The Caddis Fly: Oregon Fly Fishing Blog

The weather has been exceptional in terms of allowing my friends to launch their dory boats from the beach at Pacific City the last several weeks, and more good opportunities are close at hand. This means that we get to go out and entice big lingcod with a fly under ideal conditions: relatively small swell height, little current, and little or no wind drift.

We have found lings in anywhere from 40 to over 90 ft of water lately, and have found willing takers to large 6-inch closers ever day we have been out.

One of the greatest challenges in the deep water fly fishery is not simply getting the fly down, but keeping it off the bottom.  It is key to get close to the bottom to get these kings, but if the fly and line lays on the bottom, it is not fishing, and it is likely to get hung up.  I lost six fly & leader rigs last time out and broke off the front of my fly line on one hang-up.

It helps to mark ten ft increments on fly lines above the shooting head, because this can help tune the depth one is fishing.  There are still variables that are difficult to gauge, like the angle of the line and resultant fly depth.  That said, it still helps to know how deep the water is at any given moment and know how much fly line is out of the rod tip.

It seemed that all of the lingcod I hooked last time out grabbed the fly just after I had pulled my fly off the bottom.  That told me that I was just above the bottom.  I suspect that my fly was laying on the bottom much of the time, but can’t be sure, and this is a tactical issue I am trying to resolve.  Fishing a heavy jig on mono allows one to feel the bottom each time the jig hits the reef.  With a fly and sinking fly line, you never know when your fly and line lay on the bottom, until you hang up and then you may or may not be able to pull your hook and line free.

Fly Rods for lingcod should be in the 8 to 10 wt range, and only very stout 8 wts should be put to the test.

Our best lines have been the AIRFLO 500 & 700 gr Big Game Depth Finder, RIO Leviathan 600 gr, AIRFLO Sniper Custom cut T-14, and RIO  Outbound Custom Cut T-14. All of these have been getting us down easily in the 40 ft zone and all make it to the bottom in the 80 to 100 ft depth zone, which is not possible with lighter lines.

Leader: I have been using the RIO Alloy Hard leader, keeping my leader in the 3 ft length range and going with 20 lb test straight leader (not tapered). Heavier leader might be OK but the strain can be tough on any fly line except the AIRFLO BIG GAME or RIO Leviathan, because those two lines have exceptionally strong leader cores and can take the stress of breaking 20 or 30 lb leaders.

The best Clousers of late have been tied on Gamakatsu  SC15-2H 3/0 and 4/0hooks with Steve Farrar’s Blend materials including a hot orange belly with Bronze Back topping.

Effective ocean flies and fishing techniques are noted in my book, SEA Flies on Amazon.

Lingcod teeth are very abrasive and you should be checking your leaders after each fish.

Dory Charters that specialize in fly fishing are available via John Harrell at Pacific City Fly Fishing or by calling Jack Harrell at 541 921 1276.

Hope you get a chance to get out there soon, these fish fight hard and make for excellent table fare.

Jay Nicholas – March 10, 2015

Yep, the lingcod are here in the ocean off Pacific City and ready to eat flies anytime the surf and swell allow my friends to launch their dory boats. Spring is the best time to flyfish for lingcod because they are inshore to spawn and it is more reasonable to present a fly at 40 – 60 ft depths than at 100 ft depths on a fly line.

Some of these fish are as shallow as 20 ft too, and those are the best.  Our fishing was spotty but engaging, Each of us fishing flies hooked at least one ling and our gear fisher companion hooked something like 5 or so.  Two very large fish were hooked on flies and both, sadly, were lost.

Gear: we fished 8  to 10 wt rods for lingcod, not so much because all the fish are huge (they are not generally), but to accommodate the stress of fishing sinking fly lines in the 500-700 gr wt class.  We fished RIO Striper line 550 gr and the AIRFLO Depth finder Big Game 700 gr lines. The Striper line has a sink tip in the 22 ft range and the AIRFLO sink tip is about 30 ft long.  I fished RIO Alloy Hard leader because it is very abrasion resistant, and fished 16 lb tippets.  Ed fished Maxima 15 lb Ultragreen leader.

Rods: ECHO 3  SW and PRIME (one piece), SAGE Salt.

Reels: Hatch 9; Nautilus NV 10-11.

Flies:  Clousers, naturally, 3-5″, with white, chartreuse, pink, and blue Steve Farrar’s blend materials plus Mirage Lateral Scale.

Leader Length:  Hummm.  I was fishing 6-8 ft leaders and these were, in retrospect, too long.  Why?  The line sinks faster than the fly even though the fly is heavily weighted.  As a result, there was, I think, slack leader when I was working my fly at depth, because I got my fly “bit” often by fish of assuredly large proportion, but NEVER FELT THE BITE.

So. I hereby resolve to use shorter leaders next time out and see if it helps strike detection.

There were a few other boats out last week and they seemed to be doing quite well fishing jigs and herring.  We all caught black rockfish in addition to the lings.

Evidence: I was getting my fly “bit” by fish that I never felt, and this was apparent because my fly was fouled as the material will be when a fish takes it into its mouth and chomps on it and then spits it out.  I would fish my fly for 5 minutes or so and then bring it up to take a look and find it in a messy wad of material, but had never felt the take.  Meaning the fish were eating on the drop and spitting it just that fast too.

We found a group of working birds on some sort of bait but it did not produce fish for us even though these events are always enticing.  There were probably fish under the birds but we got no proof so that’s that.

The big ling story is a bit of a mystery.  Ed hooked a monster, then I hooked a monster, then the two fish got fouled together.  Or his fish ate my fly.  Whatever, we were surely fouled together and then it all went slack, his fly pulled free and my leader broke.  We can’t be sure what happened but it was exciting for a while.  Lingcod are great tasty fish and they pull harder then a black rockfish so that is part of the challenge, and I’m still hoping for one of those 30 – plus pounders one of these days.

Hope to get out again in the next week or so, and find more of these beasties and figure out how to avoid the sneaky eat habits they apparently are working to perfect.

Meanwhile, there are steelhead out there to be caught even though the water is low and clear.  Yesterday (24 Feb), I hooked a kelt on the swing and it literally jumped into my boat!  Had to scramble around and grab the silvery hen and put here back in the river ASAP.

Some people may be so cool that they do not appreciate a kelt.  Not me.  This was my fish of the entire day, I saw the take on the swing and got a nice adrenaline rush plus the excitement of the into the boat leap.  Not quite qualified for the NFS contest, but not my fault.  Anyway, strange things happen and this fish was my day brightener.  I’ll be out after them again, hoping for a bigger chroma fish but enjoying the hunt no matter what comes my way.

Best Luck to all of you as you venture forth.

Jay Nicholas, February 25, 2015

Dory fly fishing charters are available though Pacific City Fly Fishing and Capt. John Harrell.  Contact the Caddis Fly Shop if you have questions about tackle and such and I can promise you will have a great trip out there if you decide to go.