Hi Everyone, I’m planning a fishing trip to Montana for later this week or next week.
Usually fish the Blackfoot near Lincoln, Big Hole, Rock Creek, Flint creek and others. Two ways that we could do this: motel and restaurants or I have an RV with one bed and one couch, and housekeeping stuff.
If you might be interested in joining me give me a shout and we’ll see if it can work.
Red
Email: red-smith@runbox.com
Phone: (503) 351-2731
The “June Fly Fishing Reports” blog was a hit so here’s another edition for July.
Zach Epstein of Northwest Fly Fishing Outfitter fished at Rocky Ridge and put together a great video of trout attacking mouse patterns. He said he hooked about a dozen trout fishing this way–something to try next time!
Brad Jonasson provided these photo’s from the CFF’s annual Owyhee River Trip from last month.
While unsuccessfully chasing shad in the Willamette Dave Kilhefner picked a nice smallmouth bass.
Erik from Bridgeport Orvis store hit the Clackamas River. He says “the Clackamas provides a unique opportunity to catch decent trout close to Portland. However, these fish shouldn’t be in the river as they are clipped, residualized hatchery steelhead & clipped trout that made it through River Mill dam. You are encouraged to keep these fish as they compete with native species to the river.
There are Spring Chinook in the upper Sandy River. Dave Kilhefner was spey casting for them when this nice angler arrived then got one on a spinner. He graciously asked permission to make a few casts and his good Karma was quickly rewarded. It was a native and quickly released.
Hugo Jim traveled to New Orleans for a family get together and took time out to chase Redfish and got this beauty!
Jim Behrend went to the North Santiam and caught 2 smolt , a sucker plus he and his wife caught a bunch of small rainbows.
Greg O’Brien traveled to Puget Sound to fish for Sea Run Cutthroat Trout and Coho with the guys from a Royal Treatment. Fishing was slow, but they managed to get a couple really nice sea runs. They saw a few silvers from the beach but did not hook up with any.
Randy Clark, our speaker from Orvis Bridgeport got into some good Tiger Musky action up in Washington. Between himself and fishin’ buddy Ryan and they totaled up nearly 30 follows, 5 hookups, one broken line, and one fish landed that went 44″. He had one that was significantly larger follow the fly right to his feet, follow three large ovals at the boat then sit there staring at the fly right on it’s nose before turning away. Fast stripping small baitfish patterns in size 6 seemed best, using an intermediate line.
Adrian Choate is on a big road trip to Alaska! He’s at the Susitna (muddy) / Montana Creek (clear) confluence. He reports the Chum and Silvers are coming in plus Kings have been in the rivers for a while. Next are large , bead eating rainbows. If that isn’t enough, Grayling are taking dries aggressively. Gotta love Alaska!
Trux Dole reports the rod builders met and successfully prepped & attached both handles and rod seats, marked spines and line guides and learned how to wrap their guides. Big thanks to Ken B and Tom F for helping teach and tutor folks and to George C for sharing his tools and tips. Linda successfully repaired her childhood bamboo rod with a new wrapping on line guides and got her first coat of epoxy applied.
Thanks in absentia to Ron B for his materials and for ordering the supplies and all his years of teaching. He was missed but we charged on. Next step will be epoxying the guide wraps and adhering the tips.
My friend Jay got into some nice smallmouth in the lower Clackamas by the water intake.
Great job everyone!
Thanks to everyone for coming to Harriet Lake today. It was another fun CFF Fish-a-long!
The day was beautiful and clear with a slight morning chill. This is a popular lake in the summer and the lot filled up fast. Parking was a small challenge but we all got settled then enjoyed hot coffee, cinnamon rolls and some conversation before hitting the water.
The lake had been freshly stocked with legal 7″ to 8″ rainbow trout. It was easy to get them to bite but hard to hook them. We all had lots of short strikes between landing fish.
Harriet also holds brown trout and Greg got a healthy one about 15″ long plus we saw a few others taken.
Overall, the best fly was a green/orange seal bugger but similar leech type flies worked. Because the water is incredibly clear (and cold, 45 degrees!) and hunting Osprey’s live here, finding deeper pockets then getting the fly down worked best. An intermediate line worked well for this.
The club members fished out of float tubes but we saw other fly anglers catching fish off the large fishing dock.
Around lunchtime the wind came up and this ended most everyone’s fishing on the lake. We had a great lunch of build-your-own deli sandwiches and homemade macaroni salad. Afterwards a few folks said they were going to try fishing the nearby streams and creeks before heading home.
This months the fish-a-long will be at Harriet Lake. This is a small impoundment on the Oak Grove Fork of the Clackamas River.
We will meet on Saturday morning about 8am in the main parking area. Coffee & donuts plus a sandwich lunch will be provided. There is a $5 fee per car for using the park so you may wish to look at carpooling with other members.
The lake is 22 acres and contains rainbow, cutthroat, and brown trout. There is a very long dock along the north bank but it is best fished from a floating devise such as a float tube. If you do not have a float tube the club now has a small fleet that you can use, so don’t use that as an excuse to not get out and fish!
The best fishing is at the top of the lake close to the inlet. It is probably best to use an intermediate lake line. As for flies a leach pattern works best….callibaetis nymph, seal bugger, woolly bugger, and chironomids fished sub surface with an indicator. As the lake has just been stocked a glo-bug colored dark with a felt pen looks a lot like a pellet. Below overhanging trees, ants will fall into the water and temp cruising trout.
The lake is due to be stocked with 3,000 legal size trout this week so fishing should be good. Also, along the way is the upper Clackamas River, which has trout and whitefish and the Oak Grove Fork is nearby too and has good numbers of cutthroat trout; these opportunities perfectly dovetail with the CFF Fly Fishing Challenge!
Last weekend I checked out several possible areas for our Fish-A-Long. Trillium is very beautiful but also extremely crowded on the weekends this time of year. The water was very low at Clear Lake and the restrooms needed some attention—yuck! Timothy Lake had potential but it was pretty crowded too so we will probably go there later in the year.
If you plan on coming please contact Dave Kilhefner or Paul Brewer so we know how much food to bring. Also, if you need a float tube we need to hear from you. All questions are welcome too!
It’s time for our annual Swap Meet!
We all have rods, reels, fly boxes, tools, etc. that we no longer use or need that we might be willing to trade, sell, or just give away. Someone else in the club might be on the lookout for one of those very items.
You might have an old rod, reel or line that someone might want for a grandchild. Bring ’em!
Maybe you have an old vest or rain jacket that just doesn’t fit well anymore. Bring it!
Perhaps you don’t tie flies anymore but still have some equipment or supplies. Bring ’em!
You probably upgraded something recently and don’t know what to do with your old stuff. Bring it!
We will swap, dicker, barter, buy, and sell. I hope to have time for members to share stories, memories, and tall tales about their fishing experiences. It should be a fun evening and might be the perfect time to bring along a family member or two. See you next Tuesday, July 17th.