Late October can throw a variety of surprises at you and this year was no exception. Trout fishing had been rated as “hot” but on Thursday someone turned on the spigot and the water level jumped from 3,600cfs to 4,500cfs; besides more water there were more leaves in the water and the bite was a little off. But just like in years past, trout and whitefish can’t resist the egg bonanza when the Chinook are spawning.
This fish a long is one of our clubs most popular and was well attended. The weather was pretty mild, the wind was light and everyone got into fish with some breaking into double digits. Rich got a big sucker that pulled hard and fought long; for a while we thought it was a small steelhead. The day before Darryl did get a chrome steelhead that was quickly released. Tim got a double on redsides fishing a two fly rig.
Interestingly we all had a much higher than average number of missed strikes & short bites today. The hot fly was some sort of small orange egg pattern but all flies with orange on them worked.
There were no Bighorn Sheep playing on the wall this day but we had some good sightings right along the road.
Thanks to everyone for coming! Next month we will try to hit the Kilchis River for Chum Salmon but if the water conditions are poor (like they have been the last 4 years) we will go to an Oregon Fishing Club lake.
September cooled off nicely which caused fishing to heat up and CFF members enjoyed some good fishing. Thanks to everyone for contributing your fishing reports!
Sorry these are a little late, but here are our September reports; pictures first with the report following. Enjoy!
From Chris Brehm: Fished Kelly Creek and N Fk Clearwater River in Idaho for 5 days. Caught Cutthroat on October Caddis and Whitefish on Nymphs up to 16”. Rivers were full of colorful Kokanee , Fall foliage starting to turn and bears were stuffing themselves on Elderberries and camp coolers. Long drive but worth it.
From Kevin Rogers: Recently I’ve done a bit of euro nymphing, had a slow start to the morning, but got my first ever double today
Defiantly got the adrenaline going! On the Molalla, up at the molalla river recreation area. About 30min from the house
From John Silkey: attached is one photo from the fish along weekend – a decent cutthroat I caught on the Trask (my first time on that river!) over off of N. Trask Road, maybe 3 miles upstream of OFC #3. Caught a couple stripping a Mickey Finn through a couple deeper pools. I was sick the weekend of the fish along so figured I wouldn’t bring that to the lunch meet up. But thanks for organizing it! Sea runs remain on my list and now I have more confidence to go chase.
From Darryl Huff: Fishing Warm Springs before the steelhead closure with a 9′ 5wt and 5x tippet, I came across a keeper. It had a clipped adipose and maxillary indicating that it was from the Round Butte hatchery program. It took a size 16 green perdigon.
From Dennis Murphy: I’m not a big fan of the heat that the month started with but I still got out there to hunt down some carp. It took me a few outings to get it down, but once now that I get it, I’m catching em! If you haven’t fished for carp before, you’re sight fishing for them, which means you really need blue skies so you can see them. Once you see them, you’re looking for some key behaviors so you know you can catch them, the most important being tailing. Tailing is when they’re face down in the mud sucking up plant matter, crawfish, clams, etc from the ground. There’s some other behavior such as clooping, cruising, and sunning, but those usually mean you’re not catching that fish. I recommend using a 9′ 8wt rod with a floating line and a 10ft leader (I build my own). Fly selection is tough since you really want some specialized ones, I recommend John Montana’s Hybrid Carp Fly.
From Dave Kilhefner: Got into a few nice smallmouth on the Willamette River by Gladstone. A light colored Clouser Minnow was the ticket.
Like all fly anglers, I am always on the lookout for new information to improve my chances of landing fish. I pay particular attention to those fellow flyfishers who I know have skills and experience that surpass my own. So years ago when our own Dave Kilhefner told me he had recently enjoyed a 100 fish trip on the Deschutes, he immediately had my attention. When I inquired about his secret fly or flies, he simply said… “egg patterns”. On that particular trip Dave had started out chasing steelhead but the steelheading proved to be unproductive. Turning to trout as a diversion he found he had an easy time taking advantage of the trout keying in on the eggs being scattered by the chinook salmon that are in the Deschutes at this time of the year. On the Deschutes I am usually trying to crack the code about what bug is hatching and what stage of the life cycle I should be using. So thank you, Dave, for opening my eyes to another possibility of what I should be carrying in my box of trout flies.
