Male shad are showing up in the lower Umpqua — it’s just the beginning of the shad run. Best bets are 5-6 weight rods, sink tips with shad flies. Both the Coos Bay and Lower Umpqua Systems are producing solid numbers of fish. Be sure to check out this great fishery. Tony Torrence’s shad fly is a good pattern. Pack your coolers with these non-native fish for great halibut, sturgeon or crab baits.
Just a reminder, Trout Unlimited Chapter 678 will be at the Eugene Rogue Brewery tonight, showing fly fishing conservation films, FREE! Come on by, grab an Oregon microbrew and watch some new fishing movies. Beer and movies is what conservation is all about people. You don’t need to be a TU member — just show up. The event is tonight at 8pm, 844 Olive St, Eugene, OR 97401.
Yesterday, Dr. Lubchenco, head of the NOAA and Nancy Sutley who leads the White House Council on Environmental Quality came to Portland to discuss the latest salmon recovery plan for the Columbia basin with government scientists, state agencies and federal officials in a closed door meeting at the Double Tree Hotel in Portland and salmon activists were outside the hotel to greet them:
Also present at the meeting were representatives of the State Oregon, the only western state to oppose in the plan in court and representatives of the Nez Perce and Spokane tribes, the only stakeholder tribes to oppose the federal plan.
The new administration may offer hope for solving the crisis on the Columbia and notably the Snake River. As litigation drags on into its second decade and plan after plan has been rejected by the courts, the combatants in the Salmon War may be wearying and there is a glimmer of hope that the feds are open to real solutions. The tide may be turning in favor of the salmon, even as in progressive Portland, the Oregonian vigorously argues to preserve the failing status quo.
Scientists have consistently stated that breaching the four lower Snake River dams that violate federal clean water quality standards is the best hope for restoring the Columbia’s once prolific runs of wild spring/summer and fall chinook. This would provide adult fish easier access to some of the best and most underutilized habitat in the lower 48, the high Idaho wilderness areas. More importantly, breaching these dams would give smolts a fighting chance, up to 90% are killed trying to pass the hydrosystem.
Thus far, most Northwest politicians, notably our representative Peter DeFazio have resisted any attempt to examine the issue of dam breaching on the Snake. Peter DeFazio went so far as to go out of his way to kill a studies bill, the Salmon Economic Analysis and Planning Act , that would have directed the GAO to among other things examine the likely economic costs and benefits of breaching the four lower Snake River dams. In my experience when someone doesn’t want you to even ask the question they know and are afraid of the answer. Anyway, SEAPA is dead at least for now thanks in part to Congressman DeFazio’s efforts.
Save Our Wild Salmon, Sierra Club, Trout Unlimited and the rest of our coalition partners endorse a measured approach to breaching the four lower Snake River dams. The reason politicians and BPA administrators and politicians such as Peter DeFazio so stridently resist examination of this issue is they know exactly how fragile their arguments are:
1. We can’t replace these dams contribution to the regional grid.
Hogwash! These dams contribute around 1000 aMW, far less than nameplate capacity. That is not insignificant but it is also not irreplaceable. The Northwest has saved 3,700 mW since 1978 through efficiency measures, around 185 aMW annually. Energy conservation alone could render these dams contribution largely irrelevant in a period of a few years. But conservation isn’t our only option. The NW Energy Coalition has identified base load sources that could replace this power.
2. Conservation isn’t replacement. We need additional power sources.
True, and we have the energy resources to do this without the four lower Snake River dams. To meet our regional goals of a 15% reduction in carbon emission by 2020 and to save wild salmon in the Columbia we need to produce or save 4000 a MW to meet new demand, supply 500 aMW to power electric vehicles, replace 1000 a MW from the loss of the Snake River dams and retire 1000 a MW of coal fired generation. Total new demand by 2050 is estimated at around 20,000 aMW. In order to meet CO2 goals we will have to retire the entire coal generated portion of the grid and generate an additional 20,ooo aMW meaning we will need 25,600 aMW in new clean power by 2050. It sounds daunting but . . .
Bottom Line: The Northwest has over 81,000 aMW in identified clean energy potential, a number that dwarfs both existing and projected demand. In that context, 1000 aMW are a drop in the bucket.
3. Global Warming.
See the paragraph above. For more information see the brief Bright Future synopsis or download the full report here.
