Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Upcoming Awesomeness

Like every other American there are going to be some changes going on as of the first of the year. Be ready for a all new look to LTD. There are going to be more reports, some tutorials and all around jaw dropping, mind blowing, thought provoking accounts of Living The Dream. Living To Drift!

2012 is going to be a good year, so go out and enjoy it!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Recon Trip?


What exactly does a recon fishing trip look like? A day where you hook into a fish at every spot they typically hold, a day where the water is crystal clear and you can see every little nook and cranny of the river bottom. I don’t know if there is a true definition of a recon trip but that was my plan as of Friday morning.

Leading up to Thursday night I was going to skip this weekend because once again you can’t trust weather forecasters. Not a single drop had fallen since the first week of December, which means low and clear water conditions. I had told my fishing partners on Wednesday when we got together to tie fly’s that this weekend was going to be spent with the Wifey doing the HTD (honey to do, completely opposite of LTD) list. So thinking about the HTD list more and more I decided that this weekend could be better spent as a recon trip on the river, you know learn the river and the underlying structures. There it was Friday morning I talked to the guys and the day was planned.

Although knowing that this was going to be a recon trip and not to worry about hooking into fish, that is all I could think about once on the water. And once on the water that is exactly what all the other boats were doing, hooking into fish. No more than five minutes and one run down a set of rapids there were 4 boats all hooking into fish, some had claimed they landed 3, others 4. Between not having our rods setup and the massive amounts of people we decided to push on and hope there were more spots like this, but as most fishing trips turn out there where not any more spots like that one. We saw a lot of water that could be good and a lot of water that could be epic once the flows increase and the water rises a bit. 

Monday, December 12, 2011

Just keep casting


This past Saturday my good friends Jesse and Jay decided to float the Nestucca with me. It was what I had been waiting for since I pulled the boat out of the water last Saturday. Over the last week the water level has been steadily dropping to 4.8ft due to the fact that there has been no rain. The cutoff point to not float is 4.5ft. It was getting low when we went, but a day on the water is better than not. Thankfully the forecast for the coming weeks is RAIN.


The day started off exciting with a near “man overboard”, which ended up being the biggest rush of adrenaline for the entire float. After the near brush with a cold water bath you ask Jay what happened to him, he claims “there was ice on the bottom of the boat, and I just slipped”. I believe it was a mix between that he hadn’t gotten his sea legs and his constant waving of his arms which where his attempts to cast causing his balance to get off.

So with the near bath behind us we pushed on looking for some steal. Jesse was putting his fly in the perfect spots, hitting the seams and tail outs with that sweet walking pace water. About two hours into the flout hit got the grab. Indicator went screaming underwater then “pop” it came right back to the surface. He reeled it in and the fly had been taken clean off the line. After you see your fly taken clean off the line all you can do is tie on another and keep casting. That is exactly what Jesse did, and he did it for the rest of the day. Tying on a new fly and casting back in the water, tie on a new fly cast back in the water. That happened over and over just about 7 times, you could see the look of frustration building on his face throughout the day. What made the situation worse is that he let the only take of the day slip through his fingers. 

The day was not a total bust each Jesse and Jay both hooked into a trout near the end of the float. 

Monday, December 5, 2011

Where is your big brother?


So I am just now getting around to reporting on this weekend’s outing due to our busy schedule. Friday we had a Christmas get together with our Sunday School group which was a blast, we ended the night of with a game of hide and seek throughout our whole church. Saturday was spent on the water and Sunday, I don’t know which was more exciting getting our cable hooked up Sunday or fishing on Saturday. All I know is that we spent our Sunday afternoon watching everything that the fabulous direct tv had to offer.

Back to the important stuff, fishing. My good buddy Jesse came out with me, he has been Stillwater fly fishing for years, but just getting into the world of river fishing. It was a blast seeing him and the excitement that he had to try and get his hands on one of those magnificent chrome fish. Throughout the day we ended up landing 3 rainbows which averaged at about 13 inches, all Jesse could say is “where is your big brother?” He had 2 good bites at a steelhead, but they never developed into a fish. Once again all of those fish took the egg pattern, this is a must have fly for this season. I got little time to wet my line, as I wanted to see if I could get Jesse hooked into his first steelhead on a fly rod. I love being on the sticks, I am learning how to move the boat with little effort and I feel like I am seeing the water differently than if I was up front fishing. I am starting to spot the seams and slots better than ever, and I am starting to recognize possible holding spots for fish, I can’t wait for the big winter run of steelhead.


