RECORDED:87 °FISHING: Great Had the day off on Sunday so Thu and I decided to run to the John Day River in search of Smallmouth Bass. We put a couple gold bricks in the gas tank (a phrase I stole from a friend we met that owns property on the river.) and drove to the Service Creek Area of the John Day. It didn’t take much searching to find plenty of Smallmouth eager to take Poppers off the top. I haven’t fished for Smallmouth in a while and I had forgotten how much fun it was. The water was warm and running about 600cfs, which is a great flow for this time of year and a very productive flow to fish for Smallies. Most of the fish and the best Popper fishing happens close to the banks of the river, so floating the river gives you the best opportunity to catch fish by being able to fish both banks from the center of the river. When I say close to the banks, I mean CLOSE TO THE BANKS! If casting from a boat, try to land your Popper right on the edge of the river and you will be surprised how many takes you get as soon as the Popper hits the water. If your fishing from the banks, like we were on Sunday, change your tactics and cast up and down the shoreline to cover the water close to the banks. Most of the time you’re fishing in water that’s not moving very fast, so up or down stream doesn’t really matter. But you do get better popping action from your Popper when it’s retrieved against the current which sometimes produces more takes. Thu and I fished for about 7 hours and landed 40 to 50 Smallmouth Bass on Poppers. Granted, a lot of those were just little guys that you wouldn’t think were big enough to get a Popper in their mouths. But even the little guys all think they are a Big Fish by the way they attack you fly. There are big Carp and Catfish in the John Day, and you will see them while you’re wading around the edges of the slow water. Every once in a while, I would hook a little Smallmouth and as it was running around a Catfish would appear and chase the little guy around nipping at his tail. The Catfish were just not fast enough to catch them and for some reason, the little guys being chased were quite willing to swim right to me and be landed.
We had a lot of fun fishing the John Day and might try to get a float in before the river gets too low.
The John Day is a great place to take kids to fish and the water is very warm this time of year and there are plenty of swimming holes to cool off in during our warm summer days. I’ve got a great BLM River Map & Guide for the John Day River at the shop that shows the river, rapids, campgrounds, boat launches, GPS coordinates and lots of other great information.
Be on the lookout for Rattlesnakes this time of year, you run into one every once and a while along the river banks.
RECORDED:85 °FISHING: Fair Thu & I went down to the North Umpqua to camp and do a little fishing last weekend during the 4th of July holiday. This was the first time in 8 or 10 years that I went down to the North Umpqua on the July 4th weekend. I had given up on fishing this weekend because of the mass of people that would normally flock to the river during this holiday, but to my surprise, there were a lot less people than I had expected and very few fisherman. I’m not sure if was the high price for gas, or the fact that there’s not a lot of fish in the river yet, but I was pleased to see the pressure was so light.
The weather as you know, was great and we even had a good deal of cloud cover during the day to help keep us cool as well as making it easier for steelhead to see and chase our flies. The water was clear, but a little on the high side (1820cfs) for most of the runs I like to fish. The water dropped a little bit each day, of course dropping to a good fishing level (1500cfs) the day we had to leave. But like I said, there are not many fish up in the fly water yet. I fished more than I expected too, with the lack of anglers on the water and still only managed to hook one fish. I did spot a few other fish in the river, but were unable to fish or reach them because of the higher water, or they were spooked out of the run. Like the two fish I spotted in a very fishable run and as I approached the top of the run to fish it, four guys in kayaks dropped out of the white water above the run, lined up, and had a paddle race down the length of my pool. I hiked back up to my observation rock and found, that there were no steelhead resting in the pool anymore.I know we all have the right to share this beautiful water nature has given us, But I couldn’t help hearing this little voice in the back of my head keep telling me, to never leave the truck to fish a run without my portable rocket launcher again. (Only kidding…But a water balloon launcher might be fun.)
Anyway the Camping was great and Thu caught a very nice trout on the swing, which had our hearts racing for a minute thinking it was a Steelhead. Thu has hooked a few Steelhead, but hasn’t landed one yet. We’re going to change that this year.
If you’re into enjoying a nice cast across beautiful waters, make the drive and enjoy. But if you’re looking for fish, you might save your gas and wait for a while for more fish to show up.
I hope everyone else’s life has not been as crazy as mine and that you are getting to fish to your heart’s content. Between family and work, my fishing outings have been far and few between.
