This past week including the Memorial Day holiday we experienced pretty tough fishing on the McKenzie and main stem Santiam. We took a total zonking on the Santiam where river flows were a tad higher than we like them. Pike Minnows (Squawfish) stealing the baits were only part of the problem. Few fish in big, open water presented the greater challenge. We are still hoping that lots more fish are headed into the Willamette system, but our daily numbers of Spring chinook coming over Willamette Falls are still very low. Meanwhile on the McKenzie River, salmon fishing is really tough and steelheading even worse. By this time last year, daily limits of Spring Chinook had become almost routine. Currently we are extremely pleased with just 1 or 2 fish per trip. On Sunday we fished a few holes early morning on the McKenzie without so much as a bite. Around 10:00am we broke out the fly rods for trout. My guests had a great time landing plenty of trout on wets and dries. Our McKenzie trout trips are great family fun and first-time flyfishers, like my guests on Sunday, are always amazed at the success a beginner can have with a fly rod. For folks totally intimidated by the fly rod, these trout will also respond favorably to small spinners.