In this video, Tony ties a Purple Rooster fly pattern. This is a great attractor dry fly pattern to try on your local waters throughout the season. Enjoy!
Thread: Black 10/0 Veevus
Hook: TMC 100, sizes 10-18
Tail: Ringneck Pheasant tail fibers or Moose body hair
Body: Ringneck Pheasant Tail fibers
Thorax: Hareline’s UV Purple Ice Dub
Wing: Hareline’s Para Post in Fl. Fire Orange or White McFlylon
Hackle: Grizzly and Brown Whiting Dry Fly Hackle
Our good friend Jon Covich has a great opportunity for anglers to visit Cuba this coming February. Jon is super experienced in traveling to Cuba and his expertise will help you navigate the proper paperwork to travel to and fish in Cuba legally.
Dates: February 22-29, 2020
Price: $4699 pp based on double occupancy rooms, and 3 days single skiff, 3 days double
This price includes travel from Havana, 7 nights and 6 full days of fishing, and room and board (there is a limit on daily drinks). Notable is that all anglers fish 3 days in a double skiff like normal, and 3 days fishing as a single. This means a lot more fishing time per person.
Reach out to Jon at this email address: info@cubafishingoutfitters.com
You could spend a week steelhead fishing the Babine River for only $100!
The one and only Babine Steelhead Lodge have generously donated a week of steelhead fishing on the Babine River for 1 angler to support the Native Fish Society’s work protecting and restoring wild, native fish across the Pacific Northwest.
Keep in mind there are more 20+ pound wild steelhead on the Babine River than any other river in the world! That’s right, more than any other river in the whole darn WORLD!
Dates: October 11 – 18, 2019
How does it work? Native Fish Society is selling 200 tickets for $100 each. We’ll draw the lucky winner on July 31st at 3pm. Get ready for the time of your life!
To buy your tickets call 503.344.4218 or click HERE to purchase tickets online.
What if you aren’t the big winner? Every penny we raise in this campaign will support our work protecting and recovering wild, native fish in their Northwest homewaters. So, no matter what, you’re giving a boost to wild salmon and steelhead, not to mention your fishing mojo.
*Does not include travel to Smithers, British Columbia, classified waters license or gratuity.
Looking at a map of the Mt. Washington Wilderness Area you’ll notice a bunch of different lakes connected by lots of trails including the PCT, a trail that use to pass by my front door. I worked along this trial in the high Sierra while chasing beautiful, high-country rainbow, brown, brook, and golden trout. Some days a grand-slam!
My dog and I love fishing these beautiful Central Oregon wilderness lakes for rainbow, cutthroat, and brook trout with dry flies. So we set out in the morning and began going to as many lakes as we could. Some lakes had plentiful trout. Some I wasn’t sure if trout existed. But we sure had fun in this radical place. In such a pristine area we ask that you practice Leave No Trace and pack it in – pack it out! These places depend on us and as fishers, I believe we should hold a higher caliber for ourselves when it comes to LNT and be stewards of the land we love to fish.
It felt good to be in the mountains even though I saw people getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Yes, they are out in full force along with the bear grass bloom.
The day fishing reminded me of my days learning to fly fish on the Dana Fork. Really tight cast with trees and wind working against you, but fish willing to take just about anything you give them. Cover lots of water and let the wind drift your fly when it can. I caught brook trout, but another gentleman was having success catching cutthroat.
I brought along my 4wt. trout rod (I’d bring a 3wt if you have it) and used Parachute Adams, Elk Hair Caddis, and Mosquitoes. Though these fish may not be the biggest, because of the short season at this elevation and lack of food, they’ll take almost anything given a good presentation. I’d try Stimulators, Royal Wulff Patterns, Ants, Alpine Emergers too. Streamers would have been fun.
July has begun and I hope you have a great Fourth of July. Be careful with fire and check fire restrictions, because I’ve noticed lots of restrictions in place. Be prepared for mosquitoes!!!
Tight Lines,
Greg
Cash and I headed up to Davis Lake this past weekend. We camped at East Davis campground and launched my drift boat from there. Fishing was best from 8-2pm. We were able to chase rising fish outside the Odell Creek channel most of that 8-2 time period. Fish were rising to adult caddis, emerging caddis, callibaetis nymphs, callibaetis adults, damsel nymphs and damsel adults. There were billions of midges, millions of caddis and thousands of callibeatis and damsels.
Fishing was good, challenging but good. When I could get near enough to reach a “riser” and put the cast and fly very near the rise the fish would respond. This type of sight fishing required a calm lake, constant movement and long casts. I had my super old box of lake flies with me. It’s so old that there were flies in the box that I had with me when I was Cash’s age fishing Davis lake, yep over 30 years old. Fish ate those flies. Carey Specials and basic marabou damsel patterns were best. I did not try a dry fly.
The fish at Davis are in good shape, they fought hard, often jumped and varied from 8 inches to 20 inches for us. There are undoubtably larger fish in the lake. The water is full of algae and insect life is tremendous, Davis Lake trout are doing fine.
Phase II of the Lower South Fork McKenzie River Floodplain Enhancement Project is underway. The Project will enhance habitat conditions within a 0.6-mile section of the South Fork McKenzie River and restore the connection to over 20 acres of floodplain. Phase II builds upon the work completed during Phase I in 2018 that successfully reconnected over 150 acres of floodplain.
Starting on the evening of June 25th, contractors will temporarily reroute a 0.6-mile section of the South Fork McKenzie River into a diversion channel that bypasses the Phase II project area and returns flow into the Phase I project area. Phase II project activities, including the diversion, are anticipated to continue until no later than August 15, 2019.
