July was a hot one but CFF members were able to get out, keep cool and have some good fishing. Thanks to everyone for contributing your fishing reports!
Here are our July reports; pictures first with the report following. Enjoy!
From Lane Hoffman: Had great rainbow fishing on the Green River in Wyoming.
From John Silkey: Just did an epic 2 day overnight float on the S. Fork of the Snake! Amazing trip – almost entirely yellowstone cuts in our boat (others also caught rainbows, a few browns, and whitefish.) All of mine were caught either on a giant, foam golden stonefly or a golden stone emerger on a 5 inch dropper.
From Wayne Hughes: Spent a week in Montana. Fished the Clark Fork river near Thompson Falls. Caught lots of Smallmouth bass, Pike, and some nice browns. It was smoky and hot!
From George Coutts: Fished the Deschutes for three days in mid-July. Caught one Rainbow indicator fishing on day one, then six Rainbows Euro Nymphing on day two. Day three was best with two 16” Rainbows Euro Nymphing. Fished Clear Lake at the Fish A Long & managed one trout.
From Gil Henderson: Fished the Deschutes a couple times casting & stripping Sculpin patterns. Caught some nice trout and lost a few too.
From Dennis Murphy: Rhona and I met up late Saturday morning and put in a few hours on the Upper Nestucca. We managed lots of 6-8″ native cutthroats on a variety of patterns, but the winner for me was a rainbow midge. After a bit of that, I started fishing the deepest, strongest riffles I could find and managed to pull up a 12-13″ cutthroat on a size 8 egg sucking leech.We eventually ran into hoot owl hours. Water was in the low 60’s the entire day but we’re all law abiding citizens so we called it a day.
From Greg O’Brien: My wife and daughter joined me on a dory trip with Pacific City Flyfishing. I’ve been on a trip with them every summer for a while now and it’s always a great time. Limits of black rockfish and Dungeness crab plus one coho landed out of 4 hooked.
From David Doble: I can’t believe it but I have no report for July. That’s not good! (note: I personally struggle getting out much in July as well! DK)
From Chris Gardener: Fished up river from Maupin on the Lower D a week ago and put a few in the net with Hopper Dropper & tight line nymphing tactics. Only fished in the AM since it hit 103 in the canyon shortly after lunch but fishing was pretty good overall. Also snagged a Caddis Larva in his mobile home. Pretty cool looking.
From Dave Kilhefner: Vickie Loftus and I hit Schmedeke Pond, mostly for casting practice but I managed a really nice size Crappie. Vickie landed a couple trout while kicking in at the end of the day. Surface water temp was 86 degrees so we released the trout as fast as possible and they quickly dove back into the depths.
From George Krumm: Spent time searching for Chinook in July in the Willamette. Fishing wasn’t great but there were fish to be found, primarily by trolling Pro-Troll ProChip 11 flashers with size 3.5 spinners with a coon shrimp. Averaged about three bites a day fishing from daylight to 10 a.m.
Great news everyone! The High Rocks meeting room is open so we will be having a regular “in person” meeting September 21st (for our newer members, we don’t have meetings in August as too many of us are out of town). Our last meeting at High Rocks was February of 2020, about 18 months ago. It’s been a long road!
This months Fish A Long will be Saturday, August 21st. The location is still to be determined but given the hot weather it will most likely be on the Columbia or Willamette chasing Smallmouth Bass. The Fish A Longs schedule has its own page on our website.
I’ll get our July fishing reports out soon. As summer progresses hopefully you have been able to beat the heat and enjoy some quality time outdoors. The picture above is my daughter Kelsey kayaking the upper Sandy.
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 fun way to get ideas for local fly fishing opportunities currently happening or coming up. Type “August” in the search box and you’ll get all the past reports for that month.
If there is anything you want to see on our blog, let me know. Thanks again to Jim Adams for resuming his fly tying column!
Please remember our sponsors, 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.
