The Nestucca River has been running high this week, although the color has been decent, and fishing has been slow. It is going to just about get in shape Wednesday before going right back up Wednesday night and Thursday. So next week will likely be challenging fishing as well. On the bright side, effort is low at these flows.

The Nestucca River is one of the North Coast most popular winter steelhead rivers and gets one of our largest hatchery releases. Hatchery winter steelhead on the Nestucca are from wild broodstock; as such they tend to mimic wild steelhead timing and there are hatchery steelhead available December through early April.

When fishing higher flows and/or colored up water using larger terminal presentations and bright colors can up the chances of success. Also concentrate on areas of softer water (less current) during high flows as the fish will be looking places to migrate and hold that are out of the main current.

River levels and predictions for the Nestucca are available here.