New Oregon fly fishing blog

OregonFlyFishingBlog.comThis week The Caddis Fly shop in Eugene and the geniuses behind Oregon Outdoor Journal and One Mule Team joined forces to create an Oregon Fly Fishing Blog with river reports, fly tying tips and fly fishing adventure and disaster stories. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Video: Coastal cutthroat and steelhead fishing in Oregon

Couple guys dropping egg patterns on coastal cutthroat and native steelhead in Oregon's coast range. Close to home.

Agencies improve central Oregon coastal stream habitat

Newport News-Times reports that several agencies are teaming up to improve coastal stream habitat for anadromous fish on the Central Oregon coast. The Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife are teaming up with private land owners and watershed councils to fly large logs into the coast range watersheds with a helicopter.

The 100-foot logs will provide habitat and help create deep pools to support salmon, steelhead and sea-run cutthroat trout. Wood will be flown into the Beaver Creek Basin on North Fork Beaver Creek, Petersen Creek and Elkhorn Creek. Trees will also be placed in the Alsea Basin along Horse/Meadow Creek, Lobster Creek, Little Lobster Creek and Preacher Creek.

Pressure DeFazio on Snake River Dam study

Last week, the Eugene Register Guard published a letter from my bud Karl Mueller. Karl is advocating for a study of the dams on the Snake River, which Representative Peter DeFazio has declined to endorse. From Karl's letter:

Snake River sockeye are already extinct, as are Snake River coho. Snake River chinook continue an inevitable slide toward extinction, yet there is still time to act. A bill in Congress would fund nothing more than an objective study of the costs and benefits associated with these dams. It seems prudent to examine the situation and act on the basis of the best available information.

This bill has broad support in the House including the support of Rep. Earl Blumenauer. Rep. Peter DeFazio, who in his last campaign received $27,000 (one of his largest supporters) from a political action committee titled Action Committee for Rural Electrification National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, does not support the act. His position reeks of Bush-like special interest pandering.

Do your part and contact DeFazio and let him know where you stand on this issue.

In other Oregon Outdoor news, I was mauled by rampaging ground squirrels on top of Spencer's Butte yesterday. For the first time in my experience, wildlife outnumbered smarmy undergrads on the summit. The sound of the zipper on my camera case brought them in -- must sound a lot like a backpack full of cheez doodles opening.









Also, Big Al took me out to a sweet spot on the Middle Fork, above Dexter and Lookout reservoirs. Easy access, but tricky to get to. I'm not blowing this spot on a blog post, but it rocked. You have to go with me if you want to check this one out -- drop me a line. We hooked about ten fish apiece, landed only a couple, but that's a different issue. Bad hands yesterday. They were taking my Madam X, green -- once again proving my saying -- OREGON TROUT LOVE LEGS. I can't say it enough. I'm getting it on a T-Shirt.

We saw elk, a bald eagle and an otter. Check out the big image of the otter on Flickr.

We also caught some salmon -- little landlocked guys coming up from the reservoir -- really silver with a forked tail. They don't fight as hard as rainbows, but it's cool to see them. They're coming from the fish spawning up on the North Fork and higher on the Middle Fork.

Trailer-man is still holed up with his rottweiler at the confluence of Salt Creek and the Middle Fork. Forest Service still hasn't done anything about it.

Oregon outdoors weekend warriors

I've been back from Alaska two weeks, but I'm having a hard time getting back into the writing swing of things (both here and at work unfortunately). I am making my rounds on the Oregon Outdoors though. Over Memorial Day weekend, I managed to get out on a drift boat with Karl from TU 678 and we covered Helfrich to Ikes and slammed the stocked rainbows. Karl runs a mean drift boat -- wish I'd have had a camera. Most of the fish were up at the beginning of the run and I caught almost all of them on the Mega-Prince (favorite fly of 2007). The next day, the bear climbed over the mountain and so did me and Al. We were on a mission to actually use the Spring Bear tags we bought and we ran up and down every backroad in the Smith River drainage. We got out and wandered a few old logging roads, I made a few squeals on the predator call, but it was a pretty half-hearted attempt. Good times, mostly an excuse to get out of the house. We came out of the mountains in Elkton and tried to hook into the Umpqua Shad run, but nothing happening. Lots of folks out on the banks, but not as many as Al expected. No shad. Then Monday, Sarah and Wild Bill pulled some strings to get KP and I out onto the North Umpqua for a whitewater trip with Destination Wilderness.







