ruined by these idiots. We hooked 15 that day and kept these two. Well word got out and the Pacific City crowd showed up the next day and we couldn't fish the spot the fish were holed up in. Bob Hover went two for three with a hatchery fish and a wild fish so he got a bonus to make up for it. The rest of the week the weather wasn't very good with high winds and heavy rain at times for the north coast salmon rendezvous. I drew the same guys two days in a row with the first day we went 0 for 3 chances and the second we went 2 for 3 with one being a huge Coho buck. The rendezvous was a success again with a bunch of money raised for the local fisheries.    

Due to some pressure from my mother about no pictures from Alaska I will put a couple up. This one is of my mother Lorraine Barnett and my wife Tammy with their fish from the first day they fished on the Nushagak River. They came up this year to spend a few days and help tear down camp and got out three times to fish and got their fish each time. I'm glad they made it and had a good time. Thanks   

I recently purchased a 2004 23 foot Alumaweld Super Vee jet boat. As everyone knows I have been building Barnett's Guide Service with a plan. This is the final stage and will now be able to offer year round fishing opportunities to some of the places I really like to fish. These will include Tillamook Bay for Spring Chinook and Fall Chinook as well as the the Buoy 10 fishery for Fall Chinook as well as Coho. We will also be offering Sturgeon as well Bay crabbing trips some of the Bay crabbing will be offered in combination with trolling herring for Fall Chinook in the Nestucca Bay. I will be upgrading the boat next year to be able to offer Ocean Coho as they give us seasons and Ocean Chinook if we get our season back down here. Good luck fishing and hope to see you soon.

I thought I would throw up a picture from a low water trip a couple of years ago. Dave and Stan caught these two on a low water trip during the north coast salmon rendezvous in 2007. If we don't get some water soon these fish will start coming without the rain anyway. I have been holding off on the river so when we get on it there will be a lot more fish in more spots than just a few. That can be just fine if there is no boats but if they show up it can make for a long day without many places to fish.  

Date October 14 2009

The last two days have saw a lot of wind over here without the rain they said we were going to get.  I was on the river today with Bill Jans so with only one guy I did a low water trip in the river. We started the day out with two bobbers down on the first two casts and didn't hook either fish oh well stuff happens so we continued down the rive in high winds and managed to hook a Coho and two Chinook one of which we kept. The river is finally starting to creep up so expect some more fish to start moving in. Good luck 

Date OCT 7 2009

It's that time again for the fall Chinook and this year looks to be quite a bit better than last year. I personally think the river season is going to be really good compared to 2008. The silver numbers are off the chart but you can only keep fin clipped fish and this river doesn't have a hatchery run so there will not be many that can be kept.

There are more fish in tidewater this year already than all of last year and some pretty good catches to go along with the numbers. I am going to start fishing this week as hunting season is over . This is the only time of the year I get to do something for myself and boy did it feel good to just get out and go. I ended up killing a small five point towards the end of season that was smaller than another five point that I let go holding out for the big one oh well maybe next year.

Alaska went well again this year with a lot of fish until the last week and then it slowed down due to the gill netting of the sockeye. The weather was very warm the last three weeks and it was great to see those of you that made it up. We caught a lot of fish with the best days averaging about sixty kings per boat. The fish were in great shape with a lot in the 20 to 32 pound range. Talk to you soon.

The spring Chinook are starting to show up at the coast. I got out four days last week and caught fish the first two days. Dick Hall started the season out with a 38# pig followed shortly after by his son Matts 20# springer. The second day we missed a couple and then ripped three and lost one in 30 minutes. The following two days we never and a bite. Talk about hero to zero in a hurry. I'm leaving for Alaska in the morning and will be back in the middle of July . It looks like a good season for Coho in the ocean with a three fish limit and a liberal quota so I will probably fish for those when I get back as well as summer steelhead. Give the wife a call and she will take messages as I will not have cell service until I get back to Anchorage in July. Good luck Tim

What a winter it's been. We started the early run with a lot of fish both hatchery and wild. That was short lived as the winter storms wiped out the last three weeks of the run with a flooded river and roads that were impassable from the valley to the coast. When the rivers came into shape the forces that had been kept from the rivers showed up in force which made for a busy river without a lot of manners. I started the year off with a skunk with a couple of good fisherman due to cold water as we had several bites but didn't connect. Things got a little better but not red hot till the water started to get low and the fish slowed down to a trickle. This will change with the next rain and thing should get hopping. I am going back to Alaska this summer and will stay the whole season this time. We still have some prime dates in late June and early July in salmon camp. I think the Nushagak is the best deal in Alaska for the money. If you are interested in the details get a hold of me and I will give them to you. I am going to be adding a Alaska page soon so keep a eye out for it. Good fishing   

Current Report: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone!  I am looking forward to a banner year of fishing Oregon and Alaska rivers for steelhead and salmon.  Book your trips now for winter/spring steelhead.  Tim