Even though I had commitments Tuesday afternoon, I grabbed a buddy and headed to the way upper Deschutes above Crane Prairie reservoir for some small stream, little fish, pure, unadulterated fun!The water may only be knee deep, a trophy fish may only be 8", and the mosquitos may be bordering Alaska-ish, but that didn’t stop 2 grown men from laughing like school girls!If you’re fishing anything more than a 3 weight, you’re over gunned.This is perfect water and perfect fishing for a Sage TXL 0 weight or smaller.Casts aren’t more than 25 feet and the average fish is 4-5 inches.Any seam, boulder, drop off, or plunge pool holds multiple fish.Purple smogs and x-caddis were our flies of choice, but your favorite dry pattern in size 18 or smaller will work just fine.The mosquitos were atrocious.Make sure you have your repellent close at hand as soon as you open you truck door because the little blood suckers show no mercy.
On a side note, check out our website, patientangler.com, for information on our first ever 2008 Patient Angler River Rendezvous.We will have casting instruction, ½ day floats, product demos and seminars, and more information than you can shake a stick at.Clear your calendar for August 8, 9, and 10, and come join us for a great weekend.Sign up for the ½ day floats as soon as possible.There are a limited number of seats and they will be going fast.
Get out, embrace you inner school girl, and wet a line!
RECORDED:94 °FISHING: Great Hola Pescadors Paciente,
I couldn’t wait to get back and give you a report on my trip to the warm waters of Mexico in search of the prized Roosterfish. This is an annual trip to Cabo san Lucas during late May and early June, to fish for my favorite fish in the ocean. The weather was great with temps in the 90’s and lots of sun. We had a nice breeze that blew all day, so it wasn’t too hot and in the middle of the day, you could always find a cold drink and a palapa to sit under to cool you off.
I had a great group of people with me on this trip, and the fishing was just as good. Robin & Patty B., Jim E., Tom B., my girlfriend Thu and I, had a grand time catching inshore game fish on the fly. We caught a lot of Roosterfish (which was what we went for), along with action from other fish like Jacks Crevalle, Amber Jacks, Sierra, Giant Needle Fish, Yellow Tail, Snapper and even caught a couple beautiful Leopard Groupers.
We fished from 26’ Glacier Bay Cats with the boys from Baja Anglers, A guide operation in Cabo that specializes in Fly Fishing & Light Tackle. If you want to have your best opportunity to catch saltwater fish on the fly, Baja Anglers are the folks to call.
We had good fishing all week with a few times mixed in where the fishing was almost as good as it gets. One of those times was also the highlight of the trip. Thu, Jim & I were on the boat in the afternoon on day 5, when we found beach up on the East Cape full of Roosterfish, Sierra and Jacks. The action was so hot that at one point we had a triple hook-up. All three of us hooked a Roosterfish right after each other on three casts in a row and fought and landed them at the same time (I should have the pictures on my site patientangler.com in a few days). After we celebrated our triple and thinking the day couldn’t get any better, we got back to fishing and we did it again! But this time it was a quadruple hook-up. I hooked one first Rooster with Thu & Jim hooking up right after me, and I landed mine first but the rooster was bleeding a little so I didn’t want to take a chance with him and let him go right away. I quickly stripped off line and made another cast to the still aggressive Roosters behind the boat, immediately hooking up and we still landed our second triple of the day. We had some shots at bigger Roosters in the 15 lb – 25 lb range, but most of what we landed was in the 5 lb – 12 lb range. Believe me, that’s still more fun that you should be able to have on a fly rod. We caught fish on 2/0 Saltwater Poppers, 2/0 & 4/0 Deceiver patterns in Green/White, and my custom 4/0 Bait Fish pattern in Grey/White. We used 300grn Tropic Express lines on Sage Xi2 & Winston B11X 10wt fly rods, with 20lb leaders.
Everyone had a great trip, and wishing they were still there fishing the clear blue waters along the endless beaches found on the tip of Baja.
And you have to be a Patient Angler right now with half our lakes still frozen and most of our rivers on the rise. But still, there are a number of good places that are in good shape and fishing pretty well around town and the Middle Deschutes is one of them.