Then this last weekend, Wild Bill and I escaped Eugene to check out the scene on the McKenzie on Friday night. We tried to do the run again that Karl and I did, in my inflatable kayaks. I seem to have forgotten how hard it is to fish out of those things. We did pick up some feisty stockers in a hole at the beginning of the run. I also managed to "test" my new SOSpenders -- see pic below.



We camped out at McKenzie Bridge that night. Pretty sad -- we forgot the beer and I burned my leg. The next morning we checked out Horse Creek though and that was really amazing. I'm pretty sure it's breeding/rearing habitat for the wild fish on the McKenzie. Bill and I caught three juvenile fish -- biggest one about 9 inches or so. We tried back on the McKenzie after that, but the fish weren't biting high up and the crowds were too bad down low.



Finally, yesterday I fished the North Fork of the Middle Fork Willamette with KP. I really need help with that river. It's one of my favorite places to fish but I haven't had a bite there. After getting discouraged on the NFMF we headed out to the confluence of Salt Creek and the Middle Fork and someone had set up a camper blocking access to the river and had 3 big agressive dogs loose that ran us off. I reported it to the Oakridge Police, but they said it was a Forest Service or Lane County Sheriff issue. We'll see if that gets cleared up.

April fly fishing around Eugene Oregon

I never got back to explaining what was working on the Middle Fork of the Willamette a couple weeks back like I promised. Well, here it is. We spent most of the morning banging the bottom with a two-nymph rig -- couple leggy stoneflies and mega-princes. Our guide had a cool way of tying the indicator to the butt section of the leader and another knot directly to the indicator to make sure it drifted straight down. Picked up a lot of fish in deeper runs -- seams near the bank. Later in the day we were swinging soft hackles across the middle, brownish size 12s. Two flies per rig, and fish hit on both flies. The upper fly was attached way up, using stiff 2x to make it stick out and avoid tangling with the leader. Big day.

From MattStansberry

Then the next day we headed to the McKenzie River with Big Al and posse from Trout Unlimited Chapter TU 678. We saw a ton of bugs, some steelhead smolts and not much else. We caught about 6 cutthroat trout that collectively measured about 30 inches. Check out the full monty on the TU Chapter 678 blog.

Oregon fishery news

A lot of recent Oregon Fishery news out there.

First, "fish friendly hydro" is all the rage out here in Cascadia. The latest news comes from RenewableEnergyAccess.com, with an article touting the benefits of Oregon's Pelton Round Butte Hydro Project on the Deschutes River, operated by Portland General Electric Company (PGE) and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (CTWS). The project was certified by the Low Impact Hydropower Institute (LIHI) for fish passage measures, including a claim of 96%survival rate for downstream migrating fish. It seems pretty interesting, but I haven't seen any independent info on these LIHI people. Are they just the marketing arm of the hydro industry? Something much more positive? Who knows? I checked out Trout Unlimited to see if they had any info about them, but the site is impossible to navigate.

I can bash TU's Web site all I want, but they are doing something interesting with the new "Why Wild" campaign for getting people to eat wild salmon. Go on over and sign the Wild Salmon Bill of Rights. They can explain why eating wild salmon might be the best thing that could happen to this struggling fishery.

Lastly, Oregon State University scientists have produced a study that shows commercial trawling is destroying biodiversity off the Oregon Coast's Continental Shelf. But not enough to make anyone want to stop it. According to the AP story, areas showing roller tracks in the mud from bottom trawling nets had 20% fewer fish, 30% fewer species of fish and six times fewer invertebrates, such as crabs and seapens.

Fly fishing guide in Eugene Oregon

Fly Fishing Guide in Eugene, Oregon: It doesn't get any better than this. Last weekend when my brother came in from NYC for a few days of fly fishing in Eugene, we decided to go with a guide rather than going it alone. I knew if we went by ourselves and wade fished the Middle Fork of the Willamette we'd catch a few fish, but I was hoping for more. I considered taking our inflatable kayaks, but at the last minute I stopped at The Caddis Fly and booked a trip with Chris Daughters. It was the best decision I've made so far this year.

From MattStansberry

1. If we'd have taken the kayaks, I probably wouldn't be writing this right now. I'd be dead. Two and three foot standing waves, pounding rain and cold water would have made it a long day.

2. Daughters put us on a fish bonanza. I have never in my life caught so many big wild trout. Ever. Just to give you a sense of scale: Nate hooked into fish he could barely move -- it was actually two fish on two flies on a single cast.

From MattStansberry

I wanted to post these photos so my brother can start bragging, but I plan to write more on what was working and why (and the other drift trip we took last weekend on the McKenzie).

