Brown Trout Fly Fishing

Special Oregon to Iowa Fishing Report

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By Scott Satterlee

After living in Portland/Lake Oswego for the last 8 years I finally joined the Clackamas Fly fishers about the time that Covid hit, and I don’t think I’ve had a chance to meet anyone from the club. We moved to Iowa about two months ago and I decided I would fish my way east. I fished the Madison, Gibbon, Tongue, and Henry’s Fork. I had the best luck on the Tongue in Wyoming. However the most picturesque was the Madison. Throughout the day I saw hundreds of fish come to the surface, yet, even with sound advice (and flies) from the fly shop in Island Park, Idaho I walked away empty handed. Nevertheless it was so beautiful I did not feel disappointed. The Gibbon was better, though not crazy, just some good consistent fishing or rather catching. The Tongue was the best fishing, partly because I saw several Moose (from a safe distance), and had really good Brown trout fishing, though nothing huge. I fished that river in the Bighorn National Forest.

For those of you who might wander to Iowa or Wisconsin there is some good trout fishing here. Much different from Oregon or Washington, yet the Driftless region, particularly, offers many opportunities for both wild and stocked fish. In Iowa there is a native Brook trout population, and in some rivers, a well-established and naturally reproducing Brown trout fishery. Most of the time there are few, if any, other Anglers, and strangely the season is open year-round. Rattlesnakes are rare and Cougar are virtually unknown in these parts. One last bit of information, The Brule river in Northern Wisconsin offers some wonderful Brown trout fishing, when last I fished it with a guide, we started at about 9 PM and fished until 3 AM. I caught several large Browns, including one that was worthy of mounting (they all went back into the river). Fishing at night brought some interesting challenges, not the least of which was fishing in a tight bend as the sun set completely and the bats came out to feed. Like a scene from a Batman movie, we were surrounded by bats. It was only for five minutes, but it was a LONG five minutes. That said, I would do it again in a heartbeat. 

Finally, my wife and I went to Northern Minnesota and fished for Walleye. We did not fly-fish as they range from a minimum depth of 6 feet, and can be found as deep as 40. We also fished for Smallmouth and the fly-fishing was excellent. Many of the lakes on the Minnesota-Canadian border have wonderful Smallmouth fishing. For Walleye and Northern Pike we took a guide for three days, we caught our limit, and had shore lunch of Northern and Walleye (that we had caught that morning) daily. I can think of few things that we have enjoyed as much. As an aside, Northern Pike are super tasty, some say better than Walleye, and Walleye are the prized fish here. 

I would be glad to share any information I have, for any that have occasion to visit Minnesota, Iowa, or Wisconsin.

July 2020 Fishing Reports

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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!

The Corona Virus has created some very crowded conditions in the great outdoors. When venturing out it’s important to be patient and maintain responsible social distancing.

Here are our July reports; pictures first with the report following. Enjoy!

From Trux Dole: (this got lost in my inbox, it’s a June report) 1st time fishing for Shad was a total hoot! Buddy took me out to Beacon Rock. It took 45 minutes to get dialed in on the right seam and then it was a fish per cast. Thankfully I was using two handed rod!

From Greg O’Brien: Clear Lake on the 25th turned on with a massive mayfly hatch at about 10 am and it was lights out fishing for about an hour.  Fish rising and slashing for a 200 yard stretch. 

Earlier in July my wife and I made a road trip to Montana for a couple days of fishing with a guide (a package she bid on and won at her school’s fundraising auction).  We fished the Clark Fork one day and the Big Hole the second day.  Fishing was good on the Clark Fork for scrappy rainbows, and excellent on the Big Hole for cutthroat, rainbows, browns and also a few whitefish.  

Also got a nice Smallmouth Bass on the Willamette.

From Darryl Huff: Fishing on the lower D has been great. This year’s return has produced a lot of fish in the 8-10 pound range. So far it seems that 75 percent are natives. Also, we are starting to hook a few salmon as well.

From Carson Taylor: Just got back from a family vacation at Sunriver. Fishing wasn’t great but this nice brown trout fell to a muddler minnow fished along the west bank across from Sunriver.  Also caught a cutthroat caught on a Carey Special at Hosmer Lake.  

