Fishing Reports

            Just got back from a great trip to Charleston, S.C. to visit a good friend of mine and to fly-fish for Redfish. I had never been to Charleston before and was looking forward to exploring the city as well as the Red fishing.

            The weather was great for us, with above average temperatures and plenty of sunshine, which you tend to appreciate more when you live in a place that’s much colder during the winter months. We did have a good amount of wind that we had to deal with while fishing. Not only is it harder to cast in the wind, but the wind also tends to churn up the water & muddy bottom making for poor visibility and spotting fish more difficult. You can still find fish, but you have to look for muds (dirty spots where feeding fish have stirred up the bottom), or nervous water (a disturbance on the surface caused by moving fish below).

            We fished most days and found fish on every occasion. We were casting & stripping baitfish patterns to small schools of Redfish in open water or along grass flats depending on the height of the tide. During the summer months, you would target fish that were tailing on the grass flats feeding on crabs.

            Redfish are a big-shouldered saltwater fish that can run in size from a juvenile fish of a couple pounds (called a rat), to upwards of 40 lbs. or more. They readily take flies when presented properly and put up a bulldog of a fight when hooked. Our most productive fly was an Enrico Puglisi baitfish pattern tied on a 1/0 hook, although we did catch a number of fish on other deceiver style patterns. Casting accuracy and presentation seemed to be more important than the actual fly pattern used.

            We caught lot of Redfish that ran between 5 and 15lbs, and enjoyed being able to see most of the takes. On the worst of our water visibility days, we would spend a lot of time blind casting to where we thought the fish were based on muds and nervous water, but the best was when the water was clear enough to sight cast to small schools of feeding fish.

            We were fishing Winston 7wt. BII-MX fast action rods with floating Redfish lines & 16lb. Redfish leaders, which was the perfect set-up for the size of fish we were catching and fighting the wind.

            The amazing thing about this great fishery is that it’s available right in town or just minutes from anywhere. You can hook up the boat at home, drive to the water, launch and be fishing for Redfish in less than 30 minutes. Now that’s urban angling at its finest.

The Patient Angler
Peter Bowers

            I’ve hit the Maupin area of the Lower Deschutes a couple of times in the last week or so and have had pretty good luck finding fish. The reports have been kind of all over the board with some anglers catching fish and some that have not. I was in the “have not” group the first trip down with Thu. She was able to hook three fish and the only fish I caught was a trout.

            I decided after the verbal beating I took on the way home, that I would try to redeem myself and go back down in a couple of days and try again.  I left Bend at 4:00 am and made to the first run I wanted to fish just before daylight.

            The river has been clear and running around 5,000cfs, with a cool temperature of 44 degrees. I geared up with a 15’ T-10 sink-tip & a Craft Fur Stinger fly and stepped in at the top of the run.  I was only in the water about 15 minutes before I had my first solid take by a small, but chrome bright wild fish that ran around like crazy before I could land her and take a quick picture. Just 10 casts later I got my second take, but after just catching one a few moments before and being all jacked-up, I lifted the rod on the take and he came unbuttoned after a little thrashing. YES, I Farmed Him! I can make a mental mistake just as easy as you can! Anyway I pushed on and hooked a third fish in the bottom of the run, which turned out to be another wild hen of about 5 or 6 pounds. I fished two more long runs before I ran out of daylight (and charged battery packs for my electric socks), and had the grace of the steelhead gods to hook 3 more steelhead. I only landed one of those but it was a really nice size buck that was all colored up and put up a heck of a fight before I was able to bring him to hand for a quick picture and release.

            It’s a long day to drive to Maupin at 4:00am, fish hard all day and then drive home after dark, but the tiring day is a lot more bearable when you catch some fish.

The Patient Angler                 patientangler.com

Peter Bowers

            I ran over to the John Day River to fish for steelhead with a friend the other day. Jimmy and I headed over early in the morning and arrived just after daylight. It was a COLD morning with a temperature in the twenties and it seemed like it took forever for the sun to get high enough to hit the river and warm our bodies. The water was in great shape running clear and just over 500cfs at Service Creek, and was a little on the cold side with a temperature of just 36 degrees.

            We started fishing our way upstream and Jimmy broke the ice (no pun intended) and hooked the first bright native John Day steelhead in our first run of the day. It’s a good news/ bad news story when you hook a fish on a blistering cold day. The good news is that it’s great to catch the beautiful chrome steelhead you came for, but the bad news is that you have to land it, unhook it and release it in frigid temperatures with wet hands!

            In our second run of the day, lady luck shined on me as I got a solid take in the middle of the run. Unfortunately, it came unbuttoned shortly after hooking up and we were unable to find any other willing fish in that run.

            After lunch we found a nice long run with a deeper trough running down the middle that looked like great holding water. As it turned out, it was as good as it looked. I started at the very top in the riffle and Jimmy started below where the riffle started to flatten out. It didn’t take long for Jimmy to find another willing fish to take his fly. After a little give and take, another bright wild fish came to Jimmy’s hand for a quick picture and release.

Jimmy was gracious enough to slide down lower in the run and let me take over the money water where he left off.  Fifteen minutes later, my line came tight with a hard pull from another beautiful native John Day fish. This was a really nice fish that was a little bigger than average and had the fight in him to prove it. He had taken my fly just after my cast and mend, so this fish was out there a ways and didn’t want to give up any line. Slowly I put more pressure on him and finally got him turned and worked him upstream where I eventually landed him for a hero shot and release.

Jimmy then took another turn at the money water, starting where I left off and continued working through the run. Once again, it didn’t take long for Jimmy to hook and land his third wild fish of the day.