4. We need the ancillary benefits, flood control, barge transportation and irrigation these dams provide.
Nope. First of all, these are run of the river dams that provide little flood control. Additionally, sediment is piling up behind Lower Granite dam which will require either massive dredging at enormous cost or Lewiston will have to raise its levees ending up below reservoir level, an unappealing prospect in many ways including from a flood hazard perspective. As we’ve seen in smaller scale dam removal projects, water for can be supplied by pumps. Area farmers could transport their product to market by rail. Heck, I’d be willing to subsidize them if it meant these dams coming down.
The evidence is clear and convincing. The only question now is whether we cling to a failing status quo as the wild salmon of the Snake slide toward extirpation or do we confront the challenges of the future head on? I know where Trout Unlimited, Save Our Wild Salmon and our coalition partners stand on that question and soon we will see where the Obama administration stands as well.–KM
Two fly winner Clifton Molatore was at Diamond Lake this weekend and had the following report. Thanks Clifton, keep them coming.
I fished Diamond Lake Friday evening with my father and four year old daughter. We started fishing about 4:30 p.m. and fished until about 8:00 p.m. We trolled brown bead head woolly buggers with a fair amount of flash. We had consistent action all evening (and still had consistent action when we left) and landed seven fish. We lost at least that many and couldn’t figure out whether the fish just weren’t biting hard, or we were incompetent fishermen (the likely case). Most of the fish were about 14 inches, with three between 16 and 18 inches. My daughter caught her first fish all by herself and we witnessed an osprey take a fish about 30 feet from the boat, only to have a bald eagle chase the osprey and cause it to drop the fish. While the fishing wasn’t red hot, we had enough action to never be bored and I would recommend getting down to Diamond Lake if you can.
Lou, Caddis shop employee/guide visited Christmas Island last week, along with a group of four, in the Republic of Kirbati. Christmas Island is known for bonefishing and the pursuit of Giant Trevally. The neat thing about bonefishing is that it tests just about everything involved in fly fishing; vision, casting, knot tying, fly tying, and equipment: drags, rods, lines, fanny packs, and hooks!
Christmas Island is one of the best bone fishing destinations in the world for both beginning and advanced saltwater fly fishing on endless flats, with remarkable numbers of cruising bonefish and trevally. Christmas Island is said to be, if not the largest, one of the largest atolls in the world. The flats are so large or long it’s not uncommon to fish all day and never see another group!
Christmas Island also offers great offshore fishing, catching tuna, wahoo, and billfish. Our hosts were Ikari House. This is a newer lodge on Christmas Island. Ikari House has a great staff, great guides, air conditioned rooms, complete with private baths, and great meals each day.
Lou kept a log each day and here are the key events and stats for each day for the group.
Day I
Guides: English, Ray and Tookey
Flats fished; 9 mile, Ikari House Secret Spot, Elena, and Ren
Conditions: Slight Breeze, scattered clouds, water & air temp 80
Bones caught: 84
Bones lost; 53
*Toasted: 4
Flies used; George Bush, Xmas Island Special, Marabou Shrimp, “the worm”
Equipment issues; Frayed leaders, bent hooks
Angler Issues; Line around wrists, other body parts and reel seats; encounter with small reef shark.
General Comments; Awesome weather, fishing, even the Aussie Beer tastes good, PR day for Marc…..and it’s only Day 1! Six more to go…
Day 2
Bones Caught; 75
Bones lost; 27
Toasted; 1
Flats Fished; Orvis, 9 mile, elena, go like hell, and Ikari Secret Spot
Conditons; same as yesterday
Flies Used; Marabou Shirmp, Xmas Island Special, pearl and yellow
General comments; Trevally!…just another day, 3 doubles at Ikari Secret Spot.
Day 3
Flats Fished; Paris, Whisper, Smokey, Ikari Secret Spot, Big Eddy
Conditions; most windy today & many clouds
Bones Caught; 45
Bones lost; 28
Toasted; 3
General comments; Trevally for Lou and Wink, two anglers blue water fishing for half of the day, barracuda and trevally caught while trolling out to flats.
Day 4
Flats fished; Paris, Why Sight, Pancake Flats, Ikari Secret Spot
Conditions; tough wind today! not as cloudy
Bones Caught; 47
Bones Lost; 27
Toasted; 3
General comments; 3 travally caught, saw tuna chasing bait fish, large schools of bones at Paris flat observed.