To be honest the catch rate for our July Fish A Long was a little slow. But it’s important to keep the Fish A Long momentum going plus survey’s say you have a better chance at catching fish if you go fishing so that’s what some of use did! Most of us ended up catching a fish or two and having a good time doing it.
Dave K and Kevin R started early on the Salmon River at the Miller Road access. We tried Euro Nymphing in the riffles for about an hour but didn’t find any trout. We did see some salmon rolling in the big pool and this brought back some good fishing memories from my youth. Some history: this area used to be called the Gravel Pit for obvious reasons and it used to be a premier fishing area for Steelhead in Oregon. Back then the Salmon River was heavily stocked and the returns were very good. It wasn’t unusual to see over 100 steelhead in the hole back then. It was such a good spot that former President George H.W. Bush fished there when he came to Oregon (not trying to be political, it’s just something that really happened a long time ago).
If you’ve never been to this place, it’s a well marked pullout about 1/2 mile before the Mt Hood RV Resort. The road is gated and it’s about a 1/2 mile walk in. You need to cover water to score but the wading in the river is a little challenging due to sharp loose rocks and also a fair number of logs & log jams you have scramble around. It’s a beautiful area but also a popular target shooting area so it’s best to hit it early and then move on.
After finishing up on the Salmon River we drove to Clear Lake as we’ve had some good fishing there this year. At the lake we met up with George C, Kadir S and Ken M. There were lots of Callibaetis duns and spinners on the water and fish were rising regularly. Still, the fishing was tough as the lake had gotten very low, the level being about 3,488. You can see from the chart that’s within 3 feet of the maximum drawdown level of 3,485 and later in the day when people started swimming we saw a guy walk all the way across the lake and the water only reached his chest.
One bright spot was that Ken, who has a background in graphic arts, made us a nice sign and had it on display at Clear Lake. We got several inquiries and hopefully they will sign up for our website updates and join us someday.
The usual mid day wind never materialized and it started getting pretty warm, so we got off the water around 1pm and headed to the Frog Lake Sno Park to see if anyone was there to meet for lunch. No one was so several of us finished our day with burgers and refreshments at the Brightwood Tavern, which was a great way to end the day!
CFF President Dave Kilhefner has announced that the July 24th fish-a-long will be at various Mt. Hood area lakes.
One of the more effective fly patterns you should have in your stilllwater arsenal is the Seal Bugger, a fly that was developed by Denny Rickards over 30 years ago. Denny is a noted stillwater fly fisherman on his home waters of Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon where he developed the Seal Bugger.
Denny thought that he could improve on the longtime favorite versatile fly that we know as the Wooly Bugger. By altering the materials and construction he came up with a fly that is famous for enticing trophy trout which is quite evident if you have ever watched any of his videos or presentations. The Seal Bugger looks much like a classic Wooly Bugger except Rickards’ version uses seal fur (or a substitute) dubbing instead of chenille for the body. Other differences include a reduction in the amount of marabou in the tail and also a reduction in the amount of hackle wraps on the body.
The Seal Bugger can be tied in many color variations. Denny’s own website lists 12 different combinations of tail, body, and hackle colors. Tied usually in sizes 8 and 10 and fished on intermediate sink lines the Seal Bugger is a must-have fly for your arsenal when you are heading out to stillwater fishing locations.
I once saw a list that Denny Rickards made of the flies that he would use if he was only allowed to fish with six flies for the rest of his life. The Seal Bugger was number one on the list!
Dave Kilhefner mentioned to me that Lane Hoffman had been tying seal buggers on euro nymph jig hooks and that they were “awesome”. In verifying that with Lane, he says that he has been tying them on jig hooks and “they have been very effective!”. So I would say that it would be interesting to experiment with wooly buggers compared to seal buggers, compared to jig hook seal buggers. Tie up some of each in your favorite colors and report back to the rest of us about which works best. They are probably fished best with intermediate sink lines, varying the depth and retrieve until you find the right combination.