From Lane Hoffman: Went to Badger Lake, a beautiful lake east of Mt Hood. The fishing was really good, caught 25 plus trout from 6 to 18 inches. Really fat & strong fighters, nice fish. Very few visitors because the last 12 miles of road is really rough. Went to Lost Lake for the Hex hatch in the evening but the hatch never really materialized.

From Rhona Dallison: Went to Badger Lake with Lane Hoffman but the wind was very strong. We couldn’t use our float tubes and ended up catching a few small ones from shore.

From Dave Kilhefner: I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to catch a spring chinook in the upper Sandy River. Glacial runoff from the hot weather has made conditions difficult.

January 2020 Fishing Reports

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From Tim Morton: Last month I was able to go on a bucket list trip to Patagonia. The Brown Trout is from the World End Lodge, and the Sea Run Trout is from Las Buitreras Lodge. The sea run trout was 13.5 lbs.  Didn’t get the weight on the Brown,

Fish a long Report: You can see from the river level screenshot that we had some higher than normal water for our Fish a long. While this didn’t impact our spey casting, it did put a damper on our Euro Nymphing as it was hard to find any decent nymphing water. On the good side, for January we had a surprisingly warm and dry day. This made it easy to set up for morning coffee plus Chef Cheryl’s delicious lunch of homemade soup, Texas toast and salad. Thank you for everyone that came out!

From Ed Rabinowe: Duck season ended and my got a new knee. I think I have a fishing rod somewhere!

From Dave Kilhefner: Got lucky on my first steelhead trip of the year with this 12lb hen; she was a jumper! The following week I fished the Oregon Fishing Club ponds and caught a nice trout dragging a Booby Fly along the bottom. Saw another angler doing OK fishing a woolly bugger under an indicator.

Brad Jonasson and David Hopkins had a good outing to the Deschutes River by Maupin.

From Greg O’Brien: My brother visits once or twice a year to go steelhead fishing and we hire a guide to get to water we normally can’t get to on foot.  We fished 2 days on the Sandy, floating from Dodge to Dabney with Travis Johnson of All Waters Angling. Monday was tough with just one solid pull & no hookup.  Tuesday was a slow morning but landed a big wild hen around noon, followed by another nice wild fish in the afternoon.  

From Darryl Huff: A nice wild steelhead caught just before New Years.

From Greg O’Brien: Hugo and I hit the Deschutes for a trout spey session and I got this nice one.  It ate the caddis emerger dropper of a swung 2 fly rig.

From Henry Muehleck: fished the north coast with Gil Muhleman.  We were gear fishing and had a great day. I hooked 8 and landed 3. Two of these were 14 to 15 pound natives. Gil is a great guide and definitely goes the extra mile to get you fish! 

From George Krumm: Fished the lower Sandy with gear. Landed a couple, a smaller hen and this nice buck. The buck went to the broodstock program.

2019 CFF July Reports

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Sorry for the late posting but there was lots of good fishing in July this year, so this is a long post with lots of pictures. Enjoy!

Mark & Patty Bachmann of The Fly Fishing Shop made their annual trip to Loreto Mexico. Here is their report: https://flyfishusa.com/blog/Loreto-BCS-MX-Fishing-Report-Summer-2019

July speaker Elke Littleleaf had a great month on the Deschutes, landing many fine redsides like the one pictured.

With the cloudy early July weather Rob Crandall has been sneaking out on the Clackamas River and swinging up a few summer steelhead.

Nick Wheeler got this awesome Bull Trout euro nymphing for rainbow trout after work.

Greg O’Brien had a great day on Trillium Lake with his daughter Abigail. Her smile says it all!

Jim Adams got away to East Lake for a few hours while at Sunriver with family.There is usually a good callibaetis hatch late morning through midday during the summer at East, although the hatch was not as impressive as last year. Caught six fish. Five Rainbows, the biggest being 18”.  Also one kokanee, that put up quite a fight for its size. Unlike last year, no browns were caught  but saw one about 24″ take a callibaetis natural off the surface about two rod lengths from me, which got the adrenaline going. Caught fish on three different patterns: leech, callibaetis nymph and callibaetis cripple.

Adrian Choat went camping for 2 weeks camping at Crane Prairie. Spent mornings fishing from a kayak with best results stripping black wolly buggers and small red buggers. There was very little top water action. There are some large aggressive fish in Crane and he was broken off several times on 3x tippet.

