Oregon Saltwater Fishing Report July 19 2013

After a lengthy period of non-fishing (laugh if you must), I received an invitation to join friends fishing from their newly acquired Dory out of Pacific City on this fine day. The ocean has been rough much of the last several weeks and I have been devoting much/most of my off-water hours delving into a realm of fly tying that is practically new to me: the world of saltwater flies.

More on that as the season progresses.  Suffice to say for now that true salty fly people have talent galore and the transition from principally estuary and river flies to the stuff people throw at oceanic critters has been a challenge, what with new materials, new hooks, and a different mindset to adjust one’s thinking and handiwork.

My saltwater flies prior to my recent obsession (hummmm, there’s the O-word) with saltwater patterns date have mostly been “Clouserish” in nature and based mostly on buck-tail with limited use of synthetics.

Anyway, our day on the ocean was wonderful. Any of you who fish your own boats offshore for salmon and bottom fish with conventional gear should seriously give fly rods a fair shake, because it is a fun and productive way to fish —- at times I believe that the fly rod can hold its own, fish-for-fish with traditional gear techniques.

Anyway again. Great Day.

Shakedown cruise finished-up rowing dory into the beach, just like in the old days, though not exactly by design.

A few trip photos, labeled or not, relate a few highlights.

Yup.  These come in handy sometimes, even in the ocean.

Long-toothed Lingcod.  Fly rod yes, Rodger that.

Just about to drift over the school of fish, located about 40 ft deep.

We actually had 4 fish on (simultaneously) on several occasions, but only two rods made this photo frame.

Hooked fish were often inexplicably unhooked prior to being sighted and were surely deep-shouldered brutes, but when we found them, it was pretty sweet.

When the motor wouldn’t start, it was nice to have friends to cheerfully lend a tow. They had already limited their boat fly fishing Black Rockfish  and were ready to head inshore – but let me tell you that the hooking up of tow ropes was quite  interesting.

Two strong men on the oars brought us safely ashore, slowly, but we rode the light swells onto the sand in fine style.

Finally, here are some fresh-from-being-eaten flies that we fished successfully today.  These and more will be featured in fly tying videos (eventually), accompanied by lots of tips and  techniques involved in tying saltwater style flies.

Great fishing and fun to you all, hope to be back at it the next few mornings.  And remember that Albacore will be in our reach VERY SOON!

JN

July 19 2013

BTW, we fished 7-10 wt Sage ONE, Echo 3 Saltwater, Echo ION, and Echo Prime fly rods with sinking lines.  Lines included Rio Striper Coldwater Series, Rio Max II shooting heads in Type 6; Rio Custom-Cut T-14 full fly line; and home-crafted shooting heads using T-17 and T-20 in lengths of 20-30 ft, looped to Rio 44 lb Slickshooter running line.

Leaders were tied up using Maxima Ultragreen and one formula that worked well was as follows: perfection looped, 3 ft-  30 Lb  butt section; 3 ft 20 lb mid section; and a tippet section of 3 ft in either 12 or 15 Lb.  I intend to delve into shock tippets, bite wire tippets, and droppers any day now, but for this day we kept it simple.

Fish were as deep as 70 ft and as shallow as 10 ft, but most of our grabs came in the 30 – 40 ft depth range.

Cast, let ‘er sink, feed line as the Dory drifts away from the fly, and then strip the fly back up through the schools of cooperative fish.  No salmon this date, but tomorrow, who knows?