SEAL BUGGER RECIPE (for both the Lane Hoffman and Denny Rickards versions) Hook: For Lane Hoffman’s version use a size 12 or 14 euro nymph jig hook with a 60 degree bend; (For Denny Rickard’s version use a Tiemco 5263, or Mustad 9672, or Daiichi 1720, size 8,10) Weight: For Lane’s version use a 7/64 or 1/8 inch black slotted tungsten bead; (for Denny’s version use 20 wraps .020 lead). Tail: marabou (fluffy fibers from the side of the marabou feather will give more movement); tied more sparse than wooly bugger; color of choice (Lane prefers olive); add 2 strands pearl flashabou or flash of choice; Body: Simi Seal, or equivalent (angora with ice dub); color of choice (Lane prefers olive) Hackle: 4 wraps saddle hackle; undersized compared to wooly bugger; color of choice (Lane prefers olive or orange) Rib: small copper wire
SEAL BUGGER TYING INSTRUCTIONS (for both the Lane Hoffman and Denny Rickards versions)
For Lane’s jigged version, place the slotted bead onto the hook and secure it with thread wraps.
For Denny’s standard seal bugger, wind 20 wraps of .020 lead wire around shank of hook. The wraps should start about one to two hook eye’s width behind the eye of the hook. Secure the lead with numerous thread wraps. *** Steps 3-12 are the same for both Lane’s jigged seal bugger and Denny Rickards standard seal bugger.
Tie in a marabou tail, making it a bit more sparse than for a wooly bugger.
Add one piece of pearl flashabou to each side of the tail.
Tie in a piece of copper wire for ribbing at the base of the tail. Leave it hanging out back of the fly.
Tie in the saddle hackle feather by the tip at the base of the tail. Leave it hanging out the back of the fly. ***(Prepare your dubbing material at this time.)
Form about a 5 inch dubbing loop at the base of the tail. Wind your bobbin to the front.
Load the dubbing loop sparsely with dubbing material and spin the loop tight. Wrap the loaded dubbing loop forward, forming the body of the fly. Anchor it with thread wraps at the front.
Wind the hackle forward, making four wraps of the hackle. Anchor the hackle at the front of the fly with wraps of thread.
Counterwrap the copper wire ribbing forward, taking care to move the wire back and forth to miss the hackle fibers. Anchor the wire with thread wraps at the front of the fly.
Whip finish and add head cement.
Pick out body hair fibers with a bodkin, brush, or velcro. Take care to not damage the hackle.
As our fishing reports proved, last month was exceptionally good with many different fly fishing opportunities to choose from. As we roll into summer hopefully you have been able to beat the heat and enjoy some quality time outdoors.
We don’t have a speaker lined up for July but will have another informal Zoom meeting at 7pm on July 20th to share flies, lies and the talk fishing. We did this last month and it was fun and informative. I’ll get an email reminder out a day or two before the meeting.
And speaking of meetings, here’s some big news. It looks like we will be able to have a meeting at High Rocks in September!
This month I had hoped to have an outdoor meeting centered around fly casting at a park like Westmoreland but couldn’t get it put together. However, I’m always game to throw some line so if anyone needs some casting pointers or practice send me an email and we’ll do it.
The July 24th Fish A Long will be on Mt Hood waters. Just like last year, we’ll spread out on various waters and meet for lunch at the Frog Lake Sno Park at 1pm. The Fly Fishing Shop has been putting out some excellent information on the local fishing opportunities, along with a summary of the Hoot Owl regulations in effect this month.
The Wilder Lake Fish A Long has been rescheduled for November. Same deal; everyone who paid to go in March can fish for free.
PGE advises Timothy Lake and Lake Harriet are open. Access is from Hwy 26 only. Lane Hoffman advises the road over Lolo Pass to Lost Lake is pretty bad and you’ll probably need to take the long way around thru Hood River.
