Hands too cold to get the tippet through the eye of those tiny size 20 BWOs? This magnetic tippet threader might be the best $10 you ever spend on something hanging off your fly vest. Check out the video demo.
Pick up your own 20/20 Magnetic Tippet Threader at CaddisFlyShop.com.
The Mckenzie River Wooden Boat festival is this Saturday at Eagle Rock Lodge. This is a great chance to get out and see for yourself the history, evolution and present of these nimble, stable, beloved boats.! This show is a fantastic display of the huge gift that the fishermen of the Mckenzie River gave to the world of flyfishing!
At the show you will get to see not only the past but the present of wooden driftboats and how they remain relevant today. Many of the region’s top-builders will be there including the guys from Ray’s River Dories, Tatman Wooden Boats, Mckenzie River Driftboats, and others. I believe that the guys from Montana Boat Builders are coming all the way from Big Sky Country. I think though they’ll probably leave the stich-and-glue boat at home and bring a traditional framed Mckenzie boat. We’ll see . . . .
The Mckenzie River driftboat evolved for fishing the big waters of the Mckenzie. In 1925 Guide Veltie Pruitt built the first very light board and batten driftboat that began to resemble the modern driftboat. Later, Tom Kaarhus was the first to convert to plywood. These Mckenzies were square sterned boats (the square end was downstream) and the upstream end was pointed. It was left to Woody Hindman to build the double ender in the winter of 1939-40 that he converted to the final basic design of the modern driftboat we all love with squared of transom and the pointed downstream end in 1946. For a brief history of the evolution of the craft see Roger Fletcher’s site.
Don’t miss it! Go and and see some historic boats built by the legendary pioneers in river boat design and celebrate our region’s huge contribution to fly fishing throughout the world!
Oh, and make sure to sign up for our Sharkskin Fly Line Giveaway through May 1, 2008.
The Middle Fork of the Willamette remained at a fishable level today despite all the rain we’ve had over the past few days. Although not as clear as usual, the river did have decent visibility, especially below the North Fork confluence. Most of the fish we caught were on stonefly imitations. Kaufmans Stone and Tungsten Rubber legged stone in both golden and brown were productive fished near the bottom under a “Thingamabobber” strike indicator. 
As the day “warmed” up a bit around 2pm numerous bugs emerged. March Browns, Caddis and Blue Winged Olives were present during the 2-4pm window. We did have decent dry fly fishing in softer water below riffles. Best patterns were Hackle Stacker Flag Dun Adams sizes #14-16, March Brown Parachute #14, and Peacock Caddis #16.
Both the Mckenzie and Willamette are experiencing some of the coldest water temperatures for this time of year that anyone can remember. Look for things to blow up when we get temps up around 50 degrees on a consistent basis.
Sign up now for our Sharkskin fly line giveaway contest.
Scientific Anglers new Sharkskin fly line does put a dent in the wallet but it is well worth it.
We started using this line in earnest this January for winter steelhead. Fishing the Umpqua I had ice in my guides yet the line remained perfectly straight, and lacked the memory of other lines.
Another great feature of this line is the way it facilitates feeding line out of the rod. Because of a micro-replicated surface, it feeds out of the guides with greater ease than any line I have ever used. When fishing down stream dry flies or nymphs, “micro drag” is eliminated if you can feed your line smoothly, the Sharkskin excels at the downstream feed tactic. In addition the line has a super small welded loop, making a looped leader connection easy, and the small size limits line/leader hang up in the guides.
The Chain Effect:
The micro-replicated surface in Sharkskin lines gives actual points where the line can bend or flex without cracking. An additional benefit is the structure also relaxes or relieves memory of the line to give an anti-tangle effect, which improves shootability and line control.
Wear on Guides?
According to extensive testing by 3M on fly lines and wear on guides, Sharkskin has shown to wear less on guides than other leading fly line manufactures. Furthermore, the material used to make guides matters more to the longevity of your line than anything.
Fly Line Stretch:
Over a 100 foot span of line, stretched with 500 grams of force the difference between Rio Gold, Cortland 555, SA Mastery Trout, SA Sharkskin was less than 1 foot of stretch. Interestingly, Aiflo was shown to stretch the most at 1.8 feet, with Cortland, Rio, Mastery trout, and Sharkskin stretching between just under 1 and 1.2 feet comparatively.
Flotation:
Current top end fly lines including, Rio, Airflo, and SA float half in and half out of the water. You can also think of this a percentage of fly line floating out of the water. In this case 50% of the line is out of the water. 3M has purchased a machine that can measure the angle of the line to the water, or contact angle. In the case of Sharkskin, when this contact angle is expressed as a percentage of line floating out of the water; it consistently tests out at a contact angle of 130, equating to 72% of the line out of the water. Micro replication is a phenomenon found in nature, such as the pad’s on Water Skipper’s feet (do Water Skippers have feet?), and has been emulated in the Sharkskin series of fly lines for supreme flotation.
Now for the contest: We will be drawing, at random, one winner from the comments on this post (and others) between now and May 1st to giveaway one of these Sharkskin lines. We’re going to put all the email addresses in a boot and pull one out. One comment will be counted per person. Saying something intelligent isn’t necessarily required, but it’d be nice.
Pick up your Sharkskin Fly Line at CaddisFlyShop.com.
Cold water, slow fishing — seems about right for the annual Trout Unlimited Chapter 678 spring outing on the Lower McKenzie. We braved hail and high water to bring you this video. We hope you like it.
It’s no secret we faced adverse conditions on the Mckenzie River Sunday April 20–cold temeratures, snow, rain, hail, wind, and frigid water. The river temperature at Vida topped out at 45 and started the day at 41. We floated from Hayden Bridge to Armitage. Mid-afternoon there was a decent hatch of March Browns in those fleeting moments when the sun peeked through the clouds but any fish of decent size was feeling to sluggish to move. Unlike what was observed upriver the caddis had gone into hiding (along with most fisherman). If there was one good thing about the weather, the gore-tex hatch was about as slow as the fishing.
We picked up small fish on dries when the mayflies were around other than that we tried Possie Buggers, Prince Nymphs, big wiggly legged Stones, and Hares Ears, picking off a few small fish but nothing to brag about. We persevered and Brent got into a couple of nice fish near the end of the day and drift. Both trout ate a big Mega-Prince fished near the bottom:
This native redband put up a solid fight before coming to hand. A couple minutes later Brent picked this nice native cutthroat:
After the second fish we declared victory and got off the water. We’ll always be able to say we fished the great blizzard of April 2008.
As of this writing both the lower Mckenzie and the Middle Fork below the North Fork remain at fishable levels. That could change really quickly though so keep an eye on the levels or call the shop for a report.
Mother nature dished it all out Sunday on the McKenzie River for Caddis Fly employee/guide Lou Verdugo and Jason Mariner. Hail, snow, wind, rain, and and some sun, greeted them during the day from Dearhorn to Bellinger. March Browns were on the surface with plenty of caddis from 2:00pm to 4:00pm. However, the Possie Bugger and the March Brown Wet, Coachman style were busy below the surface for some nice redsides.
Tied in classic wet fly style, this early season fly is best fished down and accross on a tight line swing. When there are emerging March Browns on the river, this fly fishes very well in tandem with other March Brown nymphs or adults — a killer pattern on the McKenzie and Willamette. Golden Pheasant tippets and hares ear are two fish catching ingredient to any fly. You can consider this pattern a “drab” version of a Royal Coachman Wet. Fish it behind a dry all year long and you will have success.
The detail on this video is a lot better than some of our previous efforts. Check it out.
March Brown Wet
Hook: TMC 3761 #12,14
Thread: Uni 6/0 or 8/0 brown or tan
Tail: Golden Pheasant Tippets
Rib: Copper Wire
Body: Hare’s Ear or Possum fur
Hackle: Brown Hen
Wing: Wooduck or Dyed Wooduck Mallard
The section of the Willamette River between Island Park in Springfield and Division ave in North Eugene dubbed the “Town Run” is showing some promise for both Steelhead and trout. Very underated for it’s trout fishing the Willamette in town does get a nice March Brown hatch as well as other insects anglers are used to seeing on the Mckenzie. Currently the water is in great shape, making the area around Valley River Center and Alton Baker park very wadable. Steelhead counts over Willamette falls are encouraging for this time of year and a few fish have been caught in the “town run”. With snow in the hills this morning it might not be a bad idea to stay local for that 1-4pm hatch period. The “town run” or the lower Mckenzie, both right in our backyard offer the angler that opportunity. Stay warm and good luck.
