News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 26 - 48 of 48
There's an Ian Tyson song, "Since the rain things look so much better ... Hills are turning green; the greenest green you've ever seen." It may as well have been written about the Deschutes in May. It's a good song to sing while casting nymphs. Not long ago, some friends and I set off on a three-day trip deep into the canyon. It was a marvelous outing. Most folks think early spring is too soon to be on the water for extended trips, but they couldn't be more wrong. Certainly it can be blustery at times - we had afternoon... Full story
There's an Ian Tyson song about the changes of spring and the green, green hills. It may as well have been written about the Deschutes in May. It's a good song to sing while casting nymphs. Not long ago, some friends and I set off on a three day trip deep into the canyon. It was a marvelous outing. Most folks think early spring is too soon to be on the water for extended trips, but they couldn't be more wrong. Certainly it can be blustery at times - we had an afternoon shower almost every day. But it never rained hard and... Full story
It was a beautiful, warm sunny day. So, when a friend called and said, "let's fish," it wasn't hard to talk me into it. We drove down the old bumpy road to the lower Metolius. Being early in the year we really weren't expecting to see a lot of fish up and working. Nonetheless, we rigged our dry fly rods. After a long winter of nymph fishing, we wanted to try something different. After a bit of poking around and practice casting here and there, we managed to locate at least one fish with his nose up. He was working pretty... Full story
Finding your fish and getting him to take your fly is only half the battle in catching a steelhead. You have to successfully hook him, play him and land him. There's enough work involved in the first step to frustrate a fisherman. When you get into the second step, it's easy to make a foolish mistake and lose your prize. Steelhead are supreme tackle-testers. You ought to be able to land at least 60 percent of the fish that you are able to hook solidly. For novice steelheaders the success is often much lower. It may take a few... Full story
The transition from trout fisherman to Steelheader is not an easy one. Steelheading requires confidence. But it's hard to be confident if you don't have experience. As many fishermen like to say, "dues are due." Hooking Steelhead is, at best, a random event. Most experts will tell you it's good fishing if you can get one a day. A Steelhead day is a long, hard round of fishing - up at first light, go till dark, with only a brief time out during the mid-day. That's a lot of casting. It equals a lot of fishing without a lot of... Full story
I had a hard time in puzzling out the tiny stones. I had mistaken them for caddis. I did not recognize their importance until I stopped fishing and sat on the bank and watched for a while. It was a classic mixed and masking hatch. Fish were rising nicely. There were two types of mayflies hatching. They were clearly the most abundant insects on the water. One was a size No. 18 gray/olive, probably a Baetis of some sort. The other was slightly larger No. 16 yellow/olive. Even though there were a few caddis in the air, it seemed... Full story
When the wristwatch alarm went off I wasn't ready to get up. It felt as if I had just gone to bed. Early mornings are the part of Steelheading I will never get used to. I curled up in the sleeping bag for a moment contemplating what would happen if I just stayed there. That was dangerous territory; I could nod off in an instant whether I meant to or not. I rolled over and opened my eyes to look up at the stars. The constellations where well around the sky from where they had been when I went to bed. I'd had some rest. I... Full story
There is a moment late in August, as the days shorten, when you will notice a change in the air, a subtle crispness that says fall is coming. Not long after that, we are likely to have a few cool moist days, like the ones we had last week. They bring the temperature down a little more. This slight turn of the weather is not the end of the sunshine by any stretch of the imagination. There are still plenty of shirtless days left. But it is an end to the oppressive heat. It signals that the dog days of summer are over. As the... Full story
The anticipation of steelhead season is not like waiting for another hatch or another form of trout fishing. It has a fever all its own. For dedicated steelheaders, it is the crown jewel of the entire fishing season. I've been thinking about it for months. I bought some new gear this season and fixed some of the of old stuff. I tied flies and built leaders. With each bit of work my anticipation has been building. Now, at last, the hour is here. In the beginning, fishing is spotty. People always catch a few fish at the mouth... Full story
Taking time out to watch fish - to observe them without disturbance - is sometimes as much fun as actually trying to catch them. As a guide I go fishing without my fly rod quite a bit. Some portion of every day on the river is spent just walking the banks and observing, trying to find the best fishing opportunities for my guests. Occasionally, when I see a really pretty fish I will steal a few moments for myself and just watch him for a bit. Through this process I have learned to see fish exceedingly well. Scientists say what... Full story
When most folks think of nymph fishing they think of fishing the bottom with indicators, heavy flies, add-on weights and possibly a small dropper fly. For many, casting this type of hardware is not nearly as pleasant as using a light, delicate dry fly. Some folks limit themselves to being dry fly purists. But there is an alternative - a style of light, shallow nymphing in which subsurface flies cast as easily as the most delicate of dry flies. Shallow nymphing takes advantage of emerging insect behavior. By varying the... Full story