For several years now we have been posting monthly fishing reports. Looking back on them is a fun way to get ideas for local fly fishing opportunities currently happening or coming up. Type “July” or “August” and you’ll get all the past reports for that month.
If there is anything you want to see on our blog, let me know. Thanks to Jim Adams for resuming his fly tying column!
Please remember our sponsors, 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.
Another great fly fishing month with lots of good reports to share. As always, pictures first with the report below.
From George Coutts & Dave Kilhefner: We booked a dory trip thru Pacific City Fly Fishing and got really lucky with perfect weather and good fishing. We came home with limits of Black Rockfish, Lingcod and Crab.
From Ryan Callahan: Did a four day float on the Smith River in Montana. We had great weather but the visibility in the river was poor so the fishing was slow. I caught the Brownie in the picture on a large black streamer. Overall we did well on streamers and redhead prince nymphs.
From Wayne Hughes: Floated the Willamette river for Cutthroat and Rainbows. Not a lot of hatches that day but found lots of cutts that were interested in some swinging soft hackles.
From Tom Phipps: With restrictions lifting I was able to make the annual trip to Cape Cod to fish for stripers with friends from Eugene. The weather was more cooperative than usual but the fish were picky and not as big as they have been some years and conditions were a bit challenging. We all got fish and it was great to be out and about.
From Mike Shiiki: Took my sons and nephew on our first trip to Timothy Lake in our float tubes. We fished across the lake from North Arm Campground. Temps got up in the 80’s and fish were hitting all day. We trolled with intermediate sink lines with black, maroon, white and olive buggers and leeches. A few even hit a brown size 8 skulpzilla. Most caught were fat 16-20” hatchery rainbows, with a few big natives.
We were worried that the fish might be stressed from heat/warm water they weren’t. They all recovered well and we did our best to release them asap. The best location was “the channel” across the lake from North Arm Campground, and very few people fishing.
From Brad Jonasson: David Hopkins and I explored Oregon with a mid-June trip to Lake County (Ana and Chewaucan rivers) where the Chewaucan near Paisley was particularly beautiful and productive. Then over to Harney County where a few big rainbows (16″, 17″) were nymphed from the Malheur River at Riverside. Finally the Owyhee where a few Browns were caught early evening (PMD’s) despite the hoards of Idahoans.
From Dave Doble: June started with a trip to Trillium when it opened up. That was a good trip with lots of fish landed, including that huge trout my daughter caught on spinning gear with a small kastmaster and 6 lb test. We caught a lot of fish that day on fly gear as well, mostly on buggers. With the new fish, anything shiny worked.
Had a blast at the Shad Fish A Long, it was great to break in my new 4 wt trout spey rod and get to work on my two handed casting. And those shad are great fighters on light gear! The shad were also a new species for me. I returned to fish shad two more times and had a blast.
We made one more trip to trillium before the heat wave started. Fishing was slow for a while. I broke out a bugger I started tying a few years back. I tie it specifically for that lake. Trillium has that whiskey tint to it. I put together a standard bugger with brown marabou, gold wire rib, a root beer sparkly chenille body, and a brown hackle. The key is, tying in a pinch of orange crystal flash alongside the marabou tail. It gives a shimmering emerald flash in that water that drives the fish bonkers. That fly was the ticket!
From Darryl Huff: I’ve been hitting the Deschutes at first light and the trout are feeding on top water caddis until about 7:30. Also took the granddaughters to a local pond and had a great time!!
From Tim McSweeney: Spent Father’s Day weekend (Fri-Sun) canoeing around Timothy Lake trolling Buggers and Leeches for stockers with my Wife and Daughter. We caught 2 dozen or so through the weekend with a handful used as examples for teaching my girl how to clean and prep them for the cast iron. All and all it was a great weekend of fishing and eating.
