Winter Steelhead Fly Fishing

Feb 22nd Fish a long Report

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This event was lightly attended, so everyone ate VERY well. Cheryl made a delicious lunch of pulled pork & coleslaw sandwiches along with salad and fresh fruit sides.

Water conditions were ideal for swinging flies; water color was a nice emerald green & flowing at 1250 cubic ft per second. We had the river to ourselves.

Originally the weather forecast called for rain, but this Saturday we got lucky with a beautiful clear day.

Zach Epstein from Water Time Outfitters stopped by and generously donated his time & expert casting assistance. Thanks Zach!

Later that day I ran into a gear angler that I know and we talked fishing for a while. He got one earlier that day a few holes downstream from us.

There are some good fishing reports from the lower Sandy but the word is out and the weekend fishing pressure down there was intense.

In an attempt to embrace technology, I made a map with my GPS from the parking area off Hwy 26 to the river. CFF members please email me if you want a copy.

Next months Fish a Long is March 21st on the Crooked River. We have a special treat as Josh Linn from Royal Treatment will be giving his excellent on-the-water presentation on Euro Nymphing.

CFF February Fish A Long

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This month’s Fish A Long will be held Saturday, February 22nd on the Sandy River. The location is Dave K’s place about halfway between Sandy and Welches.

What- Winter Steelhead

Where- Sandy River

When- 8am until lunchtime, Saturday, February 22nd

Equipment-

  • Spey or Switch Rod
  • Skagit Line & sink tip(s)
  • 15lb tippet material
  • flies, bright patterns and dark patterns
  • waders & wading staff
  • rain gear
  • warm, layered clothing

Directions- take Hwy 26 like you are going to Mt Hood. 10 miles past Sandy, turn left onto Sleepy Hollow Drive (there’s a big sign) and then take the 1st left. It’s a steep gravel driveway with a black metal gate.

We will have coffee, donuts and a hot lunch. This fish a long will focus on spey casting and swung fly presentations. Questions; email or call Dave Kilhefner. Hope to see you there!

Feb 18th Speaker: Mark Bachmann

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This months speaker is Mark Bachmann from The Fly Fishing Shop in Welches, Oregon. His presentation is called A Brief History of the Sandy River As Related to Fly Fishing.

The Sandy River may be the best kept urban river in the world, flowing into a population center of 1.5 million people, much of its personality is wild.

The Sandy is located half way between the North Pole and the equator, giving this region the perfect climate for trout, salmon and steelhead fly fishing every month of the year. Our Journey begins 12 million years ago as volcanic activity begins building the backbone of the present day Cascade Range!

It will be an interesting and informative presentation you won’t want to miss!

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.

February 2019 CFF Fishing Reports

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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.

Sandy River Fish-A-Long Report

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In spite of winter storm warnings, last weekends Sandy River fish-a-long was well attended. Thank you to everyone that came and once again an extra big thank you to Cheryl Kilhefner for more excellent cooking and hospitality.

The cold weather the last few weeks had the river running very low and clear. The average flow this time of year on the Marmot gauge is 1500 CFS but last weekend the flows were half of that at 700 CFS. Water temperature was chilly 38°

Everyone arrived about 8 AM and we had hot coffee and pastries, enjoying the warmth of the great indoors while we eyeballed the cold winter landscape with a light dusting of snow outside. But we could not stay inside all day so soon we all pulled on our waders, grabbed our fly rods and hit the river.

We did a great job covering the water but unfortunately no steelhead were hooked. We fished until around noon and then enjoyed a delicious lunch of pulled pork chili and cornbread muffins.

Next months fish-a-long is at the Crooked River, a popular and productive fishery. We look forward to seeing you there!

CFF February Fish-A-Long

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This month’s Fish-A-Long will be held Saturday, February 23rd on the Sandy River. The location is Dave K’s place about halfway between Sandy and Welches.

  • What: Winter Steelhead
  • Where: Sandy River
  • When: 8am until lunchtime (or later), Saturday, February 23rd
  • Equipment:
  • Spey or Switch Rod
  • Skagit Line & sink tip(s)
  • 15lb tippet material
  • flies, bright patterns and dark patterns
  • waders & wading staff
  • rain gear
  • warm, layered clothing

Directions– take Hwy 26 like you are going to Mt Hood. 10 miles past Sandy, turn left onto Sleepy Hollow Drive (there’s a big sign) and then take the 1st left. It’s a steep gravel driveway with a black metal gate.

We will have coffee, breakfast snacks and a hot lunch. This fish a long will focus on spey casting and swung fly presentations. Questions; email or call Paul Brewer or Dave Kilhefner. Hope to see you there!

Fishing isn’t hot but fish have been caught!

January 2019 CFF Fishing Reports

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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.

Sandy River Fish-A-Long Report

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Last weekends Sandy River Fish-A-Long at Oxbow Park was well attended. Thank you to everyone that came plus an EXTRA BIG thank you to Cheryl Kilhefner for her excellent cooking & hospitality. Her pulled pork sandwiches & coleslaw were a highlight of the day.

We met at 8am, had hot coffee and got to work on our spey casting, fishing until around 11:30 then breaking for lunch (no one was late either!). In the morning hours we saw a few boaters go thru but didn’t get any reports of fish hooked. While we didn’t see any steelhead Tim caught a San Diego Steelhead (a sucker) swinging at the top of the run. Tim wouldn’t tell us what the hot fly pattern was, however. Some things are best kept secret!

The weather was better than forcast and while it was cloudy and cool it didn’t rain on us after Friday nights downpour. The the sudden rise in water level made for tough fishing conditions plus as the day progressed there were more leaves and drifting debris in the water. The water color was brownish with low visibility. On the “Sandy River at Bull Run” guage the water height was 12.24 feet, flowing at around 7,000 cfs.

In addition helping with Spey Casting, Dave gave a presentation on indicator nymph fishing for steelhead.

CFF January 19th Fish-A-Long

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This month’s Fish-A-Long will be held Saturday, January 19th on the Sandy River at Oxbow Park. The location is shelter where the Sandy River Spey Clave is held. The wading here is easy and fish have been caught.

What- Winter Steelhead

Where- Sandy River

When- 8am until lunchtime

Equipment-

  • Spey or Switch Rod
  • Skagit Line & sink tip(s)
  • 15lb tippet material
  • flies, bright patterns and dark patterns
  • waders & wading staff
  • rain gear
  • warm, layered clothing

Directions- go to Oxbow Park—the address is 3010 Southeast Oxbow Parkway, Gresham, OR 97080; there is a $5 fee to enter the park. Drive approximately 2 miles past the park entrance and look for “Group Picnic Area A” which has a large covered area and an open field on your left.

In the morning we will have coffee, donuts. A hot lunch will also be provided. This fish a long will focus on spey casting with both swung fly and nymphing presentations. We will have a couple of “loaner” spey rods to try out.

Questions; email or call Paul Brewer or Dave Kilhefner. Hope to see you there!

https://www.oregonmetro.gov/sites/default/files/2016/07/07/oxbow-brochure.pdf

https://www.oregonmetro.gov/sites/default/files/2016/02/19/Oxbow%20Field%20Guide_0.pdf