Day 5
Flats fished; Paris, Texas, Big Eddy, Barry Rob, Ryan
Conditions; cloudy in the morning, afternoon good
Bones caught; 21
Bones lost; 23
Toasted; 3+
General comments; Lou had a 2/0 hook straighten by a trevally, 29 1/2′ bone caught by Hugh, 2 anglers blue water all day, 30 lb trally caught by Lou, est. 50lb trevally lost by Marc, Wink caught a nice skip jack and we had awesome sushi that night!
Day 6
Flats fished; Paris, Smokey, Texas, Whisper
Bones caught; 25
Bones lost; 14
Toasted; 0
General comments; Conditions were good. Large schools at Paris, many PR’s set for large bones, the schools had easily over 100 fish per school…all on the bite! It was windy, and casting into the wind was tough but very, very, rewarding!
*Toasted; both angler and reel screaming into backing, a very large fish heading for Australia, with no way of turning it back!
Another post later this week for Day 7 : The Grand Finale!
While the upper Mckenzie was heating up, the Middle Fork Willamette between Oakridge and Black Canyon was staying cold. That was the likely culprit, cold water. I’d have confirmed that but my William and Joseph Boat thermometer read 15.6 C most of the day whether it was in the water or out. On the bright side, since it stopped working completely I disassembled it and found a switch on the circuitboard and got it to not work in Fahrenheit–a definite improvement.
Todd Mullen, VP of Trout Unlimited 678 and I fished fairly hard from about 1:00 to 6:30 or so though it was readily apparent fishing was not going to be very productive. Todd, normally a fine and fishy angler reported one trout that looked like it wanted to scratch its back with his fly. As for me, I hooked one nice trout on a small brown soft hackle that I lost to too much slack in the line and I caught a 10 inch fish on a #8 Possie Bugger that hit in some really heavy water– as such, despite his small size he felt like a freight train.
I didn’t see a fish rise all day though it is only a matter of time. I saw a couple Green Drakes, Green Caddis, Rusty colored caddis and a bunch of midges.
The North Fork should be coming into good shape soon and when we shake off this late spring, the Middle Fork will definitely heat up. When that happens, I want to be there.–KM
Jon Hazelett’s Spey Casting Class was a big hit last weekend, with plenty of practical instruction, steelhead talk, and beautiful weather on the McKenzie River.
I joined Jon and a great group of fellow Spey anglers for the Saturday event, a perfect opportunity to tune my Double Spey and Snap-T casts. The day offered me an opportunity to catch up with Jon and bonus time to visit with several people I have met at fly fishing events over the last several years. I met Jon in 2003; fly fishing for Chinook on the Lower Rogue. Funny thing, though, I didn’t realize that I had met him until 2008, when I hired him as a guide on the upper Rogue and we started talking about the craziness of fly fishing for salmon.
There we were, floating down the Rogue in a party of three guide boats, enjoying a sunny day and trading fishing stories. Our conversation came around, as it inevitably does, to salmon fishing, and to a day on the lower Rogue when I had been showing my family where I had been fishing. As we watched a half-dozen Spey fishers who had staked out position in a productive riffle, I noticed a guy who had waded half-way across the river, spotting fish and directing the group’s casting over pods of Chinook moving upstream through the riffle. Wow, I thought, what a great system – all it took was one guy willing to sacrifice his fishing opportunity to maximize the opportunity for the rest of the group – altruism refined to new heights. The group was especially notable because it consisted of youngish men and women, all well equipped, all good casters, and a streamside chef who was grilling steaks for breakfast. Not your usual cast of characters on the lower Rogue.
Anyway, it was great to see Jon, a certified casting instructor, all-around great angler, and nice guy. And no, I’m not biased because Jon is a friend.
Now to the class. This was my first experience fishing floating lines. Wow.
I approached the river with a fair amount of confidence, a 15’ floating tip attached to my Skagit Head, and dumped a cast. Yuck. Dumped another cast. Must be the wrong head-weight for the rod (Winston 7123-4 B2MX), I thought. After all, this was my first day fishing this shiny new toy. I tried another head with the same floating tip. Same deal. I put on a different floating leader. Worse.
About this time, Jon had finished making his rounds with the guys and waded upstream to see what he could do to help me.
Find your anchor point, slow down, form a good D-Loop, and live with the 180 degree rule – he reminded me. Dump. He politely asked if he could try the rod/line combo. Drat. He was able to make respectable casts. But, thankfully, he suggested that I try out a Rio AFS floating line on the same rod. I had tried the AFS lines last year, with a heavy sink-tip, and had not been comfortable with the set-up. Jon patiently explained that the AFS lines were best fished dry, with a leader in the 3x rod-length range. Oh, I said – didn’t know that.
Jon put a 520 gr AFS line on the Winston and handed it back to me. Oh-my-gosh! This is how it’s supposed to feel! The same applied to my Dec Hogan 5122-4 – it performed far better with a full floating line than it did with a Skagit Head and floating tip. Turns out that everyone but me knew that Skagit Heads are best suited to fishing Sink-tips. If you want to fish shallow or skate dry flies, use a floating line! Duh. The Rio AFS and AirFlo Scandi Compact heads are a little longer and have considerable taper, in contrast to the shorter, blocky Skagit heads.
My classmates fished a variety of rods including the Echo Dec Hogan, Sage VT2, Sage Z-Axis, and Winston B2X and B2MX. Several of us cast a great little Sage Z-Axis Switch rod (6110-4) that cast like a dream.
We started the day casting from river-right with a slight upriver breeze, but with Jon’s guidance, our Double Spey worked as if it was dead calm, and our confidence level grew as we worked out the kinks. Jon worked his way from caster to caster, helping each of us learn or improve our Spey skills and reinforcing fundamentals.
Lunch on the river was a great combination of munchies and fishing stories. Fly size, line mending, time of day, hook setting, shooting lines, grabs that never quite stick, and sneak-peaks at each-other’s fly boxes made the lunch break zoom by. Jon told a great joke about how he conceived a different name for the Snap-T. Twenty minutes later, I finally got it and laughed out loud. Then the rest of the guys laughed at me for being so slow on the uptake. The joke? Never mind. You had to be there.
Jon made a show of donning a BEAVER hat before shuttling us downriver to a gravel island for the afternoon session. The breeze picked up a notch. We spread out on both sides of the island and had the choice of an upriver, in-your-face wind on the main-river side, or an upriver over-the-shoulder wind that was about the nicest assist I have ever had for a Snap-T. This water even looked like it could hold a steelhead. A few of us shifted our attention to rock hounding as we strolled up the gravel bar – and were rewarded with several nice agates and a piece of petrified wood. River booty!
We ended the day with a brisk upriver run in Jon’s 18’ V-Hull jet sled and de-wadered in the shade at Armitage Park. Hand-shakes, hugs, exchanged flies, and promises to see each other again soon. A great day on the river. And now I know that ya can’t just add a floating tip to a Skagit head and expect to fish dry flies. Oh well – I do love buying tackle.
-Jay Nicholas
Today we took our first trip above McKenzie Bridge on the upper river, expecting high water and decent nymphing. But almost immediately into the drift (starting at Paradise Campground) trout were on top, chasing the indicator, so we switched to a hopper-dropper with a golden stone and a possie bugger. We had freelance writer Crai Bower with us in the boat, who was working on an assignment about outdoor adventures between Eugene and Bend. Crai claimed to be a novice, but managed to hook two fish on a single drift, and had the big redside for the day. We floated from 10am to 1pm, didn’t see much insect activity, but had lots of active trout for the five mile float.
-MS
I took my boat out for a spin in Florence last Sunday but instead of running the cool waters of the Siuslaw, I was runnin asphalt and picking my way through road apples from Parade Ponies. It was the 102nd Rhody Parade in Florence and I entered my rig and boat to spread the gospel of fly fishing and drift boats in the name of Trout Unlimited – McKenzie River Chapter… or maybe I was just tired of high cold water and fishless outings on the “mac”. I had anglers in my boat – Matt, Katie, and little Paul Stansberry rowed the boat and fought a rather large Rhody Redside for over two hours before finally bringing the fish to hand. When we netted the brute, it actually resembled a spawned out Salmon (must have been the 85 degree heat and the 30 mph winds). My bad. A good time was had by all. And the people said… “Fish On”.
-Greg Hatten
Oregon Trout Unlimited has secured a major legislative priority for the 2009. Senate Bill 571 will make “bucket biology” aka “jackassery” a Class C Felony and convicted bucket biologists will lose their fishing privileges for five years.–KM
From the desk of Tom Wolf:
Oregon TU members-
SB 571A has just passed unanimously in the Oregon House-after already passing unanimously in the Senate . So now all it is waiting for is the Governor’s signature.
