And I think it’s a great idea. For an extra $5-$10 a year, maybe the fly only waters get expanded? Or better enforcement? Or most importantly, funds raised through the sale of trout stamps could go into an account that can be used only for stream habitat restoration (i.e. not hatcheries). Other states have tried trout and salmon stamps, a quick Google search brings up Minnesota and Delaware. The federal duck stamp project has been a huge success.

What’s your take on having an Oregon Trout and Steelhead conservation stamp?
-MS

Here’s the best picture I have of a carp from Golden Gardens on fly rod. This lil guy went close to 15 lbs. Madam X fooled this one. By no means think these fish are easy or dumb. I have had alot of fun trying to fool ‘em.

Send us your best Oregon fly fishing photos and stories.

McKenzie River surprisingly chemical free: According to an article in the Register-Guard last week, it’s hard to find toxins in the McKenzie River. USGS hydrologists estimate levels of creosote and DDT to be extremely low, on the order of parts per quadrillion.

Bacon To Fry Dean King Trilogy: The Interweb’s favorite Rainier-swilling fly fishing blogger over at Buster Wants to Fish recently filed a three part series on Chinook fishing on British Columbia’s Dean River. Badass: Alfi hadn’t so much as touched the net when 35+ poundeage of mint-bright, absolutely perfect king came clear out of the water 15 feet in front of our hairy eyeballs, which made them even bigger. Now, marinate on that shit for a second; 30-some odd minutes balls deep into it, 30-some odd pounds of king jumped three feet. Then it did it again, backflipping like an Alaskan silver. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

ODFW re-establishing salmon in Upper Klamath Lake and tribs: According to a recent Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife press release: Salmon disappeared from the Upper Klamath Basin in Oregon almost 100 years ago when Copco Dam in California blocked fish passage upriver. The opportunity to re-establish anadromous runs in the Upper Klamath River Basin arose during the re-licensing process for the four main-stem hydro-electric dams operated by Pacificorp.

Recycled Waders: The guys at FlyTalk put us onto Recycled Waders, a group of people in Seattle that take your stinky old breathable waders and turn them into some cool gear. For $110 and your stinky Simms, they’ll send you a couple cool tote bags and a wallet.

SwittersB advocates duck patterns on Davis Lake: Oregon fly fishing blogger SwittersB says it’s time to come up with baby duck patterns for fishing largemouth bass in Davis Lake.

Top Ten Fly Fishing Products: Lastly, KBarton at Singlebarbed posted his top ten products that changed the face of fly fishing. Personal favorite is #8 Waders - Lumping a lot of technology into this single category, but this stimulates the “fly fisherman as predator” versus the tweed, monocle, and jodhpurs of vacationing nobility. Jodhpurs?

There were a few fly fishing book dealers, including Rod Bonacker of Black Butte Books — a Sisters, Oregon bookstore that specializes in Pacific Northwest fishing and hunting. He had a nice selection of authors I was interested in, including Roderick Haig-Brown and Russell Chatham. Bonacker offered some advice for fly fishing book collectors: “Buy the best condition books you can afford. 90% of the value is in the dust jacket. It’s good to spend time picking up the classics, but find some contemporary authors you like — authors like Steve Raymond, John Gierach and Jim Harrison have gained value.” You can email Bonacker with your fly fishing literature questions.

We also spent some time with Chet Croco, rodmaker and owner of Bellinger Fly Rods. “The reason bamboo is still popular today, despite all of the graphite, is because it has a certain feel that can’t be duplicated by a manmade material,” Croco said. We interviewed him in the video below about the history of the business:

Bellinger, a bamboo rod company based in Albany, Oregon, specializes in finished rods as well as components and tools for bamboo rod makers. The photos below show Croco’s work — a custom bamboo rod for the 90th anniversary of the Camp Sherman Store, with a hippo tooth reel seat! Seriously. Hippo tooth. Doesn’t get more badass than that.

-MS

Even as the fly drifts out of the classic nymph looking water and heads to the deep pool, stay with it. The large rainbows of the Klamath Basin head out of the eutrophic shallow lake in summer and head up the Williamson. They sit in deep slow cold pools like their cousin steelhead of the North Umpqua. 