Presentation is everything. The skill - the art - of fly fishing lies in how you show the fly to fish. The most common presentation is dead drift; matching the speed of the fly to the speed of the current as it floats over the fish holding zones. Achieving a true dead drift, one with absolutely no influence from the line or leader, requires attention to detail and constant line management. This is the reason you see fly fishermen in that classic posture neck: bent forward, concentrating intently. Perhaps the most difficult... Full story
Every so often you run onto a fishing story that just has to be told. This one proves the old adage, "sometimes it's better to be lucky than good." Bob is from Minnesota. Up until our trip, his fishing experience was largely on Pike, Musky, Walleye and Bass. He was accustomed to heavy tackle and heavy tactics. Bob was a bit out of his element, engaging in the graceful art of fly fishing on the Deschutes. His Minnesota game fish tactics applied to the fly rod was like a bull in a china shop; it had not made for a very successf... Full story
There was a good sized trout just ahead of us within easy casting range. I had seen him rise several times, but we weren't getting the job done. It was almost as if there was a lid over the spot - some sort of magic dome that kept repelling our flies. My client, Bill, cast again and again to the left and right, all around the spot, but he couldn't seem to hit it. The situation was becoming increasingly tense; we both knew the trout would not endure too many more bad casts in his territory before he was gone. "The wind is... Full story
The appearance of Golden Stoneflies on the Metolius is a herald of the transition from spring to summer fishing. The hatch always arrive on or slightly before the Fourth of July. Goldens, which are sometimes mistakenly called Salmonflies, are somewhat smaller, and a bit lighter in color than their larger cousins, the true Salmonfly. Unlike the Salmonfly hatch on the Deschutes, which comes and goes rather quickly, the Golden hatch on the Metolius tends to linger, lasting through July and August and on into early September.... Full story
Soft Hackle Swing - it sounds like some sort of country western dance. Actually it is one of the oldest methods of fly fishing known. It originated with the birth of fly fishing on the chalk streams of southern England and was popular well before either the current dry fly or nymph fishing tactics were ever invented. Today the technique has fallen into relative obscurity. The only writers who talk about it very much are the Califonia angler Sylvester Nemes, guru of the Soft Hackle technique and his disciple David Hughes.... Full story
The phenomenon of the Salmonfly is one of nature's small miracles. In early spring, the native rainbows are just coming out of the spawn. They need food and energy to bring them back to full fitness. Low and behold what does the river provide? Great big insects that are nothing more than walking, crawling gobs of living protein - a perfect food source for the fish. The bugs seem to hurl themselves deliberately onto the water. As the fish feed, they become stronger and brighter while you watch. A setup like this - near... Full story
Around rodeo time each year, the green drake hatch on the Metolius reaches its peak. For cowboys with a fly rod a little fishing can be an excellent break from the more hectic activities of the weekend. The green drake has always been one of my favorite hatches. Maybe it's the gorgeous setting along the river with the wild flowers in bloom. Maybe it's the insects themselves - the way they float serenely, twitching their wings occasionally, only to be gobbled by a big head that slides out of the depths of the river. Or maybe... Full story
With major hatches of green drakes on the Metolius and salmonflies on the Deschutes, fishermen may be challenged to fish in tighter, more brushy situations than usual. On the swift, deep Metolius, there is often no room to wade out and fish in the open river. On many good runs you can barely get clear of the bushes; you must sneak your casts in. On the Deschutes we fish the brushy banks because at this time of year both the fish and bugs are concentrated along the edge of the river. The easiest casting trick for these tight,... Full story
The Salmonfly hatch leads to some of the very best fishing the Lower Deschutes has to offer. Anglers come from all over the world to fish this event. The hatch is just now getting under way - the activity will continue in full force through late June. Sadly, despite the awesome potential of this hatch, every year there are dozens of anglers who fish it and come away frustrated. As I float by I see folks fishing nymphs right in the middle of the best dry fly fishing of the year. They have obviously given up. There are many... Full story
Periodically it seems that I have to be reminded just how small an insect trout can become focused on. When the hatching insects are really teeny-tiny, it seems that there isn't enough food value for a big hungry trout to become selective. Yet when there are enough insects emerging - when the pickings become just too easy to resist, trout will focus on the tiniest of all insects, the midges. Not long ago I ran on to one of these hatches down on the Deschutes. I was guiding a series of trips throu gh the same water in the... Full story
There was a time when I thought of the natural world as stable. I was not so keenly aware of the power of catastrophic events. In an instant Mount St. Helens changes all that. After she blew her top, I could not look at the Cascades in the same way. I read about even bigger events, like Mount Mazama, and somehow the ground I was standing on didn't seem quite so stable. My view of rivers was a lot like my broader view of nature. I knew rivers were in a constant state of flux; continuously changing. They have to be changing or... Full story
Many expected a long, protracted argument between two sides of an ancient debate, hatchery fish versus wild fish on the Metolius River, but it didn't happen at the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife meeting held March 14 at the Camp Sherman Community Hall. The subject under discussion was the Upper Deschutes Basin Plan, which outlines future management goals for all local waters. This has been under development for close to six years. It recently received heavy criticism through the Metolius Wild and Scenic River planning... Full story
