Siuslaw River

The Siuslaw runs from the Coast Range west of Eugene to the sea at Florence. Its winter steelhead are a drift-boat fishery from the Whittaker Creek deadline down to Lake Creek, January through March, with hatchery fish open in December too. Lake Creek, which comes down from Triangle Lake and meets the river at Swisshome, is one of the coast's best small winter-steelhead streams in its lower four miles.

Below Lake Creek the river runs a half dozen free-flowing miles down Highway 36 past Mapleton to tidewater at Farnham Landing. This is the fall Chinook water, with bank access at pullouts and a couple of public launches, and winter steelhead pass through it on their way up. The water above Lake Creek is closed to Chinook.

Read the flows at the gauge near Mapleton. As a rough guide, set from the gauge's seasons, it fishes from about 800 to 3,500 CFS, and past about 7,000 it is high and colored. When it is on the high side, fish near Whittaker Creek and in lower Lake Creek.