With the cold weather February wasn’t the easiest month to find fly fishing success but several of us got out and made a few things happen. Good times were had and some nice fish were caught! Pictures are first with the reports below.

From Keaton Andreas: Caught my first Steelhead on the Necanicum River back on February 18th!

From Darryl Huff: from early February; fishing started improving in Oxbow.

From Joe Warren: fly fished Lake Billy Chinook and Fall River with a good friend in mid February & got some nice ones. See the full write up on my Blog.

From Chris Brehm: Spent a lot of hours chasing winter Steelhead in January and finally scored in February. First was an 11lb hatchery chromer, then a week later fishing with our son Sammy, we caught and released 2 bright natives along with this bruiser. All were caught on plugs in low clear water on the Sandy.

From Dave Kilhefner: borrowed a fishing step ladder from Chris Brehm and hit Pyramid Lake with Joe Warren. See the full write up on Joe’s Blog.

From Greg O’Brien: My brother and I finally made our multi-cancelled and delayed trip to a warm saltwater location.  We went to the Grand Slam Lodge in Mexico for 4 guided days of fishing.  It was only my second time tropical saltwater fishing, and was pleased to find that my time spent casting and double hauling the 8 and 9 wts lately helped me out. It was really windy 3 of the 4 days but we caught many Bonefish and Jacks plus a few other cool species. We had a few legit shots at Permit and Snook but they didn’t eat.  Fun times, and I can’t wait for my next tropical saltwater trip which will hopefully be Christmas Island in 2024.

From Mike Shiiki: February was a little slow in the OFC lakes, but was always able to fool a couple of large ones.  Only had a couple hits at Turner Lake, but they were both XL and hanging out near the grassy banks.  Blue Den lake, did alright casting towards/near trees on that day but that place seems like they’ve been in different spots every day.  Ranier Lakes was the most productive but a couple times the Middle Lake was iced over the past couple months.  Still having success in our tubes with intermediate sink line, midge tip lines, and leeches. 

From Terry Martin: Fished Blue Den lake with Craig. Wate temp was 45 degrees and we caught fish all day long with red & black balanced leeches and black chironomids.

Fish A Long Report: with the low water the February Fish A Long fishing was very slow. No steelhead were hooked, seen or even rumored to be present in the Sandy. However, I recently recieved several donations of some very nice fly tying materials and decided to get them out and so our members could choose what they wanted. Rich and Ian both made a good haul!

Thanks everyone for contributing your reports!

Admittedly, January wasn’t the easiest month to get on the board but several of us got out and tried to make something happen. Fishing success or no, good times were had! Pictures are first with the reports below.

Lane Hoffman put on a first rate “Louisanna Boil” for new years day. Thanks Lane!

From Dave Kilhefner: Chris Brehm and I floated Upper to Lower McIver on the Clackamas. Fishing was slow but we saw one big old summer run caught plus caught a jack steelhead on a spoon.

From Darryl Huff: The lower Sandy River was OK in January. Fishing wasn’t hot but I stuck with it and ground out a few with beads.

From Dave Kilhefner: Got the boat out a few times to make sure it’s running OK and ready for February and March when the Clackamas steelhead show up in better numbers. Fingers crossed!

The January Fish A Long was a success. Many of us improved our spey game on both the casting and presention levels.

Thanks to everyone that provided reports!

We had good weather in November that helped produce some good fishing. Pictures are first with the reports below.

From Lane Hoffman: Buddy is at the Coast catching the first Chum Salmon after the early November rains. Says they are big & mean!

From Dave Vedder: got some nice trout in mid November on Rocky Ford Creek drifting scud imitations.

From Dave Kilhefner: caught a couple late Coho twitching jigs on the Icicle River with friends.

From Rich Harvey: hit Big Tree at the OFC just before Thanksgiving. There was a little ice forming on the lake but the trout were active and taking a little green midge pupa about a good under the surface. This got me motivated to finish filling my midge box; 156 patterns! The’ve worked great this fall; caught quite a few big fish on these small flies.

From Lane Hoffman: had good luck for Thanksgiving week Chum & Chinook!