From MattStansberry

From MattStansberry

From MattStansberry

Mudsnails in Oregon: Invasive Species Whack-a-mole

New Zealand Mudsnails may be the most depressing invasive species issue facing trout fishermen in the West. According to a pamphlet from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service:

Mudsnails are 1/8 of an inch long (but could be as small as a grain of sand

Mudsnails have a wide tolerance in water quality and temperature -- in fact they can live for days out of water on your gear

Mudsnails reproduce by cloning, so you only need one

Mudsnail population densities can reach half a million in one square yard of river.

New Zealand Mudsnails eat algae, outcompeting native bottom dwelling insects, impacting fisheries.

So how do you stop the spread? Let me warn you, it's pretty depressing...

Scrub your wading gear with a brush, disinfectant

Freeze your waders overnight!

Boil your waders for five minutes above 130 F.

Montana State University has taken up the study of NZ Mudsnails. The map below shows the spread of the snails.

Western Pond Turtle sighting, fly fishing on the Willamette River

I've spent the last two days fly fishing on the Middle Fork of the Willamette River. Friday night we checked out the area near Oakridge, fishing a park on the south side of the river that produced a couple weeks ago. No luck here, we headed back to the bridge and crossed the other side. A couple goons were throwing rocks into a pool we wanted to fish. They didn't like the look of us and moved on. Still nothing though, and we went back to our original plan where we'd caught some fish before. Lots of different caddis coming off, not a bite.

From MattStansberry

From MattStansberry

Today, Todd and Ben (AKA B-real the Norwegian) headed out to the nearby confluence of the North Fork and Middle Fork of the Willamette, near Westfir. The rain was rolling in cold and the water was high, but we managed to fish most of the day. I caught the nicest looking wild redband I've ever seen (no photos -- out of battery today) and got a few more bites. In fact, we left quite a few feeding fish in the pool, but the guys were getting wet and cold and were ready to go.

From MattStansberry

While I was on the river yesterday I stumbled onto a Western Pond Turtle, a species listed as endangered in Washington and threatened in Oregon. According to the Oregon Zoo, the biggest threat to the species is the non-native bullfrog and largemouth bass. Both prey on juvenile turtles.

The Oregon Zoo, ODFW and the Lower Willamette Turtle Project are hosting a Western Pond Turtle workshop on April 20th at the Oregon Zoo.

Mega Prince Nymph proves Oregon trout love rubber legs

Oregon trout love rubber legs. Bottom line.

Today Wild Bill and I headed up to the Middle Fork of the Willamette River, below Hills Creek Reservoir. It was a little rainy, some size 12 BWOs coming off, nothing rising.

I'd stopped by the Caddis Fly yesterday to blow a gift certificate (Thanks Mom!)and got some good advice on fly selection. I picked up a bunch of crap that didn't work, but one thing that did. The mega prince nymph.

From MattStansberry

Wild Bill happened to have one -- he hooked up on it. Then I finally put one on and started hooking up too. No other fly worked all day long. For those of you who don't know about the prince nymph, it's basically peacock and rubber legs on a hook with a bead.

This was my first trout on the Willamette this year. I've had a couple good days on the Lower McKenzie, but this is the first score on the Big W. We hooked into 5 fish today -- not bad for basically winter fishing.

Legs man. Fish love legs.

Making fun of the Steamboat Inn, North Umpqua River Oregon

I recently stumbled onto the Web site for the Steamboat Inn on the North Umqua River and I couldn't resist making fun of its tagline "...you're a stranger here but once."

It's factually correct. You'll only go there once.

Wild Bill and I stopped at the Steamboat Inn last year during the summer steelhead run. It was mid-morning and we were on our way to the fly fishing only section, more pilgrimage than fishing trip. I wanted to stop in and get some coffee, buy some flies, and listen to fish stories. But they didn't want our money.

Now mind you, Wild Bill and I were not decked out in our best old timey tweed. I left my pipe and chapeau in the car. But we didn't look like a couple of hungover bums either. Ok, maybe we did, but we looked like bums with money to spend on a fishing addiction.

We walked into the restaurant section where the "fly shop" was located. The oxygen tank and walker set were breakfasting and didn't pay us much mind. The waitresses were nice and attentive and filled our travel coffee mugs. I asked who was running the fly shop and they pointed us to the proprietor who was sitting in a corner. And this is how the conversation went:

US: Hey, hows it going? Great place here. Do you have any recommendations on what kind of flies are working now?

Steamboat Dude: I could sell you some flies, but it really doesn't matter.

US: Really? I'm interested learning more about the fly fishing for steelhead and don't know much about it.

Steamboat Dude: You could fish any of them but you won't catch anything.

US: Ummm... ok. Well what about trout? I've heard there is some great trout fishing around here.