Project managers expect that the initial diversion may cause short-term turbidity impacts to the McKenzie River immediately downstream of the South Fork McKenzie River confluence. Minimal turbidity impacts were seen during Phase I implementation in 2018 and project managers expect similar results in 2019.
The Project will take several steps to minimize downstream turbidity impacts. The US Army Corps of Engineers will reduce flows in the South Fork McKenzie River to 275 cfs. The diversion will take place over a period of several days to allow for natural fish escapement prior to fish salvage operations within the Phase II project area after the full diversion. Turbidity curtains will be placed downstream of the Phase II area as needed.
For more information please contact project managers, Jared Weybright, McKenzie Watershed Council Executive Director, at jared@mckenziewc.org, 458-201-8150 (office), or 541-505-0501 (cell); or Kate Meyer, USFS McKenzie River Ranger District Fisheries Biologist, kmmeyer@fs.fed.gov, 541-822-7230 (office).
Fly Fusion Field Editor Jeff Wagner and fly-fishing icon Bruce Richards cover various topics in this informative fly-casting series that is packed full of cast-changing tips.
In this Episode Bruce Richards discusses diagnosing fly casting flaws and tips on correcting them.
In this video, Greg ties his version of a Possie Bugger Nymph. A terrific pattern for local waters here around the Eugene area. Fish this nymph for trout under a Chubby Chernobyl, a strike indicator etc..
Enjoy!
Hook: Tiemco 5262 Size 10
Bead: Hareline Tungsten Bead 1/8
Wire: Lead-Free Wire
Thread: Veevus 6/0 Tan
Tail: Bunny Hair Mask Brown
Tail: Krystal Flash
Rib: Mylar Flash
Wax: Touch Dub Wax
Dubbing: UV2 Fine and Dry Dubbing
Accent: Ice Dub Gold
Collar: Hungarian Partridge Feather
In this video, Jay ties a Glass Bead Bugger. This is a great fly pattern for both trout and Carp species. Give this pattern a try next time you hit the water.
Hook: TMC 3761 size 10
Bead: Orange Glass Bead Large or 3D Plastic Bead
Thread: Danville 6/0 Red
Tail: Dark Brown Marabou
Body: Spirit River UV2 Emu Feather Gold
Flash: Krystal Flash Peacock
Collar: Grizzly Marabou Patch Tan
SLF Dubbing Blend: Pink/orange Shrimp
Could not get enough (one day) of the Deschutes last month. I was also invited for a trip in June, for the entire week. Early June now also signifies for the most part, the end of the salmon/stonefly hatch.
However, fish were still looking up from Trout Creek to Whitehorse. The fishing was very good on Norm Woods. I used a hopper dropper and found success with the a pheasant tail suspended below.
We saw plenty of caddis hovering over the bushes but not many on the water. Surface activity was minimal during the evenings. However, a small jig fly and a pheasant tail or caddis pupa combo worked very well!
The canyon is in full bloom with wild flowers and grass. Let’s hope for some rain (not crazy amounts) to keep the grass from turning the canyon into a tinder box. The crowds are gone and the fishing remains a solid “good”! Can’t wait for the fall…the “D” gets even better! Get out and enjoy this great weather!
I made a day trip up to Gold this past week. The weather was great and the fish were active. Fish were rising most of the day to tiny mayflies. While I never cracked the code for the surface feeders, I did catch plenty of fish on an intermediate sinking line and damsel imitations.
I did catch fish on a small Parachute Adams and other anglers were having success on midge patterns. Be sure to bring your mosquito repellent as the bugs are a bit brutal in the campground.
My best flies were:
Rapunzel Damzel
Damsel Leech ZT
Parachute Adams
Chironomid Bomber
TE
Check out this nice film from Orvis.
Happy Father’s Day to all! Don’t wait until your pals can’t fish with you, take your kids out now.
Decided to drive up to the Cascade Lake’s area Monday after work to get in some dry-fly action and to escape the valley heat with the family. The scenery is some of my favorite in the state and the wildflowers are just beginning to bloom. Back country skiers are still in heaven up there too.
I woke up early to beat the “sweeper hatch” and there were a few other angler’s on the water. They seemed to be using dry-flies and streamers with little luck on the dries early on.
The dry-fly action was a little slow to start, but got better as it warmed up throughout the day. I usually use black ants as my fly, but the trout weren’t interested in ants this time.
I got my first take with an Adam’s Hackle-Stacker size 16 after seeing may flies hatching in the early light on the water. When that slowed down I switched to a size 18 Mercer’s Missing Link and the fish seemed to love it. I wish I had a few extra Missing Link’s, because my elk hair eventually got destroyed by the cut-throats smashing it and I ran out. Later in the afternoon I switched to a Pale-Yellow Humpy size 18 and that got the fish’s attention too.
Even though the fish are habituated because of all the people paddling around, I still use longer leaders (9.5′-11′) to get my fly to land delicately and with little splash. If the wind picks up maybe keep it a little shorter so you don’t get tangled-up. If you’re getting fish to rise to your fly, but rejecting it, switch it up. Let the wind move your fly around and every now and then give it a little “twitch” to give it some movement.
Overall it was a great day on the water with fellow anglers, dogs, kayakers, canoes and SUPs. Nymphing seemed to produce more results, but I was there to dry-fly fish and I was rewarded with beautiful cutthroat trout.
Pinch your barbs & Tight Lines!
Greg
