Jurassic Lake. For stillwater anglers, the name conjures up images of T-Rex sized trout. This huge high desert lake in Argentina is home to the world’s craziest, freak-show huge rainbows you’ll ever see. Unfortunately, it takes a gut-busting day long drive to get in there (and that’s after you get to Argentina).
Friend of the shop, Justin Mitchell just got back and sent us the following photos.
Email us for more info on Jurassic Lake.
Last week the Cascade Family Flyfishers hosted author Dave Hughes for an evening of in-depth bug talk. Dave is a serious devotee of the McKenzie River, and it shows. The evening of his presentation, we met for dinner at the Steelhead Brewery with a few officers from the club. After the customary pleasantries, a nice lady asked me what I thought about hatchery trout in the McKenzie. I laid out my vision for a wild McKenzie. “Oh, I would just hate to see all the hatchery fish removed,” she said. “I’m just afraid that kids wouldn’t be able to catch fish without them. Kids need to catch fish to stay interested.” This sweet woman didn’t really deserve the barrage that ensued as I got on my soap box. Dave thought long and hard about the conversation over the following days and surprised me with the following letter, addressed to all McKenzie anglers:
“There are far more river systems in Oregon that have been degraded beyond the possibility of recovery than there are systems that could be restored to a natural state. The McKenzie River is a rare, recoverable stream, world famous for its native redside rainbow trout.
It’s critical to give kids opportunity to catch trout. Stockers serve this purpose by their abundance and catchability. If money is to be spent raising trout, it is not unwise to spend it on giving kids an opportunity to learn to fish. When those kids learn to fish, they will naturally gravitate toward wanting to fish in what I will call ‘real’ circumstances: they’ll grow the desire to leave stocked trout behind and fish in wild circumstances, for wild fish, for bigger fish, for less easy fish.
It is a given, through studies done by Jim Vincent in Montana among others, that planting hatchery trout in streams that would support wild trout is deleterious to the wild trout. So it would seem wisest to plant trout in degraded waters, and in stillwaters with little natural spawning potential, and to give kids opportunities in those waters that will, in truth, not be harmed by planted trout. There are an abundance of such waters in proximity to the McKenzie River.
It would also be wise to save the wild places that can be saved. If we don’t save them, our kids will advance through their fishing lives finding that all places are degraded places, that all fishing is the same degraded fishing for hatchery trout.
There are very few places left with the potential to be valued wild places. If we choose not save them, then those kids we have delivered into a desire to pursue fishing will not have the option of wild places in which to pursue it.”
-RR
Dave Hughes will be at the Caddis Fly Shop on February 27th.
ODFW’s Inland Sport Fishing Advisory Committee (ISFAC) is meeting in Springfield next Monday night (2/8/10), and reducing or removing hatchery trout from the McKenzie River is on the agenda for discussion. The ISFAC was formed last year to help ODFW implement its 25-year Angling Enhancement Plan, and a big component of that plan is to increase trout stocking around the state. It is very important for as many anglers as possible to show up in support of wild fish.
The next meeting will be 2/8/2010 in Springfield, OR at the 162nd Infantry Regiment Readiness Center, Room 147 from 6-9 pm. The address is 3106 Pierce Parkway, Springfield, 97477.
Mark your calendars. This is your chance to show ODFW support for our native fish stocks.
-MS
The lower McKenzie River is fishing well with nymphs and is on the verge of it’s annual March Brown emergence. Blue Winged Olives are hatching daily and the March Brown nymphs we have sampled have been very mature. Water temperatures today, a rather cold and nasty one, reached 46 degrees. Showers and warming daytime highs should improve fishing on the lower river this week.