From Dennis Murphy: With hoot owl hours in effect now fishing close by has become important for me to maximize my time on the water. I’ve been hitting McIver Park before sunrise to get a few hours on the water these days and the fishing has been a learning experience. There’s a good lane the salmon/steelhead run up right by the disc golf course that I’ve been fishing and while I haven’t caught anything, but I’ve seen them! Figure it’s a matter of time before I get one of the very, very few steelhead that are coming through. I’ve been fishing a variety of tube flies and muddlers in pinks/blacks/chartreuses/reds but continue to mix things up. If you want to catch something else, there’s plenty of pike minnows, whitefish and a few 10-12″ trout.
I was invited on a trip to the Keys with three experienced anglers from my company. We put in three solid days in the hot, humid, and unfortunately overcast weather only to come up mostly empty handed. The only one of us that had any luck was taken into back waters to hunt for baby tarpon. On the first night I had couple shots at some tarpon that came through but they weren’t eating what I was throwing (Palolo worms). The next day we stopped for lunch and just as I got my rod put away and my sandwich unwrapped, a school showed up. I tossed my sandwich in the cooler and got everything out as fast as possible, but it was too late. I decided lunch wasn’t worth it and from then on out focused on fishing, subsisting off water and snacks. While we didn’t have good luck it was a great time and we are already planning a return trip next year.
From Greg O’Brien: My main June event was fishing the South Shore of Massachusetts during outer trip to visit my in-laws. We had a good day catching lots of schoolie sized stripers. Nothing over 28” but fun fly rod fish! My cousin fished swim baits and we each ended up releasing about 20 fish.
From Dave Kilhefner: Cheryl & I traveled to Minneapolis to help my son move back from college. On the way home we spent a few days in Emigrant, MT which is just north of Yellowstone Park. It was a fun road trip and we saw lots of sights and did a little fishing too.
To be honest our June Fish A Long for Shad started off a little rocky, but for the Clackamas Fly Fishers this was a first time exploratory shad mission so some difficulties were not totally unexpected. The Hamilton Island parking area was packed with cars and there was literally no place to fish, with bank anglers plunking for salmon every 10 feet as far as the eye could see, which was pretty discouraging. But, we persevered and found a good place to fly fish but it was a little over a mile hike downstream from the parking area (see updated map above). Fortunately we were able to walk on a flat, well kept trail.
Once we settled in to our spot we started catching shad right away. As shad migrate in waves, the action comes in waves. By lunchtime, everyone had caught fish and some of us did pretty well. Chris Brehm, who found “the spot” had particularly good luck and every time I looked upstream he had a fish on.
While rain was forecast, that didn’t happen and we were blessed with nearly perfect weather. The Columbia River was in good shape for fishing, with green tinted water that was 61 degrees, which made for comfortable wading. The water height was 18 feet at the Bonneville guage and at this bank fishing spot you wouldn’t want it any higher.
The current seam was just offshore so long casts were not needed, but you did need a sinking line or at minimum a sink tip line. The best presentation was to cast across the current, let the line sink for several seconds and then strip in the fly at it started to swing across the current. Most strikes came when the fly was about 45 degrees downstream swinging from the faster to slower water. When a wave of shad came thru it was not uncommon to hook fish on consecutive casts. A Red Bill Schaadt Shad Fly was the hot ticket. Fortunately we had plenty of them, as the bottom could be a little snaggy.
Special thanks to Chris Brehm for venturing downstream, finding a good place for us to fly fish and then coming back to get us. Also, thanks to Paul Brewer & his crew who went in search of easier to access water down by Beacon Rock. While they didn’t find good fishing, this was an exploratory day and they gave us good information. We’ll definitely do this trip again next year and will have a better idea what to expect.
Thanks to everyone that came out and made this fish a long a success!
May is a great fly fishing month and so we have lots of good reports to share. As always, pictures first with the report below.
