out of internet

Sadly we have run out of internet for a while due to being behind, but i have been catching alot of fish lately. Yesterday the creek produced 13 fish including 2 13 inchers   pictured above. Sorry for the inconvenience  we will be back to regular weekly posts within a month or less

trophy resident coastal cutthroat on the fly

I woke up this morning  to go fly fishing,  got dressed, filled my backpack with snacks and tp  and waking myself up for the 2 mile walk along the creek ahead of me. I slipped on my waders,  made sure i had my fly box, tippet and everything else i need to get some fish then got in the car and was dropped off at my starting point. My original access point has been blocked due to  construction wich is kind of aggrivating  because  that means i had to get in the creek and wade down quite a ways to get to my original starting point.  i sat my backpack down and watched for a minute before casting observing  the water.  I took some line out,  waded in and starting casting.  Halfway through the drift my strike indicator stopped ,went underwater and took off. From that  point i set the hook  FISH ON!  I was excited to have hooked a fish on the first cast But it jumped and spit the hook. But i stayed possitive and  checked my leader and flies before casting again. I got nothing on the following cast but the one after that i got a very solid strike.  Stripped some line and lifted my tip up to set the hook and fish on!! The fish didn't jump but it stuck to the bottom like a 2 oz weight!   It took about 20-30 seconds for me to  get the fish off the bottom and from that point i proceeded to bank the fish and take a picture then release the fish it was around 8-9 inches. After catching that fish i decided to fish one of my favorite spots, although i had missed 3 strikes there last time and the water is alot lower now i figured i could  get one or two. I nymphed the seam and pocket of the spot and  had ntohing, not even a nibble so i decided to get my backpack and move downstream  to  the pocket stretches. I call it the pocket stretches because every other small stretch of water is fishable pocket water. There is a transition from slow almost non moving creek, to  faster pocket water with plenty of small seams,riffles and pools to fish.  The first spot i approach is a very deep swift water spot with depths up to 12 ft! so it is difficult to fly fish.  I resort to a method called "walking the dog" where i stand at the very top of the run, let some line out and drop my stuff letting it get a drag free drift  through the deep run then swinging at the end and repeat. This technique  got me one fish,around 11 or so inches from this spot and then it was time to move downstream. i fished numerous pockets with nothing to show  for a quarter mile of walking and fishing, So i moved downstream  to a spot i figured fish would be hiding during the low  summer flows.  A riffle that flows under some brush and timber  near an undercut bank. First cast and bam!  got a nice little scrapper and threw him back. From that point i was getting skunked and alot of the water i was fishing was very low. So i decided to pass up alot of spots and fish about a mile down creek at a spot that stays at a good steady flow year long. After arriving   even the spot  that should have been  higher was a bit low, but still fast,oxygenated  and had   2-3 ft of water so i  put my backpack down and dropped a line. Third cast i got a bite and hooked the fish, he jumped once and tried to wrap around a rock but i banked him, took a picture and back to the drink the little fella went!. After releasing that fish i  immediately casted again and got a very good bite. I set the hook and it felt like a snag the first second then it shook its head a took off downstream  and never looked back. I let it take line for a bit until my backing started to show and some small fast areas with big rocks perfect for breaking my line were about 20 yards below the fish. So i stripped some line in  to keep it tight and ran downstream to catch up with the fish. I fought it for about 3 more minutes in the same general stretch of water  and somehow managed to land this very very large resident coastal cutthroat trout. I took a couple of pictures of this beast and released him to fight another day then made my way back home to tell the tale of my big trout to everyone.

a few more before i leave

couldn't resist trying the creek out one more time so i hiked down and caught 4 fish. 3 pictures only though, the only rainbow i caught (there are not alot of them in this stream) and he was good sized too.    the water is finally starting to drop, and the fish are getting a wee bit more active. I will be taking pictures of my favorite stream when i return   aswell as some of the gear i use to fly fish small streams.  

tomorrow is the day

Tomorrow afternoon will mark the begininning of the oregon fishing forum fly fishing getogether/camping trip.  water will be high and fishing will be tough, come back sunday so look out for a report with pictures

with roaring thunder comes tricky fish

fished for about 4 hours afterschool today, i knew  the water would be up and a wee bit off color but i decided to give it a go anyways,    took a while to get any bites. i worked the same stretch of water for a while hooking one fish and missing a few good bites.  a bit frustrated i move downstream to one of my favorite sptos i haven't fished sicne opening day, ended up missing quite a few bites ,hooked and loosing one good fish and landing 3.  not huge fish but he was decent sized and took line.   there was a thunderstorm about halfway through the trip   wich was pretty cool. it wasnt much of a big oen though.    the rain seemed to turn the bite on in my favor but i couldnt get a solid hookset. i need to work on my hooksets while fly fishing

The one that got away

i Lost a long battle with what i assume to be a cutthroat the went over 17 inches ... and boy did he put up a fight. i was nymphing a slick above some fast water and it was only like 3 ft deep. missed 3 strikes before hooking up and the fish stayed in the general area for about 30 seconds tugging and shaking it's head, then when i tried pulling it closer it rocketed downstream into fast water zipping alot of line off my reel, i lightly palmed the spool hoping to slow the fish down and it didnt help much, eventually after about 2 minutes i managed to get the fish a wee bit closer getting a glimpse of silver in the shallows, i starting stripping line and bringing him closer, once again when he got close he turned around and went into the swift water again. for another 20-30 seconds i struggled to keep him out of the swifter water so my 4lb test leader didnt break.. i stripped a it of line and thought i had won the battlle.. WRONG! he turned around and i saw a glimse of silver and my flies came out of the water and landed infront of me.i felt defeated but honored at the same time. honored to feel the tug of a beast cutthroat at the end of my line. after closer examination to determine what went wrong the hook was broken on my size 16 beadhead rainbow prince.. out of all things, my hook broke not my leader.. i was quite disapointed. i only landed 2 fish today and hooked and lost another 4 idk why i lost so many fish but i had a good day and caught some pretty little fish. it started to rain around 7:30 pm and i braved the weather for 30 minutes before my hands went numb, then called it a day.

another day,another suprise

Went down to the town portion of my favorite stream to do some fly fishing, fshed below the city park  and caught 3 fish in the first few stretches of water and noticed other fisherman..  i have rarely seen anyone fishing here  so it was kind of a shocker but they seemed to be doing catch and release like me so that was good to see.   caught a few more fish and headed upriver  missing a few strikes here and there, had to replace a few flies because the teeth on the cutthroat tear flies apart fairly quick.  After heading up further i spotted 2 more fisherman,..now i know for sure my internet fishing reports on the website oregonfishingforum.com    have led to more fishing pressure in this stream, there were also 2 local highschoolers  down under a bridge with 2 little kids  trying to catch and keep..   i recognized them  so i went down to fish and chat, they only had one small fish on the stringer and were having trouble catching fish (they were using big spoons and spinners)  so i decided to cast, ended up outfishing them all with my rainbow prince nymph  i got from bigyflyco.com  this is by far my favorite nymph for indicator fishing, its a badass attractor pattern and has caught over 10 fish for me these past 2 days.    they begged for me to give them my fish  to eat but i refused and released them all, including the biggest fish of the day that took line and gave me a run for my money,      they kept pushing it upon me to give up the fish i was catching but i said no and keep releasing, eventually the bite died off in that one pocket since i had caught 4 fish there, so i  moved upstream  caught 1 more and called it a day and went to work i will be taking my dad down to the city park tomorrow and try to get him his first fish on a fly rod.