For your go to nymphs use, Mega Princes, Hogan’s Clinger, and Pheasant Tail Bead Heads. Blue Winged Olive patterns include, Tilt Winged Duns, Sparkle Duns and Quigley’s Hackle Stacker Flag Dun all in size #18. Swinging wet flies always works well this time of year, check out Blooms Soft Hackle Brown and Quigley’s Faux Hauk.–CD
Kathy McCartney sends us this report from her recent trip to Belize. Kathy is a veteran to Belize and is happy to assist with with information if anglers have a trip in mind. Send us an email if you have questions.–CD
San Pedro, Belize, January 13, 2010
It was cold and windy the day I caught this bonefish. Tarpon flats were turned over with a north wind so permit and tarpon fishing were out. We saw a group of bones from a little road we were on in our golf cart. The wading in to fish was ankle to knee deep in sucky muck in most places, but worth the effort. With tailing bonefish and some good cruisers around, we had plenty of shots and hookups. Keeping the back casts high to clear the thick mangroves all the while keeping an eye out for sea-going crocodiles. The sea-going crocs nest in the mangroves in the spring and there were 5 crocs (Bad Boy, Big Willie, etc. – the locals have them named) up to 14 feet in length known to inhabit the area that we were fishing. Good fishing sometimes requires some creative effort and apparently, the crocs had already eaten that day! Thank God!
2010 is looking like a low water year, we look for early opportunities around the state. We have slated a variety of classes, seminars, guided trips, entertainment, and of course our third annual two fly tournament.
Pre Season Guided Trip Special, February and March Only
Back by popular demand we are offering a two person half day guided fly fishing trip for $250.
Introduction to Fly Tying Class Feb 8th 2010
Class is five consecutive Mondays from 6-8pm. We provide everything and expect zero experience. Class focus is on basic instruction and local patterns.
Call the shop or book online cost is $55
The Drake Fly Fishing Film Tour
Where: The Shed 868 High Steet Eugene
When: February 16th 2010 Doors Open 6:30pm show ant 7:00pm
Tickets: Online at the film tours site $14, at the door $15 or at the shop for $12.00
A Day with Dave Hughes: Trout Fishing Seminar
Where: The Shop 168 West 6th Eugene
When: February 27th 2010 9am-3pm
Fee: $50 maximum 20 persons
Book signing open to all 4pm-5pm.
Spey Casting Class March 6th 9am-4pm 2010
George Cook and Jon Hazlett on the same stage. This class for beginners or advanced casters promises to be a blast. Excellent instructors with vast experience and an entertaining approach. Bring your own rod or try one of the new weapons on hand. Lunch included $150. Call the shop to book, 541 342 7005.
Introduction to Fly Fishing Class
Get started fly fishing with a casting focused 6 hour course. We’ve held a form of this class for over 30 years now. No gear or experience needed. Cost $55
Dates for 2010: March 26,27 April 21,22,23 May 19,20,21 June 23,24,25 July 14,15,16 August 18,19,20 September 15,16,17 Oct 15,16.
Book Online or Call the shop to reserve your spot.
McKenzie River Two Fly Tournament: This will be our third annual event to raise funds for McKenzie River Trust. This years event falls on Saturday Sept 25th 2010. Check out the 2009 event summary. And reserve your spot for 2010.–CD
I have this friend, see, who’s on the verge of committing to year-long, exclusive use of a fly rod. He loves to fly fish for trout. You should see his eyes sparkle when he talks about fly fishing for sea-run cutthroat: Daybreak mist on the water, silvery streaks exploding on his fly.
But when winter steelhead season rolls around, he looses confidence in the fly rod. Out come the eggs and spinners. He wants to catch fish, he says, as if that was sufficient to conclude the discussion.
But now he’s teetering on the edge, seriously exploring the option of fishing flies for winter steelhead. He asked for my advice. Here’s what I said, abbreviated.
Dead-drifting usually involves using some sort of nymph or egg pattern, fished under a strike indicator, trying to achieve a drift-speed about the same as the river current. Whether you believe that winter steelhead feed actively or not, they do take stuff into their mouths, and sometimes they even swallow. Curiosity? Aggression? Hunger? Who knows? That discussion is topic for future story-telling and conjecture.
Nymph and egg patterns totally rock wherever steelhead are concentrated in sweet spots because you can put your fly right on Mr. Steelhead’s nose. Side-drifting flies under a Thingmabobber is effective when prospecting long river reaches from a driftboat, because you can let your fly drift alongside the boat, guiding your fly into areas where you think steelhead are most likely to lay. This is how a lot of guides fish eggs, and it’s also a most excellent technique for fly fishing.