Here is a general recipe and one method of tying instructions for a Glo-Bug type of egg pattern:
GLO-BUG EGG PATTERN
RECIPE Hook: Tiemco 2457, Mustad C67S, Daiichi 1120, or equivalent; #6 – #14 Thread: 6-0 or stronger; color to match the color of the egg Body: Glo-Bug yarn or McFly Foam; color of choice (Note: Many people find the McFly Foam easier to work with. It tends to form a tighter, more dense egg.)
TYING INSTRUCTIONS
1. Lay down a base of thread at the front 1/3 of the hook.
2. Secure two or three clumps of GloBug yarn or McFly Foam on top of the hook shank with 4 firm wraps of thread. Keep the material on top of the hook shank. (The thickness and number of the clumps will depend on the size of the hook used. You will need to experiment to find the right amount of material.) To form a “blood dot” or “eye” in the egg, lay a narrow strip of yarn/foam of a contrasting color on top of the original clumps of yarn/foam.
3. Secure the clumps with 8 wraps right in front of the clumps. Then, while pulling up on the clumps, circle the base horizontally with three tight wraps of thread. Whip finish and apply head cement.
4. Pull up firmly on the yarn or foam and trim it all at once in a slight arc.
5. Work the yarn/foam around the hook to form a round egg. Trim as needed.
***Important tip***
”The key to tying a good egg pattern is to tie a SMALL one. 95% of the ones I see are too big…For trout I like to copy a 6mm bead and have it be that size or a little smaller.”
Check out these links for some good videos with tips for tying Glo-Bug eggs:
EGGO WEIGHTED EGG PATTERN
An Eggo Fly is weighted egg pattern and makes a good anchor fly. Here is a general recipe along with tying instructions for an Eggo pattern:
RECIPE Hook: Tiemco 2457, Mustad C67S, Daiichi 1120, or equivalent; #6 or #8 Thread: 6-0; color of choice Eyes: Lead eyes Body: Chenille, Crystal Chenille, or Estaz; color of choice
TYING INSTRUCTIONS
1. Lay down a thread base where you will want to anchor the lead eyes.
2. Anchor the eyes with multiple figure-8 wraps of thread. Further secure the eyes with horizontal wraps below the eyes but above the hook shank. Apply super glue to the wraps.
3. Use thread to anchor a length of chenille right behind the eyes.
4. Use figure-8 wraps to form a round egg shape around the lead eyes, tying it off in front of the eyes. Whip finish. Apply head cement or super glue.
Here is a nice illustrated article from Dave Kilhefner showing the steps for tying the Eggo Fly.
Dave has produced another fine article titled “Egg Fly Fishing Secrets” that appeared in Flyfishing and Tying Journal. I would think this should be required reading for those flyfishers planning on fishing egg patterns, especially those club members heading to this month’s fish-a-long at Beavertail on the Deschutes.
And finally, here is a drawing from Dave showing a suggested way of rigging up for fishing your egg patterns (Pay attention here… remember, Dave had a 100 fish trip on the Deschutes!) —
October is one of my favorite months of the year and one big reason is the October Fish A Long at Beavertail Campground on the Deschutes River. With the great fishing and canyon scenery it’s hard to beat! It will be on Saturday, October 23rd and in the past many of us have camped there. I’ll get the details of this popular Fish A Long out the week before.
For our October 19th meeting, I’ve been thinking Maybe we could have both a Zoom and In-Person meeting? I think it’s possible. Basically, the presentation would be on Zoom and at that point it’s pretty easy to hook a laptop to big screen TV for the in-person folks. Stay tuned as those details will be emailed to you a week before the meeting.
Speaking of email, we will go back to having email reminders every time a new blog is posted (this is called an RSS feed). For our club, this is the easiest & most popular to keep the information flowing.
Brad Jonasson want’s everyone to know the Fly Fishing Challenge is still open and to sign up if you haven’t already.
For several years now we have been posting monthly fishing reports. Looking back on them is a good way to get ideas for local flyfishing opportunities currently happening or coming up. I’ve tested it out; type the word October or November in the search box and you’ll get all the past reports for that month.
With all the fly fishing opportunities this month try using the Meet Up function on our Webpage Forum to schedule fishing trips with other members.
Late next week I’ll post the September club reports and I’m happy to report we have some good stuff.
Please remember our sponsors this fall, they are the lifeblood of the club. Stop by their shops and let them know you appreciate their support. Better yet buy something or book a trip.