From Brad Jonasson: In early May we Euro Nymphed the Deschutes Beautiful weather, good euronymphing, including a 16″ Redside. Stoneflies gradually finding their way ashore.
From Rhona Dallison: We had a great day at Lost Lake in the Coastal Range (near the Nehalem River). I had fished there with Sue and another friend in April and it was fairly slow, though our friend Kendrick did hook into and land one of the excess hatchery steelhead they stock in the lake. Today, May 2nd, Sue, Laura, Cheryl, Rhona, Kelly and Lane met up at Lost Lake around 9 and had a very productive day—all of us getting into double digit fish counts on 10-16” rainbows. Olive wooly buggers were hot on intermediate sinking and floating lines. Lane helped all the ladies gear up and hit the lake in assortment of pontoon boats, float tubes, inflatable kayaks and rafts. Fishing was productive all over the lake— it was a gorgeous spring day and there were a few other parties fishing from boats or the shore but plenty of room for everyone.
From Laura McGuill: A few of us made it spur of the moment to Lost Lake on coastal range this past weekend. The trout were very active and fun! I lost count after about 16 netted. One was a very nice size!
From Chris Foster: Three of us fished Crane Prairie using a combination of Sinking lines, Intermediate and Full Sink, slow trolling, casting nymphs (floating lines) and bobbers fishing with Chironomids. There was a massive hatch of Chironomids all day, they were small and only about 1/4 inch long. The lake was at full pool plus, the water was 50 degrees, a little on the cool side plus the fish were spread out and likely gorged with the massive Chironomid hatch and the full moon the night before. Had about 25 takes, landed 12 fish from 14″ to 19″. Used a firm wire hook releaser so we didn’t handle the fish. On the down side, a there have been a lot of thefts of fly rods, reels etc. at the Crane Prairie parking lots. Fortunately we were OK but one guy had several rods and reels stolen when his rig was broken into.
From Mike Siiki: Fishing report from the Molalla: My son and I hit it for the first time ever Saturday afternoon above the Glen Avon bridge, and had so much fun, we spent all day Sunday there again. We did well when we found “dropoffs” with fast water into deeper pools. Lots of nice size whitefish along couple trout in each pool. Most of the trout were right below the whitewater riffles, I’m assuming waiting for their snacks. Landed a few 12-14″ cutties, and some wild rainbows too. Did well euro nymphing, most on a size 14 frenchie nymph on the point, and a smaller perdigon above. Also note the Forest Service road is closed/gated not far upstream from Cedar Grove Campground due to the fire damage. I didn’t see any burned forestland, but was a little sad that’s as far as we could go.
From Dave Kilhefner: I’ve had this wooden landing net for just over 20 years. I recently replaced the original fabric mesh net with a fish-friendly rubber net. It was easy to do and the kit was reasonably priced at $14. If anyone wants to try this and has questions feel free to give me a call/email. Also, spey fished the Clackamas a couple times for summer steelhead, ended up hooking and losing a spring chinook. Dang!
From Chris Brehm: Hit the Deschutes a few times for Salmon Fly hatch. Picture of my biggest Deschutes fish ever caught on Chernobyl pattern. He took me all over the river before he was close enough for a quick photo. Didn’t get a measurement but you can see my size 14 boot in the lower left. My niece with a Palomino hybrid caught on a pond in Wyoming.
From Ed Rabinowe: a 165lb tarpon from Boco Grand Pass. Too much fish!
From Greg O’Brien: Hugo and I fished the Deschutes a couple of times, once early in the month focused on trout Spey to swing up trout on sculpin patterns and once later in the month we went with Colby who works with Spin The Handle on the Warm Springs side. All sorts of stonefly patterns worked well. Hugo will hopefully send info too, as he caught some really nice ones. The Willamette was productive using dark olive/black/gold clousers on a sinking line.