The shop has been really busy since the weather has changed with a lot of people putting away their skis and dusting off their fly rods. I had the opportunity on Monday to take the day off, so my girlfriend & I grabbed our trout stuff and headed down to the Middle Deschutes to see if we could take advantage of the Salmon Fly hatch which happens this time of year on the Middle. We got to the river in the afternoon with the sun shining bright and Temps in the high 70’s. The water was warm and had a little color to it, but still had good visibility. There were a lot of Salmon Flies flying around and on the bushes, and a pretty big light colored Mayfly on the water, but not many risers with the bright sun and heat of the middle of the day. Every time the sun would go behind the clouds you would see a couple of fish rise to smack a bug on the surface. If you were fast, you could make a few casts before the sun came back out and get a fish to take your dry. We switched between nymphing and dry flies depending on the cloud cover, for the rest of the afternoon and caught a few fish until the sun went behind the canyon wall shading the river below. Once the water was shaded, the fish went to work, rising to every bug that floated by. The river seemed to come alive, and in the last hour or so I landed 8 or 9 fish on a Salmon Fly dry. My best fish was the last of the day, and the one that almost took me for a swim. It was getting close to dark and I had crossed the river to fish from the other side, so I thought I should get back across before it got to dark. As I was slowly wading my way back across the river, I decided to fish my way across to take advantage of the last few minutes of light. I would make a cast and as my bug (that I couldn’t really see anymore) floated down the river in front of me, I would take a few small steps. I repeated this process as I worked my way across, and just when I had reached the middle of the river, which happens to be the fastest and deepest part, I hooked a big trout. This trout hammered my dry and took off across and down stream so fast that the surprise and the pull on the line made me loose my balance and made me do the best and most acrobatic river dance I have ever been a part of without getting wet. Once I regained my balance I thought the worst was over until while trying to land him, he darted between my legs and headed down river again. The only thing I could do is try to lift one leg over the line, which caused the second most acrobatic river dance I have ever done without getting wet. I kept the fish on (which I still had not seen because of the increasing darkness), and finally landed the very fat 17-inch brown trout whose belly was full with Salmon Flies.
RECORDED:65 °FISHING: Good Lake In The Dunes Fly Fishing Schools
Just completed the first four days of our Lake In The Dunes Fly Fishing Schools. We had a great time and had some pretty good weather for our new to the sport participants and soon to be fly fishing addicts.
Because of the late spring, and still cool temperatures the Callibaetis hatches that are usually in full swing by now, were not yet happening. So we primarily fished Chironomids and generic bead head nymph patterns on a floating line with a 10ft 4X leader. We worked on casting, presentation, knots and leaders, learning different retrieves associated with different fly patters, how to hook and play fish, and how to land and release them. All of our students caught fish during their days on the water, but there were a lot more fish hooked than landed. Hooking fish on the fly is the easy part, fighting and landing them (especially the big ones) is the hard part. But during the day, through trial and error, everyone improved his or her skills with a fly rod and became more productive on the water. The biggest fish landed during our school dates was a 25”, 4 to 5 lb Rainbow caught on a bead head Chironomid pattern. There were a number of bigger fish hooked, but because of their size and strength they either broke the leaders or earned an L.D.R.(Long Distance Release).
The schools at Lake In The Dunes are a great opportunity to learn how to fly fish in a very productive and controlled environment. There are still a few spots open for our June dates for our School Of Fly Fishing (June 19th, 20th, 21st & 22nd), so if you know someone that would like to learn to fly fish, have them contact the shop to sign up.
RECORDED:86 °FISHING: Fair Just got back from another great week at Boca de Iguanas on main land Mexico, just down the beach from the little town of La Manzanilla. Went down with some customers and friends to catch some sun, do a little saltwater fly-fishing and to take a look at the properties offered by this new eco-hotel/resort and real estate development. The weather was great with temps in the 80’s, and a cool ocean breeze every day.
Unfortunately, the water conditions were not the best when we arrived, hitting the last few days of a red tide that moved into the Costalegre area the prior week. Which forced us to have to enjoy all the amenities the resort had to offer for a couple of days while we waited for the water to clear. Breakfast on the beach, beach combing, pool time, a mouth-watering cevichi lunch, a few games of horseshoes, quick game of soccer, more pool time with a cool drink, sea kayaks, rock climbing, get a massage, happy hour with friends on the beach, a delightful elegant dinner served on the rooftop patio overlooking the ocean at sunset, music and a bon-fire on the beach at night. I was looking forward to the water clearing, so we might have something fun to do. Yeah Right!
