The Caddis Fly: Oregon Fly Fishing Blog

The traditional trout season opener is upon us this Saturday. The McKenzie above Leaburg opens and is in excellent shape. Nymphing with large stonefly patterns and smaller Pheasant tail or Red Copper John droppers is a solid bet on the upper river this weekend. Look for some afternoon hatches of Caddis, March Browns and even some Stonefly adults.

The lower McKenzie continues to fish well with smatterings of Caddis and March Browns still emerging. Yesterday I saw more mid sized stoneflies than I have all year. Start thinking about fishing some larger dries like Half Down Goldens, Stimulators and Caddis in size 10s. The frustrating Grannom Caddis hatch seems to be waning but the fish are still looking up to a Quigley’s Midget Caddis really well on shaded edges and riffles.

Many of the cascade lakes will be more accessible this year than in the recent past and fishing should be good early. Fishing Chironomid patterns early season is a tactic you can count on.

If you you want to combine a little fishing and a cool event up the McKenzie check out the 2013 McKenzie River Wooden Boat Festival. The festival starts around 11am and goes until 5pm. Over 50 whitewater boats with McKenzie roots will be on display.

It has been a great spring on the Oregon Coast, from February through now – early April 2013. So many opportunities in rivers and please don’t forget the catchable trout in Coastal Lakes.

ODFW stocks a whole bunch of these lakes and fly fishing is probably the most effective means of catching these fish.

Flies range from the expected

# 12/14 Bead Head Gold Ribbed Hares Ear (brown and black), to the #10/12 Bead Head Olive Lake Leech, to the Chironomid, to the little pheasant tail to the #16 Adams.  I have had success on a few of my coastal cutthroat wet flies too, and in my spare time shooting fly  videos and tying flies for Chinook that are soon to enter a few of our coastal rivers.

For folks who believe that hatchery trout are easy, my experience is quite the contrary, because maybe some days they are, but other days are quite a different story. Cast and twitch. Cast, put the rod under your arm and do your smoothest slow steady retrieve. Hang a nymph under a strike indicator anywhere from 3 to 8 feet deep. Still or movement.  Any and all of these techniques may come into play on any given day.

Long leaders, say 12 ft, tapered down to 5X or 6X will up your game too.  I fish Echo 3 and Echo Edge fly  rods in 4 and 5 wt, equipped with Echo ION reels and Airflo fly lines including floaters and slow sink lake lines.  Sorry, just had to mention the gear.  The ION drag worked ultra smoothly on large fish with the lightest leaders, fish some fish took me well into the backing with never a hiccup – from the reel anyway.

I suppose a nice new Sage ONE fly rod, Bauer or Hatch reel, and a Rio fly line might work too, ha ha.  OK, sales pitch over.

Rivers with wild and hatchery steelhead are a big draw for a lot of people in winter, but for many people, the float tube, pontoon boat, or pram is a great place to be on dozens of coastal lakes, fly fishing when the rivers are way out of shape to fish.

Is this fishery as glamorous as chasing chrome steelhead on the swing?

That’s for you to decide. For me, this experience brings me back to my fishing roots, and I have had great fun fishing in coastal lakes and the occasional foray out into the rivers.

Hope you enjoy the photos that follow and find inspiration to get out and have your own fun fishing in the near future, wherever that destination may be.

JN, April 2013

I fished the Willy yesterday with Ken, one of the Technical Men’s Conference members. The day broke into sunny and partly cloudy skies as we progressed down river.

Ken is a strong proponent of the “wooly bugger”. Dry flies which worked well; sparkle dun, March brown high & dry, and emerging march brown patterns. March brown soft hackles trailing behind the dry, provided much success. Ken, however, “ pounded them” early and often, with his own ‘bugger” pattern. Ken used the trailing soft hackle method during the later part of the day and continued the bombardment.

The day provided many fish to hand and also provided one of the most intense grannom caddis hatches we have every encountered. I took pics but the camera does not do justice. Let’s just say there were so many bugs on the water the fish would never see our flies. March Browns were present from 2-3:30.

We chose to get down through the massive caddis clouds and on to better fishing. Anglers should enjoy the warmer weather coming over the weekend and increased caddis activity. Look for this great fishery to continue to produce for the next week.
LV

It was a typical Spring day in the Willamette Valley with spitting rain, warming sun and a mid-day March Brown hatch on the Middle Fork of the Willamette River yesterday. The water had just jumped from about 400cfs to about 1200 out of Hills Creek dam and conventional wisdom suggested we should have fished the McKenzie. But hey you never know right?

Fishing was terrible in the morning! Dredging with Golden Stone Nymphs and Mega Prince in spots that have produced trip after trip for years, yielded very little action. Around 1pm things started to look up, finally the thingamabobber started to drop in obvious buckets!

At 2:01pm the bugs started and depending upon wind, rain, and sun, were around for about 90 minutes. In the two or three spots we found fishing rising, the fish weren’t particularly selective. Several March Brown patterns worked well. Nymphing continued to produce until around 4:30pm when things slowed to a stop and we arrived at the Black Canyon ramp.

Best Patterns for the Middle Fork: Mega Prince Size 8, Golden Stone Nymphs in size 6 March Brown Sparkle Dun 14 and Purple Rooster size 14

Leaders were 9ft 4x and tippet 4x Rio Fluoroflex.