Steamboat Dude: I know a guy who catches trout on this river, but he's not going to tell you anything.

US: Umm... ok, thanks?

Steamboat: Eat shit and never come back (unspoken).

Trout Unlimited News: Land use and local events

This from Fishing Jones: Trout Unlimited is bowing out of the river rights, streamside access debate, according to a recent article in NewWest magazine. I was pissed when I first read this, because the privatization of our country's wilderness and river resources is one of the scariest issues facing hunters and anglers today. As more people become remote workers and/or retire out West on East Coast salaries, this is only going to get worse -- the McMansion crowd will soon be carving up your favorite rivers and moutain ranges. For something really scary, read about how fast the population is exploding in Oregon and what's happening with land use on the LandCrazed Blog.

I'm not upset about Trout Unlimited backing away from this debate because it's not a conservation issue. TU needs to support fisheries science and conservation. TU is not a fishing club. Also, I'd rather the organization spend its resources convincing idiot landowners to leave the riparian habitat on the stream banks than get into a pissing match over whether or not a bubba can stand on a riverbank and scratch his ass on some New Jersey retiree's McRanch.

If you're interested in Oregon river rights, check out Common Waters of Oregon. Sign up, donate, volunteer.

McKenzie River Trout Unlimited fly fishing trip

On a lighter note, TU Chapter 678 had a fly fishing outing on the McKenzie River last weekend. You can check out the photos and details on the TU 678 Blog.

Winter steelheading photos on the Siuslaw River

This is what happens when you don't catch any steelhead. You take pictures. To be fair, Alex hooked one Saturday, but I spent the day on a photo safari.

From MattStansberry

From MattStansberry

From MattStansberry

Fly fishing the Oregon Coast: The pinnacle of Quixotic pursuit

Over the weekend, Alex, Wild Bill and I attempted fly fishing the Oregon Coast for groundfish. The weather seemed calm, the cabezon and ling were supposed to be in close and well, why not? If Ken Hanley can write about Fly Fishing Afoot in the Surf Zone, then there's a chance. Then again, I don't think there are any photos of anyone actually holding a toothy bottom dweller caught on the fly in the entire book... There is definitely $9 worth of info in this book, so I'd say buy it. But the author makes no bones about telling you, you gotta be crazy to do this -- especially when there are so many other fishing opportunities around.

From MattStansberry

We headed out to the Dublin House motel, a motel in Yachats, OR that bills itself as a fly fishing headquarters for the Oregon Coast. The Dublin House owners really need to spend more money on inventory and staff that know something about fly fishing if they plan on advertising themselves as a fly shop. Don't get me wrong, I like the fly shop idea and I like the fact that they underwrite NPR programming (which is where I heard about them), but they need to stock more than some dusty fly fishing decorations. I'm being a little harsh here, but gas is $3 a gallon in Oregon and if they would have answered their phone when I called, I might not have made the drive to Yachats.

From MattStansberry

We opted to fish the rocky points jutting out from Neptune State Scenic viewpoint. I can tell you that these were the most difficult fishing conditions I've ever experienced. The jetties were ultra burly lava rock covered in razor sharp barnacles. The waves were churning up debris, spraying up between the rocks, throwing slack into my fly line. And then there was the wind. The wind killed us. We spent about an hour or so flailing into the wind. Long enough to realize I'm out of my league -- long enough for Alex to break a toe. But still a good time.

We made a break inland to fly fish for late season winter steelhead --a pursuit only marginally more sane.

Coastal winter steelhead 10, Matt 0 -- The clock winds down

We spent the entire afternoon and evening yesterday chasing late season, native winter steelhead on a coastal creek. The water was really low, but looked great -- that mix of gin clear runs and chalky blue chutes and pools. We had a few hours before dark to get it done -- Alex, Wild Bill and myself.

From MattStansberry

We split up, tackling different segments of stream. I went upstream to fish at the bottom of a small waterfall with my egg and nymph combo. I caught a 6 inch cutthroat, let it go.

I was absent-mindedly drifting my fly under the wash and foam, just starting to lift it up to reposition when a big steelhead came to the top, swiping at my indicator. I almost had a heart attack.

I'm pretty sure that I'm unprepared to actually hook into one of these things with my four-weight. The anticipation is killing me. I'm hoping to catch one winter steelhead on the fly this winter yet. A modest goal, but I'm running out of time.

From MattStansberry

When I went down to check on Wild Billl, he'd been drifting over a spooky steelhead in a clear run the whole time with no luck. It seemed like there were two in there -- one silvery hen and a darker buck. I saw them both, but not at the same time, so they could possibly have been the same fish under different light conditions, but I doubt it. Either way they weren't cooperating.

