October 2019 Fish A Long Report

Sometimes you get really lucky and hit everything just right. This Fish a Long was one of those times! Water conditions were very good, the trout were biting & stacked up thick below schools of spawning salmon. This weekend, finding spawning salmon was the key and we did this with no trouble.

I arrived and Friday afternoon and found a note waiting for me on Darryl Huff’s windshield that said “Dave, fishing upriver. Bring egg patterns!” Darryl had been having an epic day and ended up landing over 100 trout. To rack up these impressive numbers he started at 8am then fished hard all day. By the time I set up camp there was only about an hour of daylight left but I managed to hook a trout on the very first cast then bring another dozen or so to hand using and egg fly provided by Mitch Moyer, who was featured in Jim Adam’s September Fly Tying article.

It rained pretty hard late Friday night but fortunately stopped before Saturday morning. The rest of the day we had periods of intermittent rain and wind gusts but for the most part the weather and water conditions were good. The trout bite held up but was not as red hot as the day before. Still, we all got fish and Darryl had another good day, bringing an 18.5” fish to hand. My fish story of the day happened using a two fly rig & hooking two fish at the same time. Thanks to luck and heavy tippet both fish made it into the net.

Besides good fishing with good friends, it wouldn’t be a proper CFF Fish A Long without a good lunch! Cheryl provided fresh cooked juicy burgers, homemade macaroni salad and chips. Across the river seven mountain sheep were putting on a show, chasing each other and doing their mating dance. Aided by Paul Brewers Leupold binoculars & spotting scope, it was quite a sight.

After lunch the bite slowed down but we still ground out a few. Cheryl and I stayed Saturday night and enjoyed a nice campfire under starry skies. I had hoped to fish a little more Sunday morning but the White River blew out and the river was out of shape. I’m sure it would have been possible to grind out a few more but after being spoiled the last couple days I was content to drink coffee & pack up camp.

Thanks to everyone for coming and making this a fishing trip to remember!

February 2019 CFF Fishing Reports

Greg O’Brien had a decent day float tubing in early February at an Oregon Fishing Club lake. The day started slow but after figuring out the depth and retrieve the fish wanted things picked up. Several rainbows up to 16” were netted and released.

In mid February Trux Dole and Dave Kilhefner fished at Little Tree and Big Tree Lakes at the Oregon Fishing Club. Water temperature was 42 degrees and had a pea green color with 2-3 feet of visibility. The weather was overcast and cold with a light dusting of snow on the ground. We planned to fish from 9am until 1pm. Unfortunately the trout did not start biting until 12:45 so we stayed until 1:30pm and ended up landing 6 nice trout using White Devils and Red Snow Cone Chironomids.

Dave Kilhefner landed & released this “snowstorm steelhead” on the Sandy River the day after the fish-a-long.

January 2019 CFF Fishing Reports

Several of us have been chasing steelhead on the Clackamas River but no fish were brought to hand. Several of these reports are on the new Member Forum page. Check it out! 

This is the face you make after your boat motor starts on the 2nd pull after a long rest in the garage. For those of you that have nearly torn a rotator cuff pulling a starter cord for 20 minutes, you know this is good news!

While the slow steelhead reports are potentially discouraging, you can’t catch steelhead from the couch! Zack Epstein of Northwest Fly Fishing Outfitters got out on the water and guided Phil Salomon into this nice steelhead.

December CFF Fishing Reports


The holidays are a busy time of year so December fishing reports were a little slow but people got out on the water and got into fish!

In mid December Kevin Luettgerodt did some Euro Nymphing on the Deschutes River below Harpham Flats. It was a chilly 36 degrees with clear skies.

George Krumm, the editor of Fish Alaska Magazine, managed a steelhead and then traveled to Pyramid Lake in Nevada to chase Lahontan Cutthroats. He caught some nice fish in the 10 to 12 pound range.

Nice black skipjack tuna on the fly while fly fishing on long range boat, Shogun off the Baja Pacific coastline.
Yellowfin tuna taken with a Echo 12 wt BAG fly rod while on the Shogun off the Baja Pacific coast.

CFF speaker Joe Warren had a bucket list trip, going on a long range bluewater flyfishing trip out of San Diego. Some storm fronts came through, making for rough seas and scattered the fish but when they found them, they got them! Joe managed to catch over 20 tuna, a mixed bag of yellowfin, skipjack, black skipjack, and bonito.  He also caught two striped marlin, one on conventional and one on the fly. Congratulations Joe!

Justesen Lakes Fishing Report

Paul Brewer and Dave Kilhefner fished some of the Justesen Ranch Lakes (there are a lot of them!) this past weekend (Oct 6 and 7). After fishing Saturday we stayed at the Shaniko Lake cabins. Besides being a nice place to stay, we were right next to several good trout lakes that we fished on Sunday. It’s a nice setup and we are planning a Fish-A-Long there in the spring.

Fishing was good for rainbow trout in the 14 to 20 inch range and we each landed 20+ trout both days. The two best tactics were casting & stripping/twitching Green Devils and fishing Chironomids under an indicator about 6’ deep.

We did a stomach pump and found dragon & damsel nymphs along with chironomid larva & pupa.

You need a float tube to fish these lakes as much of the shoreline is surrounded by cattails. It was chilly with a cool breeze blowing both days so layers of warm clothing were a must. The water temps at the lakes ran from 50 to 55 degrees and the water was very clear.

Besides good fishing, we had good wildlife viewing and saw lots of deer and turkeys.