Mark & Patty Bachman have been fishing Timothy Lake. They started with float tubes, then wend to pontoon boats. The last couple outings they’ve used their jet boat, allowing them to see the whole lake as never before. Fishing was great all day, every day even though the water temperature in the morning was 69-degrees and at dark it was over 74-degrees. Most of the fish we caught were planted rainbows that averaged 10-14 inches, the largest were 15-16 inches.  During the morning and most of the day small wooly buggers did the trick. Most of those fish were caught with type-2 and type-3 sinking lines while fishing in about 15-feet of water. A slow twitchy retrieve with the fly near the bottom was amazingly productive. They saw a few Hexagenia mayflies one morning around 10:00 o’clock, but the fish didn’t pay any attention to them. The main hatch started with sporadic emergence about 4:00 in the afternoon, then gradually increased until dark. Fishing emergers in the dark resulted in a fish nearly every cast for about an hour and then died. 

Richard Harvey has been chasing resident Coho along the beaches on Puget Sound. They are getting very active and taking baitfish patterns.

Greg O’Brien did a good bit of fishing in July. Harriett Lake produced a few browns on emergers, Dory fishing out of Pacific City was hot for Black Rockfish plus a cool Cabezon and a few Coho all on flies. He also hit an OFC property for bass and bluegill. He also floated the Deschutes from Beavertail to the mouth; they got several grabs, caught a big bass and a few nice trout on swung steelhead flies. He also hooked & lost a nice steelhead Euro nymphing for trout, which got about 100 yards downstream and broke his 5.5x tippet.

Hugo Jim went on a family camping trip at Lost Lake in mid July. He fished both from my pontoon and from the shore, taking fish on Adams dry flies and sub surface pattern such as leeches. The Hex hatch was slow when he was there.

Carson Taylor also fishing Lost Lake with the Washington County Fly Fishers July 13th fish-along. Everyone caught a dozen+ fish, mostly around 10 inches. Carson caught a brown around 14-15 inches and a 12-13 inch rainbow; but there are some larger fish! Olive woolly buggers and callibaetis nymphs worked best. On the way home the Hood River Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum (waaamuseum.org) is worth a stop.

June 2019 CFF Fishing Reports

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In early June Dave Kilhefner, Carson Taylor and Chris Dudley fished the Willamette River for Shad with Rob Crandall. In 4 hours of fishing we caught all the shad we could handle along with numerous doubles and six triple hookups.

Phil Hagar went up to Timothy for the June TU outing from the 5th to the 9th at the North Arm campground. It was a good trip despite some of the weather. Phil got into a bunch of 2-5 pound Rainbows and Brookies plus too many smaller fish to count. Loaned a reel with a sinking line plus a Brick Leech to Jim Teeny’s nephew then took him up by the islands, explained how to fish it and helped him catch his biggest ever Rainbow and also his first ever Brook Trout.

Jim Adams, Gil Henderson, Carson Taylor, Chris Dudley, Pat Miller and Ron Bouchard (who has relocated to Arizona and drove 1200 miles to join us) fished the Owyhee River from June 16th-23rd.

Fishing was “challenging” and while fish were caught not everyone landed fish on this trip.  But the camaraderie, humorous stories, and good-natured barbs of the group made it a enjoyable and memorable trip. This group has been getting together for over 10 years.

A major weather event had preceded us. The road in the canyon had been blocked by slides and there were numerous piles of debris that had been removed from the road. The river seemed to have been scoured out of plant and insect life. None of the big hatches that we were used to seeing in previous years materialized. With no fish feeding on the surface we relied on subsurface offerings…small nymphs, streamers, and San Juan worms.

The water was off color when we arrived and the farther downstream you were the dirtier the water.  The fish were either hunkered down or had also been swept downstream.  On the good side, the fish that were landed were very healthy looking and seemed well fed despite the water conditions. Brown trout up to 22 1/2 inches were landed along with a few healthy rainbows.

Rich Harvey reports the Oregon Fishing Club lakes and ponds have been fishing very well this month, with the cooler weather keeping the big trout active.

Ron Woodke fished Trillium Lake in late June and did very well with Black Woolly Buggers, bringing about 17 fish to hand. Other fly patterns were tried but the trusty Black Woolly Bugger was what they wanted. Besides the good fishing, the weather was perfect and there was no wind.

