Oregon's Waters.

Where will I go when I retire? Probably somewhere in Oregon....



It's people like Brian Huskey from Fishbite Media that really remind me why I love to fish. His Warren Miller-style video clips bring back memories of all the days spent on those middle-of-nowhere creeks with my good friends and good fishing.

Winter fish porn...

Just a little more winter fish porn madness...

Krakowwww!

The AR is always worth a shot.

I've heard from several people that there are stripers in the lower AR all year, just hangin' out chowin' on salmon and steelhead smolts all winter and spring. Although the people I've talked to haven't really fished for them in the dead of winter, they did say that it would be interesting to see if you could catch anything in January, and if you did hook into one, that it would probably be a monster. What the hell..... I'm always up for a challenge.

Mikey was coming down to give a talk to the TU chapter and he had mentioned that he wanted to try chucking some flies for stripers, so I borrowed Dan B.'s drift boat and we had at it.

We put in at Sunrise and fished all the way to Goethe chucking clousers and long striper patterns with maybe a bump or two, but nothing to show for. I was having my doubts when all of a sudden Mikey hooks-up with a fish just above the footbridge at Goethe. The fish came unbuttoned before we could have a look at it, but we did see some flashy silver, so we just guessed that it was striper. Two casts later, Mikey has a solid hook-up and puts a huge bend in his 10 wt. After a good fight and a couple of short runs, the fish came up to the top and... sure as shit... a hatchery steelhead...

Not the striper we were looking for, but still a good fight and a good night. Those stripers are in there, and now I can't wait until summer to really turn the heat on those silent killers, the Boogey Man, as Mikey calls 'em.

Round 3...

The barneys from the bay can have the Yuba. I'm tired of driving up there and finding like 30 other dudes corked-out on every stretch of fishable water, acting like they're giving me a lesson on how to catch a Yuba trout; slashing at the rising fish wondering why they aren't taking their black and tan parachute adams... They can have it... I'll wait until summer when the fly fisherman hatch turns off and the real fishing turns on...

In the mean time... I'll try to find some other way to get my fix....

Hows about a 20 inch Truckee torpedo?...

Now that's how you ring in the new year!

How can a trout get so fat eating a bug so small?

Why does the Truckee hate me?

We were deserving of a redo on the Truckee after the last showing. Spending 6 hours stuck in traffic last time for an hour and a half of fishing definitely sucked, but we did catch fish in that hour and a half, and that was enough to send us back. So, this last Sunday we went back for seconds. Again, we knew there was a storm coming in that night, but it didn't slow us down. Like the mouse to the electric cheese: we wanted it regardless of the shit we might end up going through... again, and again, and again, and again...

At least the storm held-out until we were off the water, but this time it wasn't the weather that defecated on a perfectly good day of fishing. Oh no... the weather?... no problem... roads?... totally clear... broken rod?... not that day... skunked?... nope... how about an overlooked barb on a size 18 hare's ear?... life sucks...

No explanation necessary...

Regardless of the well over-exaggerated unnecessary fine that I'll probably need a payment plan to pay-off, the day wasn't a total loss: the fishing was pretty damn good! There was so much snow covering the rocks and the banks that it was actually easier to get around in the river.

Cold water meant that the fish were holed-up in the deeper slower-moving water, but they were surprisingly willing to take a fly. I would go so far as to say that they were actually moving quite a bit to take the fly. Presentation (as always) was pretty important, but it didn't seem like you needed to put the flies right in front of the fish.

The hot fly for me was a size 18 tan hare's ear (barbless).

Fishing the Truckee this time of year lends itself to sight fishing, but we were only able spot one hole the entire day with fish in it that we could see. Granted, there were about 8 fish in the hole, and we managed to land 6 of them.

Scott with a fatty that we could see eating suspended critters in the water column.

Most of the fishing was to good-looking water, and generally that would produce fish. Scott's hot fly was a midge larva/pupa that you can see in the corner of this fish's mouth.

Because of the lower flows, the fish were congregated in deeper water, which meant that where one fish was there were likely others. Most of the time we'd fish to the same hole even after two or three fish had already been pulled to hand from it, and still catch fish.

The fish were healthy and had plenty of energy even in the cold Truckee water. Several times a hooked fish would actually run up and down and in and out of the pool it was hooked in. Not the same lethargic fish from the last trip.

I don't know what the water temps were, but the water felt cold enough when you put your hand in it. The air temps were probably in the 40's with a fairly stiff wind. Skies were partly cloudy, and in the sun it felt like 70 degrees.

The Truckee proved, once again, to be a great winter fishery... Just remember to pinch your barbs...

Louise waving goodbye to the Truckee after a citation and a hook in the finger.