From George Coutts: Made a one day and a three day trip to the Deschutes. Didn’t hit the Salmon Fly hatch like I hoped but managed one rainbow on a dry fly. Spent most of my time Euro Nymphing. Caught several Rainbows in the 12″ range, at Harpam Flat on my one day trip. Had two mediocre two fish days and one 10 fish day on my three day trip to North Junction. Largest fish brought to hand was 14″. I did hook up two large rainbows but never saw them after the first violent tug – one that turned my fly line into a birds nest. I want those fish! Highlight was hooking up a rainbow in front of a guide with his two customers as they passed by in front of me and pulled in below me. I hooked up and landed two more in quick succession and they left. They should have stayed as the bite was just getting going.
From Adrian Choate: Just spent two weeks camping on the Deschutes at Oak Springs and the D didn’t disappoint! Fishing was mostly good and really improved when the weather cooled off. The fish were larger than I usually encounter and I lost a number of big fish several of which really took me to the cleaners. Fished mostly large stone fly patterns. When those cooled off switching to small yellow sallies and green drakes picked up the slack. Weekends were busy, but it still remained busy during the week also.
From Richard Harvey: On the Deschutes the stone flies are hatching pretty consistently along with hordes of caddis and some of those nice fat red sides are keyed in on dry flies.
From Darryl Huff: We fished the Deschutes 5 or 6 times during May. Best success with stone dry flies was in early morning and late evening.
From Carson Taylor: Pat Miller and I enjoyed three days of guided fishing on the Bighorn River in Montana. The first day, Mother’s Day, was epic with 25–30 trout landed, with most in the 18–20-inch range; the three miles from the Yellowtail Dam were uncrowded that day. The next two days were not as great, but several 22-inch rainbows and browns were caught. The fishing was shot and indicator nymphing with most fish caught on size 18 black Baetis nymphs.
From David Doble: Only fly fished 2 days this month, the Clear Lake Fish A Long then another day with my daughter and future son in law. We fished Clear Lake in the morning, then Frog a bit later. A number of fish hooked, many lost, at Clear. Olive, Yellow, and Olive with blue flash buggers. Nothing to speak of at Frog.
I see that Dave Kilhefner has organized a shad fishing (hopefully, a shad catching) Fish-A-Long for June 12th. That could truly be a memorable day in the history of Clackamas Fly Fishers Fish-A-Long outings in terms of numbers of fish caught.
Although Nick Wheeler is no longer at The Royal Treatment fly shop, he is still fondly remembered for the expertise he added to local anglers’ knowledge about flyfishing for shad. Nick spoke to our club on the topic and also was on hand to lead us during an evening of tying up shad flies. Despite the good natured banter he suffered from others in the fly shop, Nick’s enthusiasm for the previously overlooked shad was infectious.
Click here to read an article on Bill Schaadt and his shad fly that is being reprised from the Clackamas Fly Fishers blog from 2018. Much of the information in the article was gathered from an interview I did with Nick, as well as his evening presentation to the club.
Below you can find the Recipe and Tying Instructions for Nick Wheeler’s version of Bill Schaadt’s Shad Fly… RECIPE: Hook: Tiemco 3761 #6 ; or Fulling Mill F35085 #8; or similar Thread: anything hot orange; Nick Wheeler recommends Danville’s Fire Orange flat waxed 210 denier thread (covers well with fewer wraps); a second color of choice would be fluorescent green Tail: pearlescent krystal flash Body: silver mylar; size 12 or 10 Eyes: medium size silver bead chain Head: thread; tapered behind and front of the eyes Coating: head cement (or Sally Hansen’s or UV resin) INSTRUCTIONS: ~Lay down a thread base. ~Tie in a tail of about 10-12 strands of krystal flash; trim the tail strands fairly short, about 1/4 to 3/8 inch long. ~Tie in a strand of mylar at the base of the tail. Tie it down with the gold side facing up so that when you wrap it the silver side will be facing up. Move your bobbin forward. ~Spiral wrap the mylar forward to about the mid-point of the hook, overlapping each wrap onto the previous one so there are no gaps. Tie it off and remove the excess mylar. ~Use a few figure-8 wraps to tie in the bead chain eyes, at a distance about 1/3 of the hook length back from the hook eye. That should put the eyes at a position slightly more than halfway back from the eye to the mylar. See the drawing below. (Although not essential, anchoring the eyes in with a drop of super glue may be helpful because these flies can take a hammering during your multi-fish day of fishing! ) ~Continue wrapping the thread to form the head which will extend from the mylar to the eye of the hook. Taper the head both behind and forward of the bead chain eyes so that the head is thickest at the eyes and then tapers to the front and back. Because of the way you positioned the eyes in Step 5 the taper in front of the eyes will be slightly longer than the taper behind the eyes. Whip finish the head right behind the eye. ~For added durability give the finished fly two coats of head cement over the entire body and head (but not the tail!). ~The bead chain eyes are not centered on the head. The taper of the head in front of the eyes should be longer than the taper behind the eyes.
