With salmon and steelhead fishing remaining at a 20 year low on Willamette system rivers, many folks are choosing the McKenzie River trout alternative for outdoor fun. Lots of planter trout have been released in the Mckenzie to ensure very consistent action for pan-fries. Dry fly fishing for the native Redsides has also been outstanding with great hatches occurring between the daily rain showers during a very wet start to our summer. For the die-hard salmon and steelhead enthusiast with lots of patience, we are averaging 2-3 good bites per trip while hunting for the big fish. It's then up to a combination of good fortune and good attention as to whether the fish ends up in the net or not. Fish counts at Willamette Falls during the next 3 weeks should tell us if the fish are late or just not coming this year. We continue to fish with fingers crossed but the numbers do not bode well. As of June 14th, we have just over 30,000 springers and 7,800 summer steelhead headed for the North and South Santiam, the Middle Fork Willamette, and the McKenzie. On The same date last year we had almost 88,0000 springers and 24,000 steelhead available. The two consecutive years are like night and day. That's fishin'.