That water is cold this time of year, better get your waders patched up. If you’ve got a pair of Simms or other Gore-Tex based waders, you need to watch this video to see how to repair leaks. By the way, you may notice the video production is getting a little better — you asked for it, we’re working on it. The trick is to really douse those things in alcohol, and the way my waders smell after a long winter steelhead season, a good antiseptic bath can’t hurt.
This week, the Oregon Council of Trout Unlimited launched a new blog. It’s a communications tool and publishing outlet for the state’s five (well five and-a-half) TU chapters. There’s a great post from TU State Council Chair Tom Wolf on the organization’s 2009 legislative agenda.
Karl and Matt are onboard as contributors — stay tuned for Oregon fisheries conservation news.
Earlier this month, we got an email from Pete, one of the Caddis Fly’s customers, about an awesome fish story. Check out the email, pasted below with a photo.
Hey guys, my name is Pete C. and I’m a regular customer at the Caddis Fly in Eugene for the last eight years. I just wanted to drop a quick line to say thank you for the absolutely professional and courteous help you’ve offered me over the years. I have been assisted with numerous purchases including two rods, a reel, waders, boots, and countless flies, fly-tying materials, boxes, gloves, and great conversation. I have gradually become a more successful fly fisherman, including steelhead, bull trout, brown trout, and beautiful rainbow trout throughout Oregon’s scenic and ahh- inspiring fisheries- in large part to simple discussions about entomology and fish behavior at your store. So, with that being said I wanted to share a super cool fish story…
The first week in March, my brother and I went to the Hileman tributary of the main stem Willamette off river road close to where I live. It was partly sunny, around 60 degrees- the warmest day of year. We had some success on caddis emergers- I made my way upstream and found a sweet riffle diving into a large holding pool where I landed a couple nice rainbows on the same pattern. Then out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a fish slurp a mayfly of the surface, then another- so I casted my dry fly caddis emerger to it and on the second cast I hooked in to a 30 inch 8 lb hatchery steelhead with my four weight Sage 490i rod and tapered 5x tippet line!! 20 min. later I landed it and took these pictures!!! Sweet!!!! Thanks for all your help and annual free beer!!
Do you have a sweet fishing story or photo? Email us and we’ll put it on the blog.
The Matthews xcaddis will be great on the McKenzie River or Willamette when things start to warm up this spring and the blizzard caddis hatches are coming off. The caddis colors on the McKenzie vary from olive to gray, so tie this in multiple colors.
This fly sits really flush in the surface and the tail looks like the shuck of the bug leaving the water.
Matthews X-Caddis Pattern:
Hook: TMC 100 size 14-18
Thread: Uni 8/0 to match body
Tail: Z-lon or Antron yarn
Body: Tan or Olive dry fly dubbing
Wing: High quality yearling elk or deer hair
The past couple of days on the Mckenzie have been bone chilling. 45 degree water temps and 40-48 degree air temps that have felt like 35, have slowed fishing down compared to the prior week. On Sunday the river rose to over 5500cfs at Vida. It finally leveled off this Monday but things have yet to get back to ideal. This morning we had an ominous sign pictured below.
We did have a nice March Brown hatch and managed to get a few fish. Then the weather got really good.
Sheets of rain and hail pounded on us. Ron Mosher utilizes the “Alaska survival mode” position in the shot above. When things would break, good numbers of March Browns, Blue Winged Oives and a few caddis would dot the surface. Today’s hatch was much better than Mondays. As most of the weather cleared out we finally found what we came for.
Look for things to get better on the Mckenzie as the week warms up. The river appears to be on a steady drop and a couple of warmer days will do wonders for the fishing.