Passing a bill like SB 571A-which would stiffen penalties for illegally introducing non-native fish in Oregon waters and allowing the ODFW Commission to recover restitution costs, has been a major goal of the Oregon Council for over 12 years.
This bill should help deal with the problem we have in Oregon(and other states) to deal with the “bucket biology” attempts of people to put non-native fish in our waters. The most famous case is Diamond Lake , where the introduction of tui chub, has cost the state millions of dollars to fix. There have been many other cases such as Crane Prairie, Davis Lake and many others.
Thanks to all the TU members who helped, the Oregon Conservation Network for their support ,and the leadership of many legislators such as Senator Dingfelder, Senator Prozanski, Rep. Clem and others.
This is a great victory-due to the hard work of many people. Tom
Tom Wolf, Chair
Oregon Council Trout Unlimited
Deschutes River:Tom just got done fishing a week at Trout Creek to Maupin, very little surface action, but lots of big fish on golden stone nymphs and caddis pupa under a dropper, little green copper johns, possie bugger in size 14-16. Dry fly fishing might pick up in a couple weeks.
Cascade Lakes: Little Lava is open, but the road is closed at Little Lava. Diamond Lake and Lost Lake have been producing nice fish.
In order to give shade-producing, soil-holding native plants a chance, Trout Unlimited Chapter 678 adopted 100 yards of blackberry bramble three years ago in Alton Baker. Last night volunteers came out to dig out blackberry regrowth and mulch and water our native trees and shrubs. Thank you for everybody who came out — great night on the river and at McMenamin’s North Bank afterward. Click this link to sign up for future email newsletters from our TU chapter. Next event is Thurs 5/28. We’ll be watching fly fishing/conservation movies at Eugene City Brewery. Come on out for a free movie night and drink some beer with us.
-MS
Water temperatures are on the rise and water levels are dropping on the McKenzie River. Finally!! The river is fore-casted to continue to drop and be at a more historical “normal” level by early next week. Currently mid-day fishing remains best by dropping weighted nymphs deep off the indicator. Yesterday around 3pm I started to see decent numbers of our green McKenzie Caddis. Fishing should continue to improve throughout the river.–CD
The pit falls of a two fly set up!
The lower McKenzie near Eugene continues to improve. Yesterday an excellent emergence of Pale Morning Duns had fish eating swung soft hackles and Possie Buggers. Nymphing was also effective.
Today the nymphing proved to be the most productive tactic. Bright windy conditions caused most adult insects to blow off the water rather quickly. The really good news about today is that there were good numbers of big Green McKenzie Caddis around. The fish were’nt going bonkers for them but it is only a matter of time.–CD
Last weekend, I spent precious fishing time chasing the two most frustrating species in Oregon on the fly rod: Carp and surf perch. For whatever reason, I’m perfectly fine with a tough day on salmon or steelhead, but there’s something about these two that just drive me to drink.
Friday morning we woke before dawn to chase carp around Eugene’s finest slackwater. Mist on the water, carp on the move – big suckers, sticking their Wilfred Brimley-lookalike faces out of the water, launching themselves like humpback whales clear out of the pond, tailing in the shallows. Basically, there were carp everywhere and we couldn’t buy a bite.
We crept, we snuck, we crouched. Stripped slow. Tried San Juan worms, possie buggers, Jean-Paul’s specials.
It just galls me that these things are smarter than I am. And they’ll continue to be into the future. I’m never going to be John Montana, I’m too much of a hack. Give me dumb trout any day.
Then Saturday I fished from the beach for surf perch in Bandon – under what you could call ideal conditions. Small surf, manageable wind for the coast, 70 degrees. In fact, there were supposed to be so many perch in the surf, that there was a surf perch DERBY going on around town.
So there I am, wet-wading in the Pacific Ocean up to my waist, throwing my shoulder out casting a switch rod over the swells, using essentially a 9-weight rod for 2lb fish. I fished hard, with confidence (considering the derby and the fact that I thought my fly was pretty hot).
But it doesn’t take long for that sinking feeling to creep in when you’re casting on the beach, and your arm gets tired. You look at all that beach, and realize that if there isn’t a goddamn perch within 20 feet of where you’re standing, you’re pissing up a rope because your line is landing in a pile in front of you.
I quit after a wind-blasted backcast buried a stainless steel hook in my eyebrow.
I’m not saying I’m done fishing for these species. Just that I’m not going to spend any more marital goodwill chasing them right now.
-MS
