Trout Unlimited McKenzie Upper Willamette Chapter 678 is involved in native coldwater fisheries conservation in the Willamette Valley. Join for our monthly meeting at the Eagles Aerie in Eugene, second Wednesday of the month at 7pm. For more info on how Trout Unlimited is affecting your Oregon Watersheds, go to TUOregon.org.
Our pal Warren Moran wrote this review of his Echo Carbon 9′ 4wt. 4-piece:
A Good Stick: Echo Carbon 9′ 4wt. 4 pc.
This is a great rod and a nice compromise between power and grace. It’s also something everyman can afford.
The matte finish on the blank and reel seat are really nice. It’s about time they got around to this. I can’t tell you how may times I think I’ve put fish down with a shiny rod. If you’ve ever been looking for a buddy fishing on a wild stretch of river just look for the rod glare – it’s the fist thing you see from a half mile away.
As far as casting goes this thing feels like a 3 1/2 wt. and likes a slightly slower casting stroke. With a SA Trout taper WF-4-F line it seemed to have a moderate action - not slow at all with plenty of power lower in the blank with a soft tip for nice presentation. Should handle some wind and be able to present very small flies to big fish. I’m thinking this will be a good stick for easing trico spinners and midges in front of at big browns on the Owyhee.
The only downside was the grip size. It’s a bit thin and delicate for my mitts but I can live with it.
Here is a video from Jay Nicholas, talking about Echo fly rods:
The warranty and service from Echo are great, they are quick to ship we like working with them, Tim Rajeff is an excellent rod designer. -CD
Bakke lays out the case for rethinking hatchery programs in the Northwest Oregonian:Fish management agencies are continuing to contribute to the decline and extinction of wild salmon and steelhead, and that contribution is even more serious than that of land and water management agencies in their determined degradation of salmonid habitat. It’s more serious because the fish management agencies are charged with protecting fish, recovery of wild fish and preventing their decline.
National Marine Fisheries Service states hatchery fish harming endangered Columbia Basin salmonids Oregonian:The overall ecosystem picture is bleak. The hatchery fish interbreed with wild fish and can weaken the genetic stock. They’re more subject to disease that can spread into wild runs. They take up habitat and food, and in some cases, prey on the wild fish.
Don’t be a half-hearted fanatic: Get involved now
Upper Deschutes River Steward Tom Davis sent us this article from Orion: We all need the occasional escape, or even indulgence. But we must be able to pursue those escapes and indulgences with the knowledge that others are rushing into the burning building… And that, frankly, is part of the problem: there aren’t nearly enough of us working anywhere near hard enough to stop this culture from killing the planet. Obviously, or the world would be getting healthier, instead of being desecrated with ever increasing speed. If there were more of us trying to stop this culture from killing the planet, then those who are working themselves to death could afford to take a little time off and not feel as if things would fall apart while they climbed the mountains or ran the rivers.
Sockeye salmon boom in BC Seattle Times: The biggest sockeye run in nearly a century is headed back to British Columbia’s Fraser River and its tributaries. An estimated 25 million fish have returned, more than double preseason forecasts. The runs are yielding an unexpected bonanza for U.S. and Canadian commercial fishermen who are more used to feuding over dwindling shares of a declining resource.
Beads, Cones, Eyes, now welcome Fish Skulls to the fly tying arsenal. Fish Skulls are a new way to create heads on bait fish patterns. Fish Skulls give the fly a realistic, perfectly formed head with eyes. Add epoxy or not to develop the head of the fly further. In this video Barrett demonstrates how to use the fish skulls with an Intruder style fly pattern. We see fish skulls having application in with Steelhead and Salmon flies, saltwater streamers, and trout streamers. For their size they do not weight the fly down too much, they allow the pattern to swim as the tyer intended. A great product brought to us by Hareline Dubbin.–CD
In this video Jay Nicholas ties a very sparse wet fly style muddler. The fly is on a heavy wire hook with a yarn body. Designed to be swung subsurface for steelhead the fly could be tied in a variety of colors for both wing and body. One could also tie this pattern in very small sizes for a trout muddler. Imagine a size 10 or 12 muddler for Cutthroat in the lower McKenzie and Willamette, deadly in Spring and Fall.–CD
Last weekend we camped out at the mouth of the Deschutes River for the Native Fish Society River Steward retreat, hosted by NFS staffers Russell Bassett and Tom Derry. It was a great event, full of presentations by top fisheries biologists and policy-makers, and presentations by the River Stewards themselves.
