Flies, Flies, Flies!!!

It's Friday again and time for a new fishing report. I made it out a few mornings before work - not a lot of time to fish when you work seven days a week. John has been guiding all week, so I am getting some feedback from him as well as from a lot of friends of the shop stopping in with big smiles and tales of steelhead. Thanks goes out to Marty Sheppard for the photos for this report - his clients from Idaho were here last week and did very well on small reddish flies as well as on steelhead coachmen. 

This morning Gabor and I saw a bunch of mayflies hovering around over Deschutes Avenue just in front of the store. We have been seeing some excellent Mayfly hatches this fall, and I wanted to capture one for identification. Unfortunately, I do not have a big butterfly net, I just had my hat. I was standing in the middle of the road, hat in hand, looking like a bit of an idiot, and I nearly got run over by a silver Tacoma. I think I will search Amazon for a butterfly net, because it would come in awfully handy for situations such as this one. When I eventually capture one of these mayflies, I will be sure to post some pictures. 

I was chatting with fellow guide, Nate Turner, the other day and we were discussing this fall mayfly hatch - they look a bit like Pale Evening Duns - but neither of us had been able to nail down the identification. If you are trout fishing, however, be ready with a few patterns that are size 14 or 16 and tannish/pale yellowish. The Blue Winged Olives are also out and about - so you also want some small size 18 and 20 mayflies. The caddis will stay strong for the months to come, we pretty much have caddis hatches throughout all the months of the year. 

Since there are so many mayflies hatching these days, the trout seem to be hanging out in the mid water column. This makes the dry/dropper, or hopper/dropper fishing as effective and sometimes more so than deep nymphing. I know, I know, those of you who are addicted to Euro nymphing will argue that nothing produces hook ups like Euro nymphing. I agree, that technique is deadly, but sometimes it is nice to actually cast a fly line and use those casting and fishing skills. I also like to see a dry fly on the water, even though the trout are more likely to grab the dropper. Here's a photo of a rainbow that nearly fooled me when it grabbed my purple muddler one morning this week....

Speaking of dry flies, people are continuing to amaze themselves by having faith in the Scandi line, a floating leader, and a skater, and catching steelhead on the surface. Water temperatures are ideal for swinging up steelhead on skaters, and there really isn't a better way to start your day than to watch a mouth come out of the glassy water to swirl on your fly. It is simply electrifying. 

I try to use skaters on the Deschutes that are small enough to really allow the steelhead to engulf them. I like a little tuft of white or a little piece of foam on the skater so that I can see it in the low light. Bombers are great, and a challenge to tie, so that is one of the skaters that I like on the Deschutes. Color isn't too critical, or critical at all, other than the importance of the angler liking and having faith in the fly. Purple works, blue works, red works, black works, green works, cream works, orange works, brown works, white works, any color fly will work for steelhead. 

Having faith and confidence in the fly that you are fishing is by far the most important aspect of choosing which fly to swing. If you caught your last 2-3 steelhead on a size six streetwalker, then you are probably going to have a lot of confidence in that pattern and you will choose it above all the others in the fly box. Size does matter - I try to keep the patterns small when fishing the Deschutes.  HUGE fish will eat tiny flies - Elephants eat peanuts. 

A buddy of mine was out here a few weeks back and he brought with him a fellow who works in the industry but had never before fished for steelhead on the Deschutes. My buddy showed this guy the floating line and the small hair wing pattern that he was fishing, but the industry guy wanted to fish his Skagit head and sink tip and larger fly because that, to him, was what you use for steelhead. For two days they fished, and my buddy was letting him go through all the prime water first because he really wanted him to get one. On the second day, my buddy finally fished a couple of runs behind the industry professional and hooked three steelhead on the floating line and small fly. To his credit, the industry guy realized that he had done exactly what he, as a former guide, had seen many a client do. He was "that guy" who shows up on a new river and applies all the tactics that work for hooking fish on his home river - ignoring the advice of those familiar with the water and the fish. He took off the Skagit head and the huge intruder-style fly.

When I spent nearly two years travelling and fishing all over the place, I learned so much from the people who lived and fished a home river on a daily basis. I thought I knew something about fly fishing when I started my travels,  but I came to learn that I really didn't know all that much. By visiting local fly shops and fishing with some of the locals, I really expanded my fishing knowledge. I was humbled by each new river - felt like a rookie. Every river had different fish, every river had different hatches, and every river had miles and miles of water with which I had no familiarity. I was constantly learning and have never really stopped learning. That's why I love fly fishing, you can never fully master every aspect of the sport. 

Well, this rambling report was brought to you today in little bits at a time. It may seem a bit scattered, and that is due to writing it in between customers. I get a few sentences down and then get torn away when people walk in. I hope that you get a chance to escape to your favorite body of water this weekend. I will be here in the fly shop. Tight lines!