From Mark Bachmann: spent the first half of November in Loreto, Mexico fishing the Sea of Cortez. When the wind laid down we had very good action for a variety of gamefish, especially Roosterfish and Snapper.

From Dave Kilhefner: got a native Coho on the Sandy while prospecting for early steelhead Thanksgiving weekend.

From Darryl Huff: found some late summer steelhead in good shape on the Sandy fishing with beads.

From Chris Brehm: I was able to spend a few days near Florence fishing for Coho in Tahkenitch Lake. A good rain had brought in some fresh fish and as they spread through the fingers of the lake. They often begin to react like Bass & in fact we caught most of them casting Chatterbaits with pink worm trailers near shorelines. My brother Steve and his pal Walt joined us for one day fishing only fly rods but only landed a few small bass.

Got an invite to go Bottom fishing out of Newport. A strong East wind made for a beautiful ocean where we caught some nice Lings and a few other assorted Rockfish. The water was so clear that in some places we could see the bottom in 30′ of water.

Thanks to everyone for submitting your reports!

The big news for this Fish A Long started with a forecast for some very cold weather but fortunately, warmer weather rolled in and Saturday turned out to be quite mild with no wind; it was a perfect November day.

The Saturday morning bite wasn’t hot but we all got fish. We broke for an early lunch, regrouped and headed back out. The afternoon featured decent hatches of Blue Wing Olives & Midges…and the fish were on the bite!

Chris and Tim hit the water below the Beavertail boat ramp and had non-stop, lights out fishing on egg patterns early then midge patterns in the later afternoon. Both agreed it was one of their best “numbers of fish” days ever & they doubled up at least 8 times!

Rich and I ventured downstream around the Macks Canyon area and did well, mostly on midge patterns. Rich hooked a couple monsters we never saw that were either big old salmon or late steelhead (or maybe one of each?).

Some general info. The water temp was 48 degrees and so the morning bites were a little slow. There were no more spawning salmon around Beavertail but still a bunch down by Macks Canyon. We saw a good herd of sheep on the canyon wall plus a lot of deer in the evenings, including a huge buck. The most unusal sight of the weekend was a seal up at Beavertail, hopefully it was chasing a huge school of steelhead upstream but given the catch reports, that wasn’t likely! The drive over the mountain was snowy with a little ice, but overall not too bad.

Thanks to everyone that made it over to the Fish A Long, it was a good time!

October is a big fly fishing month and so we have a lot of good reports to share. As always, pictures are first with the reports below. Enjoy!

From George Krumm: Naknek was very good for Bob ‘bows!

From Darryl Huff: Warm Springs grows large white fish. I marked it on my net and measured it when I got back to my truck at 21 inches. When it jumped out of the water I had no idea what it was!

From Mike Shiiki: Nathan and I tried out a couple OFC lake/ponds today: Turner lake near Dallas and Highland ponds near Molalla/Oregon City. We only caught 1 trout all day, this 20”+ Nathan landed at Highland ponds but caught A LOT of bluegills, some bass & landed my first Crappie. 

From Phil Hager: Had some great results on the upper N. Fork reservoir a couple weeks ago. Launched at the store ramp and rowed my Hobie pontoon as far up the Clack as possible and found several large gatherings of Rainbows in the 10”-15” range. The best one was coming back down, across from the gated ramp and pilings, when I tangled with a good sized one that was 32” and fat! I think it was a “holdover” from the steelhead spawn last spring. Everything caught was on my size 10, 3X long, Brick colored mohair leech. Sorry, was by myself and couldn’t get a photos. 

From Chris Brehm: A very smokey morning at Crane turned beautiful with some nice Crane Bows caught on Chironomids and Balanced Leeches. Also had a nice late fall day on Diamond Lake with some fat browns on leeches.

From Mike Shiiki: I recently joined Oregon Fishing Club and have been visiting as many of their spots as possible.  The lakes and ponds are great for float tube/canoe fishing as shown by my son Nathan and my nephew.  Also had a lot of fun on the October Beavertail fishalong trip, we were only able to fish Friday, but it was nice to meet some more members – Dave, Brad & John, and also witnessed Darryl’s steelhead landing. 

From Greg O’Brien: My brother and I went to the Klamath River to fish the Keno stretch in Oregon with a guide.  It was 100% streamer fishing mainly with 2-3” heavy sculpin patterns and floating lines.  The flows were low, the float technical with a couple tough areas where we nearly wrapped the raft.  The fishing was tough in the mornings then really turned on from about 1-3 pm then shut down again.  The rainbows here are chunky and fight hard!

From Chris Brehm: Brother Steve and I fished last Thursday along the road above Beavertail. Never made it all the way to Beavertail. Lot’s of Salmon and pretty good fishing using Darryl’s bead methods.

From Darryl Huff: A friend was camping at Beavertail in late October. Went over in the morning and fished a half day with them. Definetely more trout have moved in to the area. Spawning salmon were everywhere and did well for trout in the 12 to 16 inch range on egg patterns. Here’s a couple of my new creations.

From Dave Kilhefner: Hit the Highland Ponds at the OFC with Rich and Kevin. These ponds were recently stocked and we did OK fishing Chironomids. Best bite was in the afternoon but it died promply around 3:30.

Thanks to everyone that submitted reports!

This fish a long report could be summed up on one sentence: lots of whitefish but not many trout! Still, we had some great highlights. A good number of us camped out, enjoying nice weather while it rained on the west side. It was possible to have campfires and with clear nights and a dark moon the stars were nothing short of spectacular. While trout fishing was a little slow, several nice trout were caught and Darryl even landed a steelhead.

The water conditions featured prime 54 degree water temps, stable flows and good clarity. On Sunday the White River threw a little color at us but not enough to dampen our confidence.

For the most part the wind stayed down until the afternoons, but by then most of us had flogged the water enough and it was time to relax, enjoy happy hour & snacks before dinner around the fire.

The road had been freshly graded all the way to Beavertail but it was rough going further downstream. And of course, the word was the fishing was better 7 miles downstream at Mac’s Canyon.

On the drive home it was good to see a layer of fresh snow on Mt Hood.

Thanks to everyone for coming! Next month our fish a long will be on November 12^th. We will try to hit the Kilchis River for Chum Salmon but if the water conditions are poor (like they have been the last 5 years!) we will come back to Beavertail as everyone enjoys this location this time of year.

September had some big wildfires in Oregon but we had some good fishing too! As always, the pictures are first with the member reports below.

From Chris Gardiner: Spent 3 days on the Metolious with a couple fishing buddies. There were a ton of hatches going on, including Green Drakes and October Caddis. Caught a fair amount of decent sized Whitefish and a few healthy Redsides. We definitely put in the work to get the hook-ups. Lots of hiking and crawling in and out of the river. My buddy flew his drone for a few minutes just for fun. Pretty cool view of the Met from above.

From John Silkey: Did my first float of the Deschutes where I was behind the oars. Drifted a slow two nights from Buckhollow to Mack’s with a friend from AZ. He was targeting trout, I was after Steelhead. Neither of us did much of anything, yet it was still a gorgeous journey. The one trout we pulled in was on my spey rod (gobbled up a redneck revenge.) Didn’t see a lot of bug activity on top of or under the water. Reports from other anglers echoed our slow performance but did hear of at least 2 steelhead landed on that stretch.

From George Krumm: Pretty much all I did this month was hover fish for salmon. Fishing was good! Spent a lot of days in Drano lake and at the mouth of the Klickitat. One evening in Drano Marcus and I caught 17 kings!

From Chris Brehm: Fished three days on the lower Umpqua for Coho & only netted two. (No Pics) Lots of jumpers but few biters. My friend went back the following week and did well.

Tried to fish East Lake but the water was too low to get my boat in, so I Fished Paulina Lake twice and caught mostly small Rainbows on Baetis Nymphs plus a nice Brown on a Beetle.

Finished the month with two days at Diamond Lake. Fishing was slow overall but got a few very nice Browns on Leech Patterns, and my very first Tiger Trout on a Chironomid.

From Darryl Huff: did well on steelhead in the lower Deschutes, including my biggest hatchery steelhead to date; it weighted 16lbs.

From Dave Kilhefner: Inspired by a report from Chris Gardiner (see the June reports) I hit northern Idaho and had some good fishing for West Slope Cutthroat & Whitefish on the St Joe River by Calder.

