June is a busy fishing month and we have a lot of good reports to share. Pictures are first with the report below.

From Joe Warren: Had a very productive trip to the upper Columbia, caught many trout and some nice ones too!

From Steve Brehm: While fishing Crane Praire I found a Stalcup damsel in my fly box and actually caught a fish on it. Just one but fun!

From Matt Baker: I was able to get out and fish a good amount this month.  Hit the Clackamas, Collawash, Willamette and Salmon rivers.  I also got on a couple creeks in the Columbia gorge.  Elk hair caddis fly was my friend this month.

From Craig Kerschen: Had a chance to fish the MO near Craig, MT.  Shared the river with these pelicans and managed a few nice rainbows. I’ll be going back sometime this year if anyone wants to join me.

From George Krumm: Caught springers and a sockeye on gear.

From Dave Kilhefner: I was able to fish the Coeur D’Alene river in Mid June. Water flow & clarity was perfect. Caught a nice trout & lots of whitefish in 3 hours of fishing. Saw some big trout in a slow deep eddy but couldn’t get them to take anything. Next time!

From Rich Harvey: hit the Metolius before the June Fish A Long. There was a nice gray drake hatch yesterday where I was standing. Got 18 before the hatch stopped. Water higher than it was in the fall & you can’t walk out on those logs they are less stable. Hatch has been starting around 3pm but the caddis fishing is pretty steady before that though.

Reports without Pics:

From Phil Hager: Went up to Timothy, north arm. Slow but a few in the 12”-15” range. Took them all on my Brick Leech fished near the bottom. Saw a couple others catch a few but don’t know what they were using. One had a dry line the other intermediate. Large count of ants crawling around at the ramp and quite a few on the water. I think that’s what most of the rises were hitting. No grasses, only small amount of algae growing in the channel above the lower island and only saw 3 rises up there. Didn’t see many from full width travel from the ramp to above the islands so no “gatherings” found. 

From Darryl Huff: Was able to fish western Montana. Best action was on Rock Creek. Hard to find fishable water as everything was high. Spotted a slot on the far side; wading was tough but worth the effort. Reached back after hooking the first fish and realized I had not hooked my net back on my waders!

From Mike Shiiki: FYI the Forest Service road 57 from ripplebrook to Harriett lake is back open.  I went up there Sunday afternoon before the 4th; the parking lot was full for the first time since the fires…I couldn’t find any big fish.

Thanks to everyone for contributing reports!

Over the last couple months we’ve experienced our usual crazy spring weather, from beautiful days with records high temps plus our fair share of cold, damp windy days. Thanks for everyone that shared their reports. As always, pictures first with the reports below.

April Reports

From Lane Hoffman: Had a good trip over to Rocky Ridge Lakes with Laura Anderson.

From Craig Kerschen: Some bigger smallies now moving into shallow water. This one at 19″ put a good bend on an 8wt.

From Rich Harvey: had an epic opening morning on the Deschutes below Warm Springs. Big big hatches & hungry fish; got 26 swinging soft hackles.

From Dave Kilhefner: caught the last of the winter steelhead run on the upper Sandy River.

May Reports

From Rich Harvey: took a road trip to Missoula to visit my stepson. Saw lots of beautiful country, wildlife and got into a bunch of brown trout on Rock Creek on my 3wt.

From Chris Brehm: Spent a few days in Wyoming on the green below Fontinel while on a month long Van trip. Only got a few whities to show for it, then on to the Miracle Mile where my luck improved. Small Perdigons and Wire Worms got it done

From Darryl Huff: Had to work hard for the fish but some nice ones were caught. No increase in the amount of big bugs around from 10 days ago. Stone fly nymphs were productive at times. Very little top water action. The caddis hatch has barely begun. 20 mile an hour winds all weekend didn’t help. On a good note, the old guys cleaned up at the poker table both nights!

From Mike Shiiki: We caught a few each & the boys caught some fatties. Some good chubbie eats and some green perdigon/rock worm eats, couple white fish on streamers (which we laughed at). I didn’t catch any big trout, but will say… relaxing in the boat & letting my son row us the whole way was awesome!

From Mike Shiiki: Tested a silver vs copper bead theory at Harriett Lake; it was overcast/mostly cloudy. Started with orange/red leech, copper bead, caught a couple. Switched to white leech w nickel bead. Did much better almost immediately. They stocked it with some big ones the past couple weeks & I brought home a bunch of 18”ers. Caught most between 5-6:30pm.

From Wayne Hughes: Did some flyfishing for Largemouth & Smallmouth Bass at Hagg lake. Managed to trick some nice bass to the surface to hit poppers. 

From Dave Kilhefner & Rich Harvey: we camped at Trout Creek Campground the last few days of May. Lots of different bugs were hatching and figuring out what the fish wanted was a challenge, but we got fish every day plus saw some very nice fish landed by other anglers.

We had some great weather and great fishing in March! Pictures first with the reports below.

From Chris Brehm: Bull Trout fishing on Lake Billy Chinook has been very good with multiple fish days. Bunny and M.O.A.L Leeches worked well.

More From Chris Brehm: March was a productive month for me: Got out on the ocean out of Newport for some Lings and Black Bass. Caught a few Rainbows and Whitefish on the Deschutes and the Crooked where this fatty was caught and released using a Black Mini-Leech under an indicator. Water on the Crooked was running high (+-450 cfs) but dropping. Caught Steelhead on the Sandy and this one on the Wilson too!