Jim Behrend and his wife Pat fished the Oregon Fishing Club three times in June. They went to Shauna Pond and did pretty well there and also Blue Den Lake for the first time.  They also tried the North Santiam site, which was a fun adventure, having some success with big dry flies. Jim tried Euro-nymphing with a Tenkara rod following Josh Linn’s suggestions at Royal Treatment Fly Shop. It worked surprisingly well considering it was a new technique. The rocks on the Santiam were super slippery, so be careful.

March 2019 CFF Fishing Reports

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Elke Littleleaf, who will be presenting for CFF in the near future, generously gave his time to help introduce youth and families to fly fishing at the NW Steelheaders Family Fish Camp this month.

March speaker John Devoe got out on the water with CFF sponsor Mark Bachmann to enjoy some winter steelhead fishing on our namesake river.

John Warren traveled to Christmas Island in early March, doing well on both Bonefish and Giant Trevally.

Josh Linn of Royal Treatment got in some good Euro Nymphing action on the Metolius River. John will be giving a presentation on Euro Nymphing at our April meeting.

The day after the fish-a-long Paul Brewer and Dave Kilhefner fished the Deschutes River around Maupin. The water was high, off-color and cold. Trout fishing was tough but a few were brought to hand using Euro nymphing tactics. The hot fly was a San Juan Worm, a high water favorite.

Seven CCF members went on to the Owyhee after the Crooked River Fish-A-Long. Flows were very low and it was a bit crowded. Rain from the previous days caused a creek to blow out and muddy up parts of the river, then the wind picked up; all these things combined to create poor fishing conditions. However, the bugs were out and several members landed Brown trout up to 18″ long. Fish or no fish, everyone did have a good time; new friends were made, lies were told plus lots of education & exploration!

Another great month of Fly Fishing is in the books. Thanks to everyone for sharing their reports!

Owyhee River Trip

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Following the CFF Fish-A-Lone on the Crooked River (Sat 23rd) a group of us are going to continue over to the Owyhee River. The Owyhee is at winter flows (40 cfs) so we’ll be wading, fishing the tailwater below the Owyhee dam. The river is very fertile, with good insect hatches, winding through a beautiful, rugged canyon, It produces trophy sized Brown trout with Rainbows also on the list.

  • Equipment                  
  • 4 to 6wt rods, matching reel & floating fly line.
  • 9 ft leaders 3 to 5x
  • waders, wading staff & landing net.
  • layered clothing, rain gear, polarized glasses.
  • Flies, BWO’s, midges, streamers & Skawala Stoneflies (really important)

The Plan is to catch a Motel in Ontario & fish the river for a couple of days. If you like there is plenty of camping along the river. If you can make it it’s a great time to fish this quality river.

Questions? Contact Lane Hoffman  503-706-7543 & leave a message or email lanehf@comcast.net

CFF September Fishing Reports

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September was a good month to go fly fishing! Here’s some reports from our members and supporting members:

Randy Clark of the Bridgeport Orvis store caught this nice bull trout on the Metolius River along with a few browns, a brookie, some whitefish and a pile of redsides for “the Metolius super slam.” Great job Randy!

In mid September Dave Kilhefner fished the Deschutes River mouth and saw two steelhead taken by fly anglers plus a spin angler landed a 20+ pound salmon. The next day he had his first trip Kayak Fishing for Smallmouth bass near Mitchell Island on the Columbia River. The weather and wind cooperated and it was a great morning on the water with about a dozen smallmouth brought to hand. The bass averaged about 2lbs  and a couple were 3lbs.

David Mullins caught a half dozen 10″ to 12″ trout up the Clackamas near the Memaloose Bridge. They were taking dry flies; #14 Caddis with green or white bodies, and also a Red Humpy.

Phil Hager had a great trip to Central Oregon. On 9/19-9/21 he fished Fall River. A Midge nymph and a Tied Down Caddis, presented subsurface on a floating or an intermediate sinking line did the trick for Rainbows 8″ on up to 18″ and also Brookies  6″ to 9″ in size.

On 9/22 Phil fished Odell Creek (flows into Davis Lake): Same flies but only on a floating line and caught Rainbows up to 20″, but mostly 12″ or less.