Even though we didn’t get into any steelhead it was a great day on the water. The high for the day was around 50 degrees with no rain or wind just a lot of sunshine. Since being on the water, when I am off I am constantly thinking about fly variations or different areas the fish might be holding in, I guess this is my realization that I am fully addicted to this sport, what do you do but “LTD”. 

Stunning


This is a must watch Video. It shows how great it is to live in a place like Oregon.

Monday, November 28, 2011

A couple of days off


This past week I had two days off because of Thanksgiving, which made for a 4 day weekend. This year I would be going to the in-laws for Thanksgiving, which meant short drive on turkey day thanks to living in the same town and I got to catch up with my wife’s cousin who has some fun adventures. The conversation that I won’t forget was the one that involved his new found passion for bow fishing. To sum up his story he and another “redneck” buddy of his went fishing at night for catfish and he said when they could see the fish in the water and not taking the bait they decided to pull out there bows and try it that way, and what do you know they got fish. That’s how the love of bow fishing became the best topic at our Thanksgiving meal.


Since we met our obligation of Thanksgiving with the in-laws on Thursday we decided to head out of town and meet my parents at the cabin up on Willamette Pass. We have always loved going there, it is such a nice place to go and relax and let our dog, Charlie, run around in the woods. It did not let us down again, we had a great time up there. I always love fishing with my dad, he is one of those guys that just loves to fly fish, he loves that chess like game with fish and their holding spots or how they run up river in certain conditions. Every time we fish together I always gain another piece of knowledge that would have taken years to figure out on my own. Now after saying this there is one piece I will leave for him, that is his strange obsession with catching a Brown trout from Crescent Lake. I am pretty sure it his white whale in life, this elusive creature that he has never seen but just knows it is lurking about in the lake. This weekend we tried the tactic of fishing at dusk and targeting right behind the spawning kokonee, somehow he knows the Browns just hang out behind feeding off the eggs. Well,  it was a couple pleasant hours each night hanging out and fishing with my father but now Browns just a couple of those kokonee fish. The legend of the Brown lives on.

We also picked up our Christmas tree. Since my wife and I have been married we go out into the woods and cut down our tree. This year we are especially pleased with our choice of tree, it is a great corner tree. This means about 3/4 of the tree is really good and the last 1/4 is best for the corner. All in all the days off work, dinner at the in-laws, and the weekend at the cabin it was a good couple of days.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

One Among Many


The weather this past week has been much needed for the coastal rivers to bring the fish upstream. With the water levels reading about 6.2 ft on Friday evening and falling, Saturday would be on the high to good side for the Nestucca. I put the call into my fishing partner for the day and the plan was set, head out at 8am, put in at 10am and fish 1st bridge to Farmers Creek.

The plan was in motion and we set the truck up for the shuttle service and went to 1st bridge to put in, as we were twisting and turning up the river road we had counted 8 boats that were already on the water. At the launch there were 3 more just sitting there and another 2 behind us right after we put in. I had never fished with so many boats on the water at once, but we not there for what was on top of the water but rather below it, that is Fish, mainly steelhead.

The guy I was fishing with was on a gear setup, so I can’t tell you a whole lot about what he was using just that I know it was not bait, looked like corky’s. I was setup with my bug with legs then an egg pattern as the dropper fly. After getting pressured into leaving the first spot by an upcoming boat we slid into what I believed to be good water, it turned out to be good water for my first fish of the day, a 10 inch rainbow. After another hour of playing frogger with other boats we anchored up right above a rock field with a few seams running parallel to each other. My partner was busy changing his set up for the 5th time on the day, I believe he is under the impression if something doesn’t bite it must be the type of setup not that there just might not be fish. I fished the closest seam first, carefully making sure I was covering every inch of that water. Nