Saltwater fly fishing on the Oregon Coast

Oregon has limitless fly fishing fishing opportunities, and yet the bays and beaches of the Oregon Coast are often overlooked. New Caddis fly employee Nate Stansberry is all about exploring some of these saltwater possibilites.  Nate has been fishing Stripers on the East Coast out of New York City for the past few years, literally taking the subway to fish productive water near the projects. Nate brought his Boston Whaler out and plans to check out some of Oregon’s coastal waterways. His report follows.

After chasing salmon, steelhead, and trout for the past couple weeks I finally got a chance to fish the saltwater in Coos Bay with the help of  some advice and free time.  The stable weather we have been having allowed me to explore the salt in my 14 foot Boston Whaler (pretty dicey with any kind of bad weather) for two days. I went with a fellow angler and friend Wild Bill and we were able to cash in on limits of black rock fish on the a fly.  These fish were fairly easy to located on the depth finder and sinking heads with white and black streamers did the trick. We were fishing between 30-40 feet for most of the day with fish suspended as high as 10 feet. Even though we were fishing deep the fish were taking the fly stripped in and we caught fish with ease sometime doubles with a two fly rig. There was a lot of bait in the bay, but I’m not sure what we were seeing… small, silver, and sand eel like. Anyway these fish were just what I have been looking for and taste great in almost any recipe.  I would recommend either 8-9 weight setups with fast sinking line or  a shooting head of 300 grain plus. Saltwater streamers like a white or black clouser or a fly Bill had made with white marabou and a cone head worked great. Leaders should be shorter than usual because of the fast sinking line or shooting head and around 15-20 pound test. If you have an interest please stop into The Caddis Fly for more information. -NS