We fished through this last run until a beautiful sunset filled the sky and called an end to our fun and very productive day on the water.

Jimmy fished his SAGE 7136-4 Z-Axis and I fished a SAGE 7126-4 TCX with type three sink-tips and rabbit leech patterns.

The John Day tributaries have been freezing and thawing in the last few days causing the river level to bouncing between 300cfs and 500cfs on a daily basis. I would wait until the flows steady a bit before I would head out to the John Day to fish.  
 

The Patient Angler           Patientangler.com

Peter Bowers

The Ana River

Everybody has fished the Ana at one time in their life, for most, that has not been recently.  Last week I decided to make the 98-mile trek to the Ana River located in the Summer Lake basin.  I’ve been suggesting the Ana to many customers in the Shop, where to park, access etc., and realized that it had been awhile since I had last been there.  I had better refresh my memory.  Yes, 98 miles (approx. 2 hours), probably the reason I last fished it, 2 years ago.

It was a great day for this time of year, warm, dry and no wind.  I was fishing that day with Mark Chan, an Aussie willing the fish at the mere mention of fish.

Well, access is good, not great.  The Ana lies in the Great Inland Lake Basin, therefore the soil is fine clay and can be slippery.  A truck is recommended but not necessary.  Access on the northeast side of the river is better, but is a bit of a walk.  The fish are mostly 10 to 12 inches, fat and healthy with an occasional fish 15 to 17 inches.  I have seen a bonified 20-inch fish taken on a nymph in the Ana.  The day we were there, an incredible BWO hatch was on (#16 to #20).  The hatch lasted from about 10:30 to 3:00, the fish where looking up and we fished dry’s all day.  We probably caught 24 fish each therefore; conversation on the drive home was animated, as we both felt it was a good day on the water.

Bob

Walked into the Lower Deschutes River from Mecca Flats with a friend of mine the other day, to see if we could find a few steelhead. After a stormy night the evening before, I was surprised to find a very mild day when we arrived at the river.

The river is running about 4800cfs from the dam, clear and with a temperature of 45 degrees. The best part was there was nobody there! In fact, we didn’t even see another angler until after noon.

            Jimmy and I worked our way down river fishing some likely spots without a pull until we stopped at one of my favorite pieces of water. Jimmy fished the top of the run and I fished the bottom and again we came up empty. After a short break for lunch, we decided to fish through again with Jimmy taking the bottom this time and I walked up to fish the top of the run. I was the first to hook-up, with a big colored-up hatchery buck that grabbed my fly and took off, ripping line from my reel when he realized he was hooked. This fish put up one heck of a fight, taking two long runs on me before I could work him back upriver and land him. Jimmy had heard my cry of “FISH ON!” and came to take a picture for me. After releasing my hard fighting fish, Jimmy didn’t waste any time getting back into the water and soon hooked and landed a nice wild fish of his own.

We were both fishing spey rods on the swing with type 8 sink-tips and rabbit leech patterns, which over the years, has proven to be the most productive way to go this time of year.

There are still a lot of Salmon around, so if you like to nymph for steelhead, make sure you have a good supply of egg patterns in your box because everything in the river is eating them.

The Patient Angler                     patientangler.com

Peter Bowers

Just got back from a great trip to the Grand Ronde River. I go every year to this remote area of Oregon/Washington to test new equipment, relax after a busy season and to chase the great northwest steelhead that ascend this river every year. 

            The weather was really pretty good for us considering the time of year. Once November rolls around, all bets are off and you could see any kind of weather. You just have to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best. The weather was great when we arrived with morning temperatures in the mid 30’s followed by clear sunny days with mid-day temperatures in the 60’s. As days passed, the weather started to change with clouds moving in and the average daily temperatures started to drop. By our last day, the morning temperature was a chilly 26 degrees with a light snow falling and daytime high that only made it into the low 40’s.

            The water was also in good shape when we showed up running about 800cfs, clear and with a temperature in the mid 40’s. As the days past and daily temperatures dropped, the water temperature also plummeted to a chilly 38 degrees, always making catching fish a little tougher on the swing.

            The fishing reports as well as the fish count numbers over the dam were not very good so far this season. Anglers were having some pretty good success in the middle of October in the lower river, but none of the reports were as good as recent years past in the same time frame. Because of the time of year and the dropping air and water temperatures, we swung sink tips and weighted flies through our favorite runs and did pretty well finding 2 – 6 fish a day. Better than most according to the creel checker we would talk to every day, but probably due to the fact that we fish hard most days covering a lot of water and our use of sink tips and weighted flies making sure we were close to the bottom and the fish.

            The numbers of hatchery fish are down and the number of wild fish is on the rise, so our catch rate of wild vs. hatchery was close to 50/50 this year, when normally it’s more like 75% hatchery and 25% wild. The great thing was the average size of the fish we did catch, was bigger than normal with a lot more fish in the 29 to 31 inch range.

            We tried a lot of different flies through our days of fishing including a number of new 2012 patterns we were testing, but the most productive flies were leech type patterns that were black and weighted. Moal Leeches, Articulated Rabbit Leeches, Craft Fur Stinger Flies and String leeches all tied in black produced the most fish. 

            The best thing about fishing the Grande Ronde River is not the numbers or size of the fish, but the river environment itself. It’s pretty awesome to be standing in such a beautiful river fishing for an amazing fish, in the bottom of a stunningly rugged canyon with deer grazing on one hillside and Big Horn Sheep on the rocky cliffs across the river and a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree on the bank watching you cast. It doesn’t get any better than that!…..Unless you have a fish on, then it would be a little better.

The Patient Angler                    patientangler.com

Peter Bowers