Thanks to everyone for providing these reports!

In spite of the hot, dry weather August was another good month to get out on the water. As always, pictures first with the reports below.

From Darryl Huff: My son and I did well on the Lower Deschutes re-opener.

From Timothy McSweeney: I spent the last week of August road tripping and backpacking around the state. Fishing was never the priority but a lot of fishing happened. I first hiked about 30 miles on the Elkhorn Crest trail in the Blue Mountains where a lot of brookies were caught (and eaten). 

During one of the 12 mile days I came across some mountain goat hair and separately–a feather. So I decided to try to tie a fly lakeside with materials at hand and catch a fish, landing a brookie on the 3rd cast. The fly wasn’t pretty and it only lasted one fish, but it was a fun experiment. Then camped for a couple days on the John Day catching bass, and then met up with my family for some rock hopping and stocked keepers on Quartzville Creek.

From Chris Brehm: Fished Buoy 10 three times with only a few to bring home but released a lot of Tules.  Good trout fishing at Wikiup but there was a huge Baetis hatch and the fish were  gorged so most were caught on spoons. One day chasing commercial Tuna out of Ilwaco. Two of us caught over 60 Albacore on hand lines.

From Mike Shiiki: fished Timothy Lake with my Son and Dave Kilhefner. Beautiful day on the water and we caught some nice fish too.

From Dave Kilhefner: Lane Hoffman and I made a trip to the Green River in Wyoming, stopping at the Owyhee along the way. Fishing was a little tough but all the fish were quality.

From Dave Kilhefner: Managed to get out for Smallmouth Bass on the Willamette River out of Hebb Park.

From Ron Buchard: Stopped by and met up with some club members for lunch in West Linn. We had a nice visit and it was good to see old friends!

Thanks to everyone for providing these reports!

Apologies for falling behind getting the clubs fishing reports posted. Here’s our reports from July. Lots of us got out on the water and had good times. As always, pictures first with the reports below.

From John Silkey: Started July with a trip back to the S. Fork of the Snake – took my wife along and she landed her first fish ever! We had two great days each netting the S. Fork slam both days, plus tons of Whitefish. 

Also spent 4 days exploring the Metolius between Camp Sherman and Lower Bridge – tried everything in my bag (including breaking my rod) and never got so much as a look. Thankfully that river is beautiful just to look at. 

From George Krumm: I had good success landing Columbia River Chinook and steelhead on plugs. 

From Mike Shiiki: Timothy Lake has been fun! My friend Dave Geiter and I were in our float tubes and landed a few rainbows between 9-11am, but between 11:30-3pm we did well trolling olive/orange, and black/red half-wit leeches, intermediate sink lines in and near the channel that runs near the North Arm Campground.

We’ve also started hitting the Molalla River again.  You can get way up stream and find some great runs, holes and lots of little trout, plus some decent sized white fish, and occasional larger trout (ie over 8″). It’s a great little escape!

From Timothy McSweeney: Spent a week on the Metolius fishing for bulls and had a great time!

From Bob Beswick: Fished only a few hours at Crane Prairie until the wind came up. They were eating damsel nymphs just below the surface.

From Chris Brehm: A week or so before the fishalong, I went with my wife and friends to Hosmer.  Beetle patterns produced some gorgeous trout. A few days later, beetles worked again at East Lake. (A friend’s son with his first fly caught rainbow.) Just before the fish along I landed a few nice “Cranebows” on balanced Leech patterns.

From Dave Kihefner: George Coutts and I fishout out of Pacific City with Connect Outfitters. Salmon fishing was slow but we have a great time with the Rockfish and George got a nice Lingcod.

From Dave Kilhefner: Jim Bennett & I got out on the Willamette River out of Hebb Park for some Smallmouth Bass & had a surprise Channel Catfish. Woolly Buggers and Clouser minnows worked well.

From Dave Kilhefner: Rich Harvey and I hit the lower Trask and Nestucca Rivers for cutthroat trout. Mostly we caught small 6” to 8” residents but got a few larger ones in the 14” range.

Thanks to everyone for providing these reports. Hope you all are having a good summer!