Barrett’s biggest fish was 27″ and many others over 20″ were landed. The Williamson is a great summer fishery. Access is good both in Chiloquin and up river near Colier Park. Give Barrett a call this Sunday for more info, or to ask him exactly how he could forgot his camera.-CD

As the sun gets higher in the sky and temperatures rise insect activity near the surface diminishes. It is not that all the bugs have stopped emerging. They simply are spending less time near the water, as the heat will evaporate them. When aquatic insects hatch mid day they migrate to the trees where they will find shade. Many species of mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies will return to the river in the evening hours to lay their eggs but for now they are seeking cover. This means you should look to fish shaded areas, deeper drop offs and faster water that can contain insect activity as well as cover.  Use a two fly system dropping a nymph of a dry fly 2-5ft and get your Mega Prince, Possie Bugger, Copper John, Flashback Hares Ear or Red Headed Prince down deep.  Your nymph should outperform the dry five to one during the 12-5 hours. And hey if they still come up for the dry your are using to locate the subsurface fly, not a problem.

As the sun begins to fade away behind the Doug Firs look for a huge variety of insects, Little Yellow Stones, small Caddis, Green Drakes, larger rust Caddis, Pale Morning Duns, Golden Stones and more. The trick to this time of day is to change things up as the evening progresses. Look for the most prolific insect. Do you see more little yellow stones or more caddis? Are the fish sipping dries, maybe it is a rust colored mayfly spinner the “pale morning dun spinner”, or the adult PMD which would have me using a Sparkle Dun PMD. Are the fish leaping head first out of the water, probably chasing up an emerging caddis or little yellow stone (unlike most stonesflies the little yellow one freely emerges like a mayfly) sink your dry and swing it when you see this happening, the fish often like this vulnerable state of emergence and will key on the emerger.

Fish are still rising and it is getting late, critical descisions on what to make my last fly change. Go for two, it’s nearly dark and you are having trouble seeing the little brown elk hair that has been killing them, it’s barley floating by now anyway. Tie on a huge Stimulator or No Down golden, add another peice of tippet and your small elk hair down from that 36 inches. When the huge bug lands you can locate your set up, mend the big bug away and even if you can’t see the little one you know the general vicinity and can set up on anything near by.

Regardless of what time of day you are out fly fishing the Mckenzie River or Willamette and tribs it’s a good time to be there. Changing flies and tactics to adjust for light and weather will help you catch more fish.-CD

I recently decided to upgrade to the Simms Keen River Wading Sandals, and I have to say the difference is amazing. The felt sole on these sandals makes all the difference. Plus, there is a thick rubber outer covering that protects your toes.

The strap construction is super easy adjust or take on and off, using velcro and a plastic buckle. But the biggest benefit of these sandals over other wading shoes is that they don’t fill up with pebbles — at least not as much as my Merrell’s did. I’m a couple months into owning these sandals and I have to give them a positive gear review, they’ve held up really well.

Pros:
-Felt soles stick almost well as wading boots to mossy Oregon streambeds.
-When I do fall in the water, I don’t have to worry about filling my waders.
-I usually beat my fishing partners down to the best water, while they’re putting on their waders.
-I can wear these to the bar, like I did last night. I didn’t get a second look from the security staff at Davis. Keeping it classy.

Cons:
-Off-trail bushwacking will result in thorn-shredded ankles and shins.
-Wet wading with open wounds in the Eugene town run can lead to infectious disease.
-River sandals are not as protective as boots on the feet. Slipping off rocks really can hurt.

Simms Keen River Wading Sandals: $79.95 at the shop. -MS

Leaving the holy water Matt and I worked down to rest the big fish zone, wait for things to get a little cooler and try our luck elsewhere. Catching only one planter, I tied on a #12 Parachute Adams and headed back to the big trout zone. On my third our fourth cast I saw a red sided slab flash in the vicinity of my submerged fly and set the hook. This “Mckenzie Redside” Rainbow fought like a brute and taped in at seveteen and was chunky and healthy–KM

Gierach on fishing writers burning spots: Ed Engle has a saying, he won’t name a river he can roll cast across, and he can roll cast a hell of a long way. I tend to err on the side of caution.

Gierach on bamboo fly rods: The whole bamboo subculture has changed over 20 years. I was buying them for $25, but some of my rods got so expensive I stopped fishing them and it weirded me out.

At the reading, Gierach joked about Signs of Life, a “thin book of poetry” he wrote in 1976 that has been out of print for years. He’s seen copies of the book selling online for more than he made on the entire edition. He also joked about how he and Engle did a little “Running Down the Man” in Baja. Engle said “I’ve known you 35 years and this is the first time I’ve seen you run.”

This latest book has a lot of great essays, and some of my favorite lines are excerpted below:

I don’t have any illusions about permanence, nor do I necessarily fear change except that it’s so seldom for the better. It’s just that I can live with any number of things going straight to hell as long as these streams continue to hold up.

I’ve only been to a handful of meetings in my life. More than half of them quickly degenerated into droning nonsense, and the few that didn’t would have gone on just fine without me.

-MS