We shot a video of some of the river stewards at the event, and they got to talk about the projects in watersheds around the state. Definitely check it out:
For more info on the River Steward program, contact Russell Bassett 503-829-6211.
While that’s all pretty great, the fishing was even better. Early mornings and late evenings, desert rainstorms, and jumping sea-run salmonids. Can’t beat it. I caught steelhead on a floating line, but a sink tip would have been helpful during the middle of the day. Johnson Creek river steward Will Govin sent us these photos:
Will went 4 for 5 on Sunday night, with 3 wild, 1 hatchery and one that never slowed down and eventually freed himself well downstream.
San Francisco, CA - The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected an attempt to strip protected status from wild steelhead trout in California’s Central Valley. A group of Central Valley irrigators had argued that ocean-going Central Valley steelhead population should be removed from the endangered species list based on their opinion that freshwater rainbow trout - which never go to sea - might someday replace extinct steelhead populations.
Steve Mashuda, an attorney with Earthjustice who represented the coalition of conservation and fish groups said, “Steelhead and people need clean water, swimmable streams, and healthy habitat. We all win when we protect and recover wild steelhead and their habitat.”
The Court agreed with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the conservation and fishing groups that NMFS may protect steelhead without including all freshwater resident rainbow trout in the protected population. The Court concluded that “under the ESA, interbreeding is not alone determinative of whether organisms must be classified alike where, as here, they develop and behave differently.”
Steelhead once returned from the ocean in the millions every year to the Sacramento and San Joaquin River systems in the Central Valley. Today, these fish have been lost from 95% of their historic habitat, and they continue to face threats from unchecked water use, blockage by dams, urban sprawl, and polluted rivers.
“Anyone who’s ever been lucky enough to see or catch a steelhead in the wild knows they’re a special fish,” said, Mark Rockwell of the Northern California Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers. “They wanted to add rainbow trout numbers to the few steelhead left, thus removing protections for steelhead, and allowing more water diversions from Central Valley rivers.”
The Court’s ruling represents the latest rejection of attempts by big agricultural interests to take more water out of the San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem. It also follows a report issued earlier this month by the State Water Resources Control Board which found that greater flows and less water diversions were needed to restore the estuary and its imperiled fish populations.
In its ruling, the Court cited evidence from several independent scientific reviews that all found even where some interbreeding may occur, freshwater rainbow trout cannot regenerate or replace a steelhead population if those sea-run fish are lost.
“It’s time to start working to restore this irreplaceable part of California’s natural heritage,” said Kate Miller of Trout Unlimited. “Today’s ruling helps put the focus back where it belongs - on efforts to restore clean water and healthy habitat in Central Valley streams.”
Earthjustice represented the five conservation and fishing groups arguing on behalf of wild steelhead protection in these two cases, including Northern California Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers, the Federation of Fly Fishers, Delta Fly Fishers, Trout Unlimited, and the Center for Biological Diversity.
Jay Nicholas demonstrates how to tie a muddler minnow with a bushy and bulky head designed to push water and skate. Spinning and trimming deer hair are shown.
Try running a skater muddler through your favorite steelhead run, the action and “water push” can drive them nuts. Numerous colors and variations of this fly work well on steelhead, black, burple, green to name a few.–CD
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CaddisFlyShop.com offers free shipping on orders over $25 and no sales tax. Providing you with top quality products and top notch customer service is our goal. Winter is here and we have all the fly tying materials needed to stock your box. Wether you are preparing for a saltwater fly fishing trip, filling the gaps in your trout box, or tying winter steelhead patterns we have you covered.
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Fly fish Eugene Oregon's local waters with The Caddis Fly. Book your trip online. Our trips utilize world famous Mckenzie River Drift Boats. The boat allows the guide and angler to effectively cover 5-13 miles of river during the day. Covering a variety of water types maximizes the angler's chances for a fine day of fly fishing. The Mckenzie is home to Rainbows, Cuthroat and Steelhead.