The water finally started to clear and the baitfish started to come back into the bay, which leads to good fishing since the bigger fish will soon follow the bait. We decided to give the inshore one more day to recover and headed out off shore in search of blue water where we hoped to find some Sailfish, Dorado or Tuna to chase, but we went out 24 miles and found the water to still be a little on the green side (a little cold for off shore game fish on the fly). We came across a few Dorado during our day, but none that wanted to play at the end of our lines. The inshore is where we spent the rest of out time at Boca, fishing from a boat and off the beach. Our fishing improved and we saw a few Yellow Tail, schools of Giant Needle Fish and a lot of small sized Jacks. The Jack Crevalle or Toro as they call it in Mexico for the way it fights, provided us with the most action. We caught lots of small ones and a few bigger ones to make each day, but given the colder water conditions I thought we did pretty well. I’m looking forward to getting back down to Boca de Iguanas not only to fish with better water conditions, but to also enjoy this beautiful resort community and it’s staff again.
If you would like more info on Boca de Iguanas, give me a call or e-mail me at the shop. Check out bocadeiguanas.com
We have some Fly Fishing Schools coming up on the first 4 days of May, taking place on our private water fishery, Lake In The Dunes. So my girlfriend and I decided to run down to get a little fishing in and check out the lakes. Given the weather conditions lately, we lucked out and had a nice warm sunny day to spend casting to the big trout that call Lake In The Dunes their home. We had some great fishing slow stripping chironomids on a floating line, and we even had a double hook-up at one point. We landed a number of big fish that day, but my better half out fished me and landed a trout that went 7 or 8 pounds on a #18 BH Black Serindipity. There were a few fish rising to adult midges that were buzzing the water and I switched to fish dry for a while with only one strike from a smaller fish. I’m sure the dry action will pick up as the weather and water warms up a bit. I switched back to nymphs and continued to catch fish all afternoon. We moved around a lot and found fish spread out throughout the lakes.
We still have a few spots open for our May dates of our fly fishing schools, so if you know anyone that wants to learn to flyfish or just improve their skills, have them contact us at the shop for sign ups.
RECORDED:56 °FISHING: Good The water finally dropped to good fishing levels on the North Umpqua and we had a bit of spring like weather a few days ago, so I jumped in the truck and drove down to give the winter run one last try for the season. The water was in great shape running at around 1400cfs and had a little bit of color to it. I fished from 3:00 until dark on the first day, and swung flies through some of my favorite runs working my way down to the lower end of the Fly Only Water. I only saw few other anglers on the water and I thought the lack of pressure would increase my odds…. and the fact that I felt like every swing I made had a Big Beautiful North Umpqua Winter Steelhead tracking my fly, but I fished until dark without a pull. I camped that frosty night, and was on the water at daylight to again find the river to myself. I fished through a number of runs working my way up river and finally the sun was up and the day started to warm up.
About lunch time, I was in the groove and booming a heavy sink tip and a new leech pattern (we have at the shop) across the river with my 7136 Z-Axis and covering a broad run I like to fish, when my line came tight in a spot that I have never hooked a fish in before. The fish felt heavy with big head shakes and then a quick powerful run a few yards down stream. The Steelhead then stopped and I started to take in line, and this fish seemed to come right to me. Just when I started to think this was too easy with the fish only 40 feet away, a series of violent head shakes were followed by line ripping off my reel and a couple seconds later a 30+ inch Steelhead came flying out of the water right in front of me with my fly pinned to the corner of his mouth. Unfortunately, somewhere in the middle of his triple summersault with one and a half twists, my fly was no longer in the corner of his mouth. I fished the rest of the day without touching another fish, but it’s always a great time fishing some of the most beautiful water in the world.
The Steelhead will be up on the gravel bars now looking to spawn, so make sure you stay clear and not swing or wade in these areas to protect the fish.
Just thought I’d drop a little report on the middle Deschutes.I decided to head out around noon on Monday.The temperature was getting into the upper 40’s, and I thought I might get some dry fly action.I waited to rig up until I saw what was going down on the river.Not much was happening when I got there, so I put on a little BWO and flung that around for a while.Around 4 o’clock or so I started to see a good size hatch of March Browns starting to come off.I immediately put on a large size 12 March Brown pattern and tried to scope out rising fish.I only saw two fish working the surface and cast to both.I landed both after around 40 casts to each.It wasn’t fast and furious, but it was fun having some surface action for a change.With the warming temps, it should only get better from here on out.