June is always a good fishing month with plenty of angling opportunities to choose from. Pictured is a shad from Willamette Falls taken while fishing with Rob Crandall a couple years ago. I’m looking forward to doing this again soon. For the sake of comparison, I went back and re-read last year’s June 2020 Presidents message and things are definitely much better this year!
Hopefully you have been able to get out and enjoy some time on the water as we had plenty of good weather and water conditions last month. The CFF May fishing reports will be posted soon and we’ve got some good stuff to share.
We don’t have a speaker lined up for June, mostly because several of us, me included, are going to be out of town when the June meeting is scheduled. Given this, we will have an informal Zoom meeting at 7pm on June 8th to share flies, lies and the talk fishing. We did this last month and it was fun and informative. I’ll get an email reminder out a day or two before the meeting.
At the Zoom meeting last month it was suggested we have a contest to guess the background location of our favorite fishing spots. If you have a photo you’d like to submit for this contest please email it to me. Once we have 10 or 12 photos we’ll get the contest set up.
The June Fish A Long will be for Shad below Bonneville Dam at the Hamilton Island Parking Area. This is on the Washington side so we’ll go on June 12th, which is a free fishing weekend in Washington. Trux Dole fished there last year and had a great day; here’s his shad fishing report from last year and I’ll email the details for the upcoming fish a long soon.
The Wilder Lake has been rescheduled for November. Same deal; everyone who paid to go in March can fish for free.
I’m sending out email updates once or twice a month and most of you are already on our email list. If you’d like updates in real time put your email in the SUBSCRIBE TO BLOG VIA EMAIL option and you’ll get an email notice every time a new blog is published, which averages 3 to 5 times per month. If you’re on a PC this option is just to the right of this post, but if you’re on a smartphone you’ll need to scroll way down a ways to find it.
If there is anything you want to see on our blog, let me know. Thanks to Jim Adams for resuming his fly tying column!
For local fishing, Summer Steelhead and Spring Chinook are in the Clackamas and Sandy Rivers. While the numbers are down, they are being caught and are the very best fish of the year. They will be in ultra prime condition from now until the water drops and warms. PGE reports they are getting a very good return of native Spring Chinook on the Clackamas and last month I hooked one but lost it. Dang! This time of year Clackamas River fishing is best early in the morning before the rafters take over the river. The Oregon Fishing Club lakes are fishing very well, especially the ones down by Salem. This will continue until the water gets too warm. The Mount Hood Lakes have all be stocked and should be good options for float tubing. Last but not least, the Deschutes is fishing well but the Stonefly hatch is winding down.
PGE advises Timothy Lake and Lake Harriet are open again. Access is from Hwy 26 only.
For several years now we have been posting monthly fishing reports. Looking back on them is a fun way to get ideas for local fly fishing opportunities currently happening or coming up. Type “June” or “July” and you’ll get all the past reports for that month.
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