This is really more of an eat-a-long report with a little fly fishing thrown in. Why? The beautiful weather we had was the result of a front rolling thru and it put both the insect hatches and the fish down. Still, fly fishing is more fun in good weather we throughly enjoyed ourselves plus managed to catch a few fish.

On Thursday I met Rich at Howell Pond for some Bluegill & Bass fly fishing. Rich did really well on the bluegills fishing a #14 Blue Nymph a few feet under and indicator, working it close to the shoreline weeds. I did well on bass with a White Halfwit Leech working the weeds and structure. Afterwards we hit the Gales Creek Tavern for Burgers before heading to Schmadeke Pond to set up camp.

Friday morning dawned clear but a little chilly & breezy and while the weather warmed up later in the day, the fishing didn’t. We had a few skunkings and no on caught more than two trout. Desperate for some action, I duplicated Rich’s bluegill rig, worked the woody shoreline areas and caught a bunch of crappie. Afterwords we headed to Smokehouse Chicken & Guns for good food and live music. That night we enjoyed some time around the campfire.

Saturday morning started out with a lot fishier feel with warmer temps, high clouds and rising fish. After some time around a morning campfire with hot coffee and snacks, we got to fishing. Unfortunately is was still tough, but sticking with it paid off. Brad Jonasson caught his largest trout to date, a heavy bodied 23 incher. Today, smaller size dark chironomids produced the best results.

Thanks to everyone for coming and making this fish a long a fun event. The next fish a long is May 25th at Lake Harriet.

The goal for springs first outing is fish, food, fires and fun! To be honest, fishing was a little on the tough side. While we saw a variety of bugs, the hatches were sparse. The fish were not active so you had to grind them out. But the work paid off as several good size trout & whitefish were landed.

Nymphing tactics were best with Euro nymphing edging out Indicator tactics. When the wind picked up I relied on drop shoting, the extra weight helps keep the line tight. Our best patterns were tried and true favorites; hares ear, pheasant tail & prince nymphs around size 14. To switch things up Rich tried swinging steamer and got a ripping strike from a big trout that threw the hook on the surface.

For the most part the weather was nice but we did have a pretty good rainstorm blow thru Friday night and another one late Saturday afternoon.

The water was a touch off color and on the high side, flowing at 4,700cfs. This is just high enough that we needed to hunt for new spots as most of our usual productive places had too much current. The water temp was on a rising trend, maxing out at 48 degrees in the afternoons.

Even with the fishing being a little slow, the Deschutes canyon greening up in spring is a great place to be. We heard lots of chuckars, saw plenty of deer and the weather was good. Our goal of fish, food, fires and fun was achieved!

Next months Fish A Long will be at Schmedeke Pond. Here’s a link to last years report to whet your appetite. Hope to see you there!

As you’d suspect, the ice & snow put a damper on our January Fish A Long. Since we’d already bought the food, we decided to get together at Lane’s place to watch football, go through flies and have an all around fun Saturday. We’ve reschuled our spey casting & steelhead school to February 17th.

This October Fish A Long is one for the record books! Besides landing hundreds of trout and whitefish, the weather was exceptional with clear skies, temps in the low 80’s and very little wind. We even hooked a couple steelhead & landed one.

To top it all off, we burned lots of firewood and barbecued lots steak. Plus the road had been freshly graded and there were plenty of bighorn sheep putting on a show across the river.

While nymphing tactics worked best, in the evening Rich threw dries and was rewarded with some dry fly action.

The eggstravaganza should hold up for a while as the salmon spawn is in its early stages. I’m already looking forward to returning for the November 11th Fish A Long!

The guy at Camp Sherman Fly Shop summed up the Metolius River perfectly; it’s the prettiest river in Oregon but also the hardest to fish. The water is super clear and the trout are educated and picky! We all got fish, but had to work hard for every one.

Special thanks to Josh Linn for his presentation on fishing the Metolius before our trip. His info was spot on!

Green Drake dries and Euro Nymphing tactics produced the best. Rich even had a big bull trout rise from the depths of a deep pool to grab a rainbow he was fighting. It was a sight!

The water temperature averaged 46 degrees. Thick winter socks under your waders made long wading sessions comfortable.

Five of us camped at the Lower Bridge Campground. On Friday we enjoyed a fun dinner at the Three Creeks Brewery after hitting The Fly Fishers Place for the hot fly patterns.

Overall we had good weather but mornings & evenings were chilly. Fortunately we had plenty of firewood and good times were had by all.

Harriet Lake was freshly stocked and the fishing was on fire! As you’d suspect most of the fish were in the 10-13” range but a few 15 to 18” trout were landed. The hot techniques were trolling small dark leeches on an intermediate line or the lake standby, suspending Chironomids (or small nymphs) under an indicator.

We chose Harriet as the water stays cool thru the summer. This weekend is was 48 in the morning and got up to 52 in the afternoon. Also, the water is extremely clear and will all the trout swimming around it was like fishing in an aquarium. We had a good turnout with 8 club members fishing on Saturday.

Five of us camped out at Shellrock Creek campground, a semi primitive first come campground about ten minutes from Harriet. We were blessed with perfect weather and good times we’re had by all. Thanks to everyone for coming!