Congradulations to Garrett Lesko for winning Fly Tyer of the Year award!

From Dave Kilhefner: hooked some nice steelhead on the Sandy. Lost most of them but they all stayed on long enough to give me a rush!

From Andy Wilder: Andy is the owner of Wilder Lake out by Dunee. He said he restocked his lake and fishing has been fantastic for 18-22” trout. They are taking emerging chiromomids just under the surface plus there are a few mayfly hatches too. We had a really good fish a long there a couple years ago!

Thanks to everyone for contributing your reports!

Apparently February’s weather had a lot of folks staying home. I was able to get out several times and ended up doing OK. As always, pictures first with the report below.

From Dave Kilhefner: got out on the Sandy river a few times in early February and got a couple on spoons. An aquantance had a fun father/son day, hooking a nice fish then handing off the rod to his son who landed this chrome beauty.

The crazy weather last month put a damper on our fishing efforts but a few of us managed to get out and make some good things happen. Pictures are first with the report below.

From Darryl Huff: Got my 1st steelhead on the swung fly January 4th on the Sandy. Went back out the next day got a Wild steelhead on the swing. Had the drag a bit too loose on this one. It went airborne immediately with line coming off the reel too fast. Got out one more time on the 8th before the Sandy blew out & caught one of my top 10 best fighting hatchery steelhead. It had a left max clip and weighed 14.2 pounds.

From Chris Brehm: Spent several days chasing winter Steelhead. Got one little hatchery fish on the Sandy. Released some chrome natives on the Wilson. Stopped by Pyramid Lake NV on a road trip with my wife. No luck for me but I saw some nice fish landed. Hope to get back there soon.

Thanks to everyone for sending in their reports!

Hope everyone enjoyed the Holidays and was able to get out and do some fishing. The big news was Ed and Lane’s trip to Venice…Louisiana! Pictures first with the reports below.

From Lane Hoffman: Did well on some big Lousianna Redfish with Ed, Tom & Ken.

From Wayne Hughes: Fished Hagg lake and found some fat hold over rainbows willing to take some leach patterns fished on a type 3 full sinking line.

Spent a couple of days with the reintroduction of Chum salmon group at the Big Creek Hatchery. We helped relocate about 190 adult Chum salmon back into streams that historically had Chum runs in the past. This program might have some implications on some Willamette river tributaries.

From Darryl Huff: got a nice steelhead on the Sandy in late December. The steelhead run on the Sandy is late this year. The left max clip on this fish indicates that either the sperm or the egg came from a wild fish. 

From Rich Harvey: hit Blue Den Lake for some big trout. Cool/cold weather slowed down the fishing but grinding it out with white streamers paid off.

From Dave Kilhefner: Rich & I hit Big Tree Lake for some afternoon trout fishing for our last trip of 2023. The cold water had the fish moving slow but we managed a few each. Afterwards we got some good food and a cold one at the Clarkes General Store.

Thanks to everyone for sending in your reports!

November is often a sleeper month that can produce some very good fishing when the weather cooperates. For the most part it did. Pictures are first with the reports below.

From Greg Obrien: Went to the Delta with my brother in early November. He did great on stripers up to about 10 lbs and I scratched out a few smaller ones. We also got a few large mouth bass up to 5 lbs; 2/0 clousers with rattle beads were the ticket. Ventured east with a buddy for the only summer steelheading of the year for me and we got a couple, one 29” swinging a floating line/wet fly and one 32” swinging a bunny leech with a sink tip.

From Dan Colish: Hit the Deschutes in late November. It was a good day on euro. Easy to forget how close we are!

From Tanner Kennedy: Fished the Kilchis November 10 & 11^th swinging for chum.  I’ve been fishing that river since the late 1980’s and I don’t think I have ever seen that many chum present before; also don’t know if I have ever seen that many drift boats on the river! Friday the 11^th was crazy from Logger Bridge down, there were at least 50 boats on the river. On the 10^th I was fishing with my son in his boat and we managed to also find some chinook and a beautiful specimen of a native coho.

Thanksgiving morning I took my Son to an OFC Stillwater and we landed some nice rainbows on tiny bugs under indicators. It was really good. We landed 26 fish and made it home in time for Turkey and a nap.  We decided to try again 2 days later and found several more using indicators and stripped fly tactics.

From Darryl Huff: Made multiple trips to the Warm Springs area in November. We caught quite a few nice trout in the 15-19″ range, primarily on egg patterns.

From Craig Kerschen: Catching a Chum Salmon was my bucket list. I was able to make it down to Tillamook Bay for the last day of that season…Nov 15th.

I had hunted Elk up both the Miami and Kilchis rivers so I was familiar with those rivers. It did not take long to find Chum near the 3 mile marker up the Miami. What a thrill! Got a beauty, my first Salmon on a fly rod. 

From Chris Brehm: Spent a cold late November day on Diamond Lake. The Browns are gorgeous this time of year.  

From Mike Shiiki: Had a great day in Warm Springs watching Darryl hog all the hogs, again! It was a great day. My son Nathaniel did well too with a 20+” Redside. 

Also had a good day at OFC Big Tree Lake. The cabbage is starting to die down making it easier to get around.

From Dave Kilhefner: Rich Harvey, Dave Hopkins and I hit OFC Blue Den Lake a couple time. Both days were cold and the fishing was a little slow. We all managed some nice fish but Rich caught two exceptional trout measuring 34” and 31” on big white streamers.

Thanks to everyone for contributing thier reports. We already have some good ones rolling in for December as well.