In this installment of Fly Fishing Links, we’re pointing out a few fly fishing bloggers that fell off the wagon but got back onboard last week. Felt Soul started blogging again in a big way with an update on Red Gold and how folks that were inspired by the movie can get involved with protecting Bristol Bay. And John Montana from Carp on the Fly is back in business after a three month break.
Jeff Kennedy of Drawing Flies 365 finished his year of daily fly fishing artwork — all 365 days of 2008. The wrap up is here. Kennedy plans to put out a high quality coffee table-style book at the end of January. The book will include most of the flies created along with Kennedy’s thoughts that occurred during the creation of the paintings.
And of special importance to me, since I’m considering taking the plunge on a spey rod in ‘09, KBarton at SingleBarbed seems to be doing the same, and his intro to Spey post is damn funny. It helps to see other single-handed veterans share the same trepidations about getting into a new method for fly fishing.
Lastly, as if Spey casting weren’t complicated enough, the forum crew at WestFly is talking about small spey rods for trout. The consensus seems to be that it’s easier to cast, you’ll probably catch more fish, but how fun will it be to whoop on 13-inch fish with a 13-foot rod? On the other hand, Itinerant Angler Zach Matthews makes the case for trout spey rods.
Here’s a quick run-down on some preferred river levels:
Siuslaw: 7′-4′ (at Mapleton)
Alsea: 6.5′-4′ (at Tidewater)
Siletz: 6.5′-4′ (at Siletz)
North Fork Umpqua: When the flow on the Steamboat Creek gauge and the North Fork at Copeland Creek gauge add up to approximately 2000 cfs.
Umpqua River: 8′-4′ (at Elkton)
Elk River: 6′-4′
Much more so than during the relatively stable flows of summer, understanding the wildly fluctuating flows of your favorite river is critical to winter steelhead success. Judging from the number of inquiries about river levels at the shop, most steelheaders understand that good conditions are important but many aren’t sure what levels to look for.
Each river has an optimum range for winter steelhead fishing expressed in either cubic feet per second or height at a given location or both. It isn’t important which measurement you monitor (unless one gauge only has one or the other) but it is critical that you monitor the gauge of the river that you want to fish. Watching the gauges regularly gives you an idea of trends which are important as our rivers often fish best when “dialed back in” after a period of higher water. By knowing what levels are high, low and optimal and following trends you will maximize your chance of finding winter chrome.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publishes a couple pages that are useful for anglers in our area. For streams in the Willamette Zone and Northwest Zone you can find flows, levels and forecasts at this link: Northwest Oregon. For southern Oregon, the NOAA publishes forecasts and levels here: Southern Oregon. In addition to the NOAA river level website, the USGS also maintains it’s own site: USGS River Levels. There are a few gauges on the USGS page that are not shown on the NOAA page. Though it doesn’t happen as often anymore, in the event that you don’t have or can’t reach an internet connection you can call the National Weather Service at (503) 261-9246 and follow the prompts. The Elk River does not have an online gauge but you can get a reading by calling the hatchery at (541) 332-7025.
The Siuslaw fishes up to about 8.5 feet on the Mapleton Gauge and the Alsea fishes from the bank all the way up to 9 feet at the tidewater gauge if you want to fish the hatchery or have access to private water on the upper North Fork. Otherwise, don’t bother until the river has fallen to a more respectable level.
I generally prefer the water at around 5.5 feet and steady or falling on the Alsea at Tidewater gauge. As for the Siuslaw, the river fishes better at 7.0 feet and below on the Mapleton gauge. Under 5.5 feet, the Whitaker Creek to Wildcat drift gets a little low but passable. When the river falls beneath 5 feet, the angling pressure really drops off but those low water conditions are great for getting after steelhead with your fly rod. Below five feet, hit the Whitaker to Wildcat drift or focus on the next section from Wildcat to Linslaw Park which also is productive amongst other times, when the river is right around five feet.
Look for water that is on the low end of what is considered fishable to maximize your chance of success with a fly rod particularly from the bank. That said, don’t just stay home if the water isn’t perfect. In higher water conditions, fish will hang closer to the bank and you won’t need a long cast to reach the fish.