Alex broke his Oregon trout skunk streak, pulling in a cutthroat towards the end. We also found newts and trillium.

Early season fly fishing on the upper Willamette River

Alex H arrived late last night after multiple planes, trains and automobiles. Despite public transportation obstacles, he made it and we managed to work most of the day, and fish all afternoon. We left after 2pm for the upper Willamette River. We opted to fish below Hills Creek Dam on the Middle Fork.

From MattStansberry

It was a bluebird day, super warm -- at least when we were in Eugene. But out past Oakridge in the elevation, the temp can drop fast. And we were pretty cold. We did a little stunt wading, crossed over to the other side of the river and drifted nymphs on indicators over some likely water.

I wasn't seeing much in the way of insect life, so I started rolling over rocks after a while and found that the nymphs were really small. We'd been throwing bigger stuff -- big stoneflies. But in the end we weren't that far off.

At a certain point, we sat down for a break and Alex found that giant stonefly (aka salmonfly). So I opted to cover my bases -- fishing a giant black kaufmann's stone with a tiny size 20 brassie trailing off the butt w/ 7x tippet. I ended up paying for that shortly afterward.

On one of the last drifts of the day, I finally got a big, depth charge of a hit. I saw a football shaped flash, felt a tiny "tick" and then it was gone, along with my brassie.

Expletive. Expletive. Expletive.

Super-burly articulated streamer from Idaho tyer

Gregory Lowry from Boise, Idaho was showing fishermen how to tie some articulated streamers with two hooks. The pattern he was showing was called Dan's Streamer, named after his 12-year old fly-tying protege, Danielle Lowry.

From MattStansberry

Dan's Streamer is an extremely burly pattern. Gregory tied the tail first, a big marabou plume, then wraps the marabou around the shank of the hook to form the body. Add a little flash, and then you attach it to the next hook. He uses 20lb mono to attach the hooks together with a bead in between. The front hook is dressed in much the same way as the tail, but it has a big wool head. The pattern looks a lot like a sculpin, but Gregory has better sucess fishing it unweighted.

His home waters are the South Fork of the Boise River and South Fork of the Snake River. He fishes it in non-traditional streamer water, back eddies with slow currents. He will cast it into the slow pool and twitch it back slowly.

From MattStansberry

The other fly Gregory showed was called a Slumpbuster. It's a big puff of pine squirrel fur -- seriously 99% of this fly is squirrel. Gregory actually wraps (palmers) the pine squirrel strips backwards on the hook to give it more action. He said pine squirrel strips are pretty expensive, so he reccomended Bass Pro Shops' Zonked Pine Squirrell.

Here are some similar patterns:

From Fly Anglers Online

Barr's Slumpbuster

This post is part of a series of profiles of fly tyers at the Northwest Fly Tyers Expo in Albany, OR.

Three Oregon fly patterns in three steps

Jim Finley of Lebanon, Oregon took time to show me three of his favorite Oregon fly fishing patterns -- in about five minutes. Each of these patterns is quick, elegant and fishy.

From MattStansberry

The leech, tied with dubbed Angora goat hair, is three steps. Bead; marabou tail (w/ a little flash); and brushed out dubbing. According to Finley, who has been tying flies for 20 years, there aren't many lakes this fly doesn't work on. He typically fishes the coastal lakes around Florence, OR.

From MattStansberry

The next fly he whipped up was a Blue Wing Olive emerger. It consisted of green dubbing, CDC wing and an Antron shuck.

From MattStansberry

The last fly was what Finley called a Lazer Scud. It's a crystal orange fly on a size 18 hook, dubbed w/ ice and it's back is a strip of flashabou. Finley fishes it off a dropper. He said it does well on whitefish, rainbows and even the bull trout on the Metolius River.

This post is part of a series of profiles of fly tyers at the Northwest Fly Tyers Expo in Albany, OR.

Stimulator pattern is the only dry fly you'll ever need

According to tyer George Nelson, the Stimulator is the only dry fly you'll ever need. He said guides carry a ton of flies to take clients out, make them feel like they're getting their money's worth. But when they go out fishing themselves, they carry a couple go-to flies. And this blonde-colored stimulator is one of Nelson's picks.

Nelson said it's great for catching summer steelhead on top on the South Santiam River, "but you'd better make sure your heart is in good shape."

From MattStansberry

From MattStansberry

Here is the pattern recipe from WestFly.

This post is part of a series of profiles of fly tyers at the Northwest Fly Tyers Expo in Albany, OR.