Drift boats give anglers access to the excellent water on the Siuslaw River. Photo by Dean Finnerty.

A crisp, cool winter morning greeted us as I slid my 16-foot drift boat into the currents of Oregon's Siuslaw River. A size 30 blue-pirate Hot Shot dangled from each of my client's rods as I positioned the boat above the tailout.

Experience on this river told me that this particular tailout often holds several fresh-run winter steelhead.

As the plugs dug into the slightly off-colored water, I began backing the boat downriver toward the large boulder at the break, just above the rapids.

The staccato tapping of the rod tip was violently interrupted when the port side rod was nearly ripped from the rod holder.

"Fish on!" my client screamed. He reared back on the rod, sending this season's first winter chromer into the air some 70 feet downriver.

It's no accident that Oregon's central coast streams get so much attention each January and February. These rivers combine fantastic runs of hatchery and native winter steelhead with good access for bank and boat anglers alike.

These rivers also offer a wide variety of water types that anglers can cover with a plethora of successful techniques. Fly-fishing, pulling plugs, drift-fishing and bobber-and-jigs all have a place here. You can begin to understand this area's attraction. These rivers and small streams have it all!

SIUSLAW RIVER
Running nearly 100 miles from its headwaters just west of Cottage Grove, Oregon, the Siuslaw enters the Pacific Ocean at the city of Florence. This river offers a very diverse fishing experience for winter steelhead fishermen.

Boat-anglers have a distinct advantage because the Siuslaw has extremely brushy banks along its entire length. One of the most popular drifts is from Whittaker Creek to Wildcat Creek. On this section, there are times when it seems you can hop from boat to boat down the two-mile float and never get your feet wet.

There's a reason this section gets so much pressure -- the fishing is that good!

Most anglers anchor their drift boats close to the brushy shoreline and either drift-fish or use a bobber and jig. The Siuslaw is full of structure. Solid rock ledges and huge boulders make this one very snaggy river to fish, so plan on losing some tackle.

My clients do very well with fly rods, using strike-indicator nymphing strategies with the small yarn fly patterns that winter steelhead find so irresistible. We also do very well pulling a variety of different steelhead plugs, especially in runs where other boats aren't anchored up along the sides.

To find water like this, I often create my own drift-boat slides where I can get my boat in the water off the beaten path. It takes some extra effort to find these areas, but the results are well worth the effort.

If you're a bank-fisherman, a good area to explore is along Stagecoach Road, which runs along the Siuslaw's north bank from the boat launch at Wildcat Creek (also known as the Austa Launch) downriver to Camp Indiola.

Other popular drifts for boaters along the Siuslaw River include the run from Wildcat Creek to Linslaw Park and from Swisshome to Farnham Landing near the top end of tidewater.

When guide Bob Stockdall is fishing with clients on the Siuslaw, he spends a lot of time in his drift boat plying the waters from Linslaw Park down to the Swinging Bridge take-out.

"It's pretty unusual to see another boat on this section," he said.

The fishing is great, but don't miss the take-out. Many first-timers do.

There's a large bedrock shelf on the left side of the river with some willows on it, said Stockdall. On the right side of the river, across from the bedrock shelf is a channel 10 feet wide.

"That little channel is where the take-out is," he said, "and if you don't watch for it, you'll go right on past it."