This months Fish A Long was about more than fly fishing. Besides catching fish in a beautiful coastal forest setting,  we had a steak lunch, camp fires plus some very good weather.

Several of us decided to have a long weekend, starting off with a late lunch at Copper River in Hillsboro on Thursday before hitting Howell Ponds for Bluegill. We fished for a few hours then headed to Rainier Lakes, arriving about 8pm, pitched camp and started a fire. 

On Friday we slept in then enjoyed coffee and conversation around camp. There didn’t seem to be any reason to rush as the early morning anglers were not catching anything, so we eased into the day and started fishing around 10:30 then quit for lunch at 2:30, all of us doing pretty good on Chironomids, both cast & slowly strip or dangled under an indicator. With the warmer weather many of the trout were six to eight feet down in the cooler, deeper water near the dike.

We made a run to Longview and had a late lunch at this great place called Porky’s then picked up a few supplies for our Saturday lunch at Fred Meyer. 

On Saturday I went down the hill to open the gate, made coffee and waited for people to arrive from 7:45 to 8:30 while listening to an Audible book. It was a relaxing way to start the day. 

With the warm weather all week the bite was a little slow but everyone got fish. 

The best flies were Red V-Rib Chironomids, Brown Snow Cone Chironomid and an Olive Chironomid w/red tail, all around size 12-14. 

Our steak lunch was a big hit and we had a perfect day for it. Afterwords several of us had a strong case of food coma. This lead to the invention of a new effective technique; dock nymphing. This is nothing more than being too lazy to put back on your waders and fins to float tube, so you sit on the dock, soak an indicator rig close by and tell jokes & lies until a cooperative fish comes along. It’s surprisingly effective! 

The weather turned cooler on Saturday evening. Sunday dawned cool & cloudy. We each caught a few in the morning before packing up and heading home.

Thanks to everyone for coming and making this months Fish A Long a success!

Our fish a longs are starting to morph into some first rate guys weekends! Rich came up with idea to head out Friday & camp at the lake. But first we’d stop at the newly opened Smokehouse Chicken & Guns in Gales Creek before hitting Howell Pond (we didn’t want to soremouth the fish in Schmedeke before the fish a long). It was a great place to fuel up before fishing.

Fishing at Howell Pond wasn’t hot but we all got some nice fish up to 19 inches. Rich stuck to throwing small “no see um” dries to match a hatch of small dark midges while Dave & I got our fish on leeches.

After fishing we had good burgers at the Gales Creek Tavern before driving to Schmedeke Pond to camp for the night.

Saturday dawned a little misty with drizzle off and on thru the morning.

Woke at 7am with a call from Chris B who got to the lake early. His extra effort paid off with a 27 inch piggy rainbow that took a brown balanced leech in the morning.

The afternoon weather was very pleasant with little or no wind and the perfect amount of cloud cover to keep the fish focused on the surface. The trout rose all day to larger sized “bomber” midges, but they were very picky! Rich solved the fly pattern riddle and got 18 fish on dries. A Midge Cripple was the best pattern with Griffitts Gnat a close second.

Midge pupa patterns fished close to the surface produced too but it was a grind. Most of the trout were good sized and we all agreed the effort was worth it.

Since the weather was nice Rich & I decided to stay one more night. The next day we ran into some locals that had the bomber hatch wired using a foam “suspended” midge pattern that hung vertically in the surface film. Those picky fish loved them.

This fish a long was very well attended. It was great to see everyone having a good time on the water. Thanks to everyone for coming!

With all the cold weather this winter some of us had a good case of cabin fever and decided to have a multi-day camping trip rather than a one day fish a long.

Rich got the river on Thursday afternoon and enjoyed some good fishing, getting a couple nice sized redsides on streamers before the afternoon wind blew him off the river. I arrived about the time the wind was in full force so I found Rich and we had an early dinner at the Riverside. The big news was tonight we were able to see the Northern Lights. I’ve never heard of them being visible this far south before, but according to NASA the sun emitted the strongest solar flare in the past five years and the Northern Lights were visible as far south Phoenix, Arizona.

On Friday the fishing was dead; as in totally dead. The big winter storm front rolled thru and nobody touched a fish. Darryl got a take down that didn’t stick. That was it for the Friday crew. Fortunately Rich and I thought ahead and made dinner reservations at the Riverside and we all enjoyed a well earned hot delicious meal after battling that epically slow bite, chilly weather and a strong Deschutes canyon wind.

Saturday was much better. In addition to the six people camping out at Harpam Flats on Friday night four more showed up. The winter storm that shut down the bite on Friday also made driving conditions a little sketchy going over the mountain so most people drove up the gorge and dropped down from The Dalles. With the water temp at 45 degrees the morning bite was pretty slow but it picked up in the afternoon and the fish got interested in a decent Blue Wing Olive hatch. Darryl got one on a dry but everything else was a subsurface show. Afterwards we had dinner at The Rainbow.

Sunday dawned sunny and calm. A couple of us considered fishing the whole day but the wind came up early and personally, I was glad as it got me home at a reasonable hour. Looking back it was great to get out of town, catch a few fish and enjoy some good restaurant meals. It was another fun and successful Fish A Long, thanks to everyone for coming!