Fishing with my friend Jack Harrell in the Town Lake recently, Jack noticed something barely visible about three feet underwater. It was shiny and looked suspiciously like the tip-top guide on a fly rod. We maneuvered around and pretty soon Jack reached deep over the side and retrieved a SAGE rod, reel, line and fly. This is certainly a rod someone lost this year, and it would be great to get this outfit back to its owner. An e-mail to the Caddis fly can put the owner in touch with me, a comment to this post will get the job done, too, or you could contact Jack through Pacific City Fly Fishing also. Just identify the rod you lost and the reunion will be arranged promptly. I wonder if this rod fell off a float tube, raft or went out of a boat, but I’m sure the owner has been weeping over loosing this rod.
Speaking of coastal trout fishing, I have had a lot of fun on Lake Hebo, where there are some regular size catchable trout plus some linkers to spice things up. A wide variety of dry flies, soft hackles, buggers, damsels, chironomids, and bead-head nymphs have been productive at times. This fishery is challenging at times and consistent at others. Light tippets and experimentation with flies, locations around the lake, and presentation tactics has paid off on most days. One can see Osprey and a Bald Eagle, otter, and rising trout on days that range from calm and warm to blustery/rainy.
Lakes like Hebo are sprinkled across the coast range and some offer the extra spice of wild cutthroat and bass too – I’m pretty sure the possibilities are huge for coastal still waters fly anglers.
I have been fishing the Echo Glass 5 wt and loving it. The glass is ideal to make a soft presentation to raising trout thirty feet from the boat, and a ten-incher puts quite a bend in the rod, and I’ve been remembering how much fun I had fishing Cascade lakes for brook trout when I was between 8th grade and high school. Seeing those trout faces come up to look at my fly is as much fun as it was fifty years ago.
We would appreciate help find the owner of the fly rod we found – and in the meantime – there is some fun fishing all over Oregon, all you have to do is head out the door.
JN -May 2 2014
Consider posting the found fly rod on the Westfly forums? A pretty large community follows there and it could perhaps help in finding the owner. I believe there have been some successful reunions on there. Hope you find the owner!