Hosmer Lake was on the menu for 9/24. A Midge nymph and Pheasant Tail fished on and  intermediate line accounted for some nice Rainbows (1 @ 3 lbs and 1 @ 4.5 lbs) plus others in varying sizes, Brookies from about 12″ to 16″, Cutthroat and CutBows in the same size range. The water temp is changing and fish were moving down the channel to lower section.

Lava Lake was good on 9/25. Despite reports from everyone with fish finders saying all the fish were near the bottom, Phil lost count on Rainbows and Kokanee in about 2 hours of fast fish. An intermediate line with either a Brick Leech or TMC Nymph was the ticket (Leech size 10 3xl & TMC size 16).

John Warren stayed a couple extra days after the Deschutes River Fish-A-Long, fishing around Maupin. He continued to do well Euro Nymphing, with small dark Euro Nymphs working best. He even hooked a big fish that broke him off!

Carey Allison fished the Clackamas several times this month and had good success. He took 2 steelhead on surface presentations; both in the same hole but on different days. Also, he saw lots of steelhead holding in tailouts as well. Later in the month he floated with a buddy from Barton to Riverside; they didn’t find any steelhead but we ran into a massive drake hatch, which brought some of the rare Clackamas Sea Run Cutthroat out to play. He took two over 16″ in size was swinging  a size 6 moose hair caddis pattern just sub surface. Those SRC are crazy strong for their size, both fish tearing line and making his farlex scream. They also jump like crazy! Loads of fun.

One word of warning…while stepping out of the bottom of one of his favorite holes at dusk, on the lower Clack below Carver, Carey saw a cougar hanging out on the trail  used to walk back to his truck! Never thought we’d be seeing cougars anywhere below Carver!!

Mark Bachmann of The Fly Fishing Shop fished several clients downstream from Mack’s Canyon from September 10-20. Fishing wasn’t red hot, but they did get a few steelhead most every day.

Smallish darker flies worked best and water conditions were and are perfect for floating line fishing. Now that the nets are out of the Columbia, fishing should be even better!

Here’s a video link to go with Mark’s pictures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xflbCqsCp4U

Ed Rabinowe had a very successful outing on the Lower Columbia River around St Helens before the salmon closure.

Nice job everyone!

CFF August Fishing Reports

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In early August, Frank Day of The Fly Fishing Shop got into a few steelhead on the lower Deschutes.

The folks at Northwest Fly Fishing outfitters have been doing well at Henry Hagg Lake for bass and crappie. Mark Middleton (pictured) wrote an informative article for their newsletter.

John Warren hit East Lake from 8/5-8/10. Overall the fishing was a little slow but the fish he got were all nice ones. The best fishing was just south of the resort using a red snow cone chironomid under an indicator with a 12 foot 6x Fluoro leader. Most fish were browns in the 14-17 inch range but a few larger trout were hooked that ran into the weeds and got away.

Dave Pelgorsch chased trout after work on the upper Clackamas and had “a million small trout and a few big hits.” It was a great way to beat the heat.

In late July Greg O’Brien floated the Deschutes from Beavertail to the Mouth with a buddy. They started the Monday after it opened after the Substation fire. Fishing was decent, with a few grabs and a real nice native. They also got a couple of bass at Bedsprings. Unfortunately the fire damage was significant, but found they some shade to camp both nights.

In August Greg O’Brien had a bucket list trip with his brother to Kimsquit Bay Lodge on the Dean River. Water was low and the sun was bright but everyone managed a few hookups and at least 1 steelhead to hand. Dean River steelhead have a reputation as the strongest steelhead on the planet!  This one pictured took got into the backing within 3 seconds of being hooked; absolutely insane.  Another one straighten a size 1 Owner hook. Besides steelhead, everyone caught lots of Pink salmon as well. It was an awesome trip at a stunningly beautiful place.

Our last report is from Phil Hager. He went to Miller Lake by Chemult for 4 days. He caught a few small 6-10″ rainbows & browns. Everybody with fish finders said the bigger ones were down 50′ to 70′. Most of the fish were caught at about 60′. From there he went up to Crane; water temp was 74 degrees (near the surface, at the ramp). From there he went to upper Hosmer which was much cooler and lost count on Rainbows, Brookies, Cutthroat and Cutbows, many on a little midge emerger pattern in black that some hit when it hit the surface!

CFF July Fly Fishing Reports

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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!