Winter steelhead will, on occasion, eat every type and size of nymph they encounter. Big stoneflies; little mayflies; cased or swimming caddis – they eat ‘em. So your flies can be the same nymphs you fish for trout, or you can draw attention to them with a fluorescent bead.
Egg-style flies are also effective and there are a zillion different egg patterns out there. Some of these flies are little, some are big; some are designed to look like an egg, some are simply a bright colored blob of some sort. I tend to fish larger egg patterns flies in murky water and smaller eggs in clear water. Fish a nymph and an egg on the same leader (if it’s legal).
My favorites include the glo bug, lowly glowly, trilogy egg, and the Strung Out Fat Albert. The Thingmabobber is an effective, easy to use strike indicator and fishes well.
Jay Nicholas posted his response to this question recently on his Blog, Fishingwithjay.wordpress.com. You can view it if your curiosity is piqued, if you have an opinion one way or the other, or if you just want to see some of salmon art.
http://fishingwithjay.wordpress.com/category/salmon-conservation-issues/
CD
If you want to make great looking collars for steelhead flies, you need to fold your hackle. Tying the feathers in from the tip, and wrapping them forward, Jay shows you the best way to create great looking patterns.
Jay Nicholas has been demonstrating his fly tying tips and fly tying materials selection for us down at the shop, so look for lots of new videos with Jay.
Looking for something to do with those hatchery steelhead? Here is Barrett’s smoked fish recipe:
Brine:
1/3 cup salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
6 cloves peeled garlic crushed
3 tbsp. ginger fresh grated
Juice of one fair sized lime
3 tbsp. high quality soy sauce or tamari
1/4 tsp. cayenne (optional)
1 qt. water
I remove all the bones (both pin and rib bones)with a needle nose pliers.
Slice the fillets into the size pieces your family uses (about 2 in. for my crew). Don’t forget local libations.
I use a gallon Ziploc bag to soak as many fillets as will fit (usually half of a salmon/steelhead or 10 hatchery trout)for 24 hours in the fridge.
I then set the fillets on the racks of my electric smoker to air dry for about a half hour. When the fillets look tacky I put the rack in the smoker, I use apple or cherry wood to smoke my fish but there are a lot of options, almost all are good. 4-6 hrs later I remove the racks of fish and allow a hour to cool to room temp.
Then you can vacuum seal for long term or Ziploc for short term storage. Enjoy freshly smoked or freeze to enjoy later in a myriad of recipes!–BC
Most of you have probably heard of The Drake’s Fly Fishing Film Tour. They’re coming to Eugene next month and offering a special rate for the shop. Ticket prices for this years event are $14 online at the film tour site, $15 at the door, and $12 at the shop — on sale now.
The show is scheduled for:
Tuesday February 16th
The Shed, 868 High Street
Doors @ 6:30 PM, Show @ 7:00PM
The show will run aprox 2.5 hours which includes a 20 minute intermission.
Be sure to check out s trailer for one of the new films they’re showing:
Dave Hughes, co-author of Western Hatches, author of Trout Flies, and 20 other titles will be at The Caddis Fly on Feb 27th.
Dave will be putting on a workshop on the Elements of Fly Fishing For Trout from 9am-3pm for $50/person, 20 person maximum. From 4pm-5pm Dave will be doing a book signing and tying demo, free and open to the public following.
Elements of Fly Fishing for Trout (a 4- to 5-hour workshop).
Includes the following three slide shows and a casting demonstration if space and weather permit.
Reading Trout Water: Learn to read water and find trout in creeks, streams, rivers, plus lakes and ponds. The initial skill in trout fishing is learning to focus your fishing in water where trout hang out, and to eliminate time wasted fishing water where they do not. Based on Dave’s books Reading Trout Water.
Selecting Trout Flies: Learn how to select the right type of fly—dry, emerger, nymph, wet fly, or streamer—for the situation you’re in: the type of water you’re fishing, and the naturals, or lack of them, that trout might be taking. Based on Dave’s books Handbook of Hatches, Trout Flies and Essential Trout Flies.
Tactics for Trout: Learn the most effective rigs, casts, and methods to present dry flies, nymphs, wet flies, and streamers to trout on waters moving and still. Based on Dave’s books Dry Fly Fishing, Nymph Fishing, and Trout Rigs and methods.
Casting Demonstration (weather permitting): Covers appropriate tackle selection for all types of trout fishing. Demonstrates the parts of the basic casting stroke, variations on the basic cast, and casts to apply the methods covered in the workshop. This is not a distance casting demonstration, rather a presentation of practical fishing casts that actually catch trout.
Dave Hughes: Dave is author of more than 20 books about fly fishing. They include the classic Western Hatches with Rick Hafele, American Fly Tying Manual, Handbook of Hatches, Reading Trout Water, Dry Fly Fishing, Nymph Fishing, and the massive reference Trout Flies. His latest book, published in 2009, is Nymphs for Streams and Stillwaters.
Call the shop to reserve your spot ASAP: 541-342-7005.
Although I did not have a thermometer yesterday afternoon the water temperature was “fish friendly” enough.
We spotted one March Brown, a couple of Winter Stones and a few Beatis. The only sipping on the surface was in very slow water.
The few fish we caught were on the Mega Prince, fished under a Thingamabobber about 6 feet.
The McKenzie did rise yesterday evening and had a steel gray green color to it. Look for it to drop during the next couple of days and for warm afternoons to be very productive. All indications are we are going to have a fine early trout season on the McKenzie and Willamette.–CD
Salmon “home” right? They find their way back home to the river, tributary and maybe even the gravel bar where they were spawned. In the case of hatchery fish, they home to their release location, right?
Well, yes and no. Homing by Pacific Salmon is crucial to the ability of these fish to develop genetic characteristics that have survival benefits, characteristics that improve their fitness, productivity, and ability to survive in different river basins. This is true.
It is also true, I think, that a certain amount of straying is essential to the survival of Pacific Salmon. If these fish did not – ever – stray from their home stream, there wouldn’t be anadromous fish in rivers that have been frozen under ice sheets, cooked by volcanoes, baked in drought, blocked by fire and landslides, and so on.
Pacific salmon are pioneers. But there is a balancing act between the benefits (to a locally adapted stock) of returning to a home stream versus the benefits (to the species) of venturing forth to some other river to spawn. This is not a conscious choice, I remind my friends who tend to anthropomorphize salmon and intuit their desires.
Some stocks of Pacific salmon do home very precisely to very local spawning areas. Sockeye salmon of an inlet race would survive very poorly if they spawned in an outlet river. I believe that some pink salmon stocks home to very spatially distinct reaches where they spawn near springs and braided channels. Cutthroat trout in Alaska, I understand, also home very precisely.
But we know that there is indeed a degree of straying in our lower 48 Pacific salmon stocks. Not enough that they all blend into one mass of indistinguishable genetic goo – but enough that it is a matter of interest and curiosity.
It is easier to track coded-wire-tagged hatchery fish than wild fish. Rogue Chinook wind up in the Klamath. Klamath coho wind up in the Rogue. Rogue half-pounders show up in The Elk. Chetco steelhead return to Elk River Hatchery. When they were in operation, private hatchery coho and Chinook roamed into many of the nearby watersheds instead of all returning to their home hatchery. I remember a year when several-thousand hatchery coho returned to Elk River instead of the Floras-New River system where they were stocked as smolts.
Keep your eyes open when you fish rivers where hatchery fish are not stocked. Make mental note when you catch a hatchery fish there. The Chinook pictured above is a hatchery buck that was not in its home river.
Pacific salmon and their home rivers are full of grace and wonder. I encourage you to observe the fish and think about how these ecosystems once functioned. Think about how hatchery and wild fish interact and how hatchery and wild fish factor into our fishing experience. Share your observations. Learn.