Memorizing what rivers fish best at which levels isn’t the easiest thing to do. Fortunately, there are a couple good publications carried at the shop that local anglers can use as a reference tool for finding when rivers will be “in.” With so much water to fish in Oregon, everyone forgets from time to time.
If you don’t own Fishing in Oregon by Madeline Diness Sheehan come buy it . . . now. Seriously. It is that important. Another book full of useful information is the Oregon River Maps and Fishing Guide which shows river access points, boat launches, best river levels and other relevant information.
The bottom line is that learning your river levels is hardly the most glamorous aspect of winter steelheading but is as important as anything for steelhead success. Good luck out there.–KM
The rivers are blown out, 300% of typical snowpack in Oregon’s Coast Range melting and sliding into the ocean. Our rivers needed the flush to get the winter steelhead season started, but the weather has left a lot anglers twiddling our thumbs. While there are a lot of more productive things you could be doing with your time — banking quality time at home, repairing your gutters, etc. — if you’re reading this, you’re thinking fish. Barrett’s got a laundry list of things to do between now and the next shot at fishable water in this new Oregon Fly Fishing Podcast.
If you want to be doing something productive, fish related this week:
-Get stacked up with the important spring patterns — March Browns, Pheasant Tails, Possie Buggers.
-Mend waders and boots.
-Organize your steelhead box!
-Get tying on some bass bugs for May on Davis Lake. Tie up some of this time-consuming patterns, like Barrett’s Cascade Bass Killer.
Me? I usually go a little less practical come dead winter: dark beers and big streamers. I’ll be on a Quixotic lingcod fly-rod quest come Feb-March and I’m getting excited about some of the new fly tying materials from Hareline like Senyo’s laser dub and BaitFish Emulator. Check ‘em out:
I’ll be experimenting with Icelandic Sheep, Larva Lace, Glow-in-the-dark Flashabou and a bunch of other stuff and put out a post once I’ve got the perfect blend for a ling-cod-killer.
-MS
Here’s a little fresh fish porn for your Sunday morning from Wild Bill Laroux’s Bahamas Bonefish trip:
Send us your fish pics!
FYI: If you noticed some blog downtime last week, our apologies. We had a sick MySQL database somewhere in the works. It’s fixed now, but we lost the past year’s worth of comments.
Marcos Vergara of Hareline Dubbin stopped by the Caddis Fly Shop to demonstrate how to use some new fly tying materials and tools. Check out the latest trends in fly tying with these three videos.
In this first video, Marcos demonstrates Senyo’s Laser Dub. This wool substitute material was developed by Hareline, Greg Senyo and Orvis. It’s a dull finish acrylic with the properties of wool with some ice-dub mixed in. Senyo’s Laser Dub combs out great for heads and collars on steelhead or salmon flies, or wooly heads for sculpin patterns.
Marcos also demonstrates how to use the new Marryat CDC Winding tool and how you can use extra-long premium CDC feathers to tie better flies.
In Part 2 of our Hareline material demo, Marcos introduces one of my favorite new fly tying materials of the year: Baitfish Emulator. This material has half opaque fibers that hold bright colors, and half pearlescent fibers that give it sheen. All you need is about 2-3 inches of Baitfish Emulator per fly. It’s super-fast and easy to tie and it holds up better to toothy fish then standard bucktail. This segment also demonstrates Hareline’s pseudo marabou and pseudo hackle for tying a two-material wooly bugger.
In this third segment, Marcos talks about some of the new materials Hareline is carrying, including Lady Amherst Center Tails, some great new fox tails for Foxy Clousers, and new Pseudo Hair.
Oregon Fly Fishing for winter steelhead report: I drove over to the North Fork of the Alsea yesterday. I did not plan to fish but paid my annual dues for entry to the private land. When I left Corvallis the river level was 6.2 and rising. Upon arrival, the North Fork Alsea was totally blown out. Muddy, leaves, and rising. All the snow from Marys Peak is melting and the Alsea is slated for about 12 feet (action phase, prior to flood stage) in a few days.
I also drove to the Alsea hatchery and saw very few fish in the hatchery. A few anglers were fishing near the hatchery (yes even in crap conditions!). I spoke to them and they said….”yesterday, a few fish were caught” but nothing big has happened yet. From the looks of the run, so far, after this blow out, I would expect the fishing to turn on very strong on the Alsea, once the river drops. Nothing really new, but the lack of fish, thus far, remains constant. I also drove to Honeygrove…nobody was there. I did get reports a few days earlier about many boats on the Mill Creek run and not many fish caught.
The Caddis Fly will be hosting a trip to Northern Argentina to kick off 2009. Our fishing will be on the delta of the San Javier and San Javierito rivers, in Santa Fe Province. The quarry is the Golden Dorado, or “Tiger of the Parana”. The fish are incredible predators that crush huge streamers slapped near them, or stripped by them.
“Although the Dorado may reach 30 pounds, the average size in this area has held between 5 and 15 pounds, but there are also larger ones. The freshwater Dorado is considered to be the single most challenging native freshwater game fish of South America. It is a radiant, golden-hued, salmon-like fish with an extremely powerful jaw and razor-sharp teeth. Unlike the salmon, however, the Dorado does not succumb after spawning and never swims to the ocean. The Dorado is an exceptionally strong swimmer. The world record is 70 pounds”
It’s best to use wire tipped leader and large deceiver type patterns. Large streamers that move water and make a splash when they land. The fish are amazing, their strike is incredibly fast and powerful. They have Parana like jaws, Salmon shaped bodies and Snook like pull. To cast these huge flies a stout rod is required. I will be testing the new Sage TCX series of rods. Five, Six and Eight weight rods matched with Nautilus and Sage reels. Tropical lines will be a nessesity as air temperatures can reach 100 humid degrees.
The river systems in the Sante Fe province are immense and diverse. Thousands of small streams and channels are habitat to Dorados, Piranas, Catfish and numerous other species.
Flies for these awesome game fish look like the following creations.-Cd
Oregonflyfishingblog.com wishes you a wonderful holiday season!
The Caddis Fly’s hours will be our normal 9-6pm the Friday after Christmas. We will maintain normal hours until New Years day when we will close. After New Years day normal hours will resume 9-6pm Monday-Friday 9-5pm Sat, 10-3 Sun.
Recent rain has many of the coastal streams rising. Winter Steelhead will be rushing in and fishing should be great when the water comes down. We had good reports from the Umpqua, Alsea, Lake Creek, Siuslaw, Elk, and Sixes before the waters went out of shape.
Trout fishing on the Middle Fork of the Willamette has been good. Today 445 cubic feet per second is the release out of Hills Creek Dam. 445 is a nice level and Blue Winged Olives have been hatching, nymphing has been good with stonefly imitations and tiny nymphs like pheasant tails and wired nymphs.-CD
Have you been thinking about a new Spey Rod? Do you need to reach across the river and touch someone with your fly? Looking to take your fly casting to the next level? Spey casting has taken off in North America over the past 10 years and for good reason. Line control, casting ease, sink tip lobbing, distance, and fish fighting are just a few of the advantages that Spey casting gives the fly angler.
We are offering some great deals at caddisflyshop.com as 2008 comes to an end. From Sage we have a couple of classic models, the VT2 13 foot 9 inch 8wt, a great all around rod for virtually all species and the Z-Axis 14′ 3″ 9wt, a big rod for larger rivers, long casts and heavy sink tips.
One of the best values in the Spey world this season is the Dec Hogan series from Echo. Moderate action rods that handle a variety of lines and situations. Three models to choose from at $199.
Finally the Redington RS4 13′ 3″ # 7wt, a faster action all around rod suited for both Scandi and Skagit style lines and casting techniques.
To learn the art of spey casting pick up a copy of Rio’s Modern Spey Casting DVD. We find the 3 set lengthy DVD the most comprehensive available.
Spey casting has great advantages in achieving distance and control of large flies and sinking lines. Often overlooked is the fact that the spey cast can be used with your single handed trout or steelhead rod. By applying what you learn with the long rod to your single hander, your casting prowess will advance considerably.-CD
So what does the egg-sucking leech imitate? Oregon leeches aren’t purple, and most people say leeches don’t eat salmon eggs. According to Westfly, the Egg-sucking leech might represent a stonefly drifting in the current with a salmon egg in its mouth. More likely, the motion, combined with the egg on the front is irresistible for some ineffable steelhead reasoning.
You can fish egg sucking leeches on the swing, or dead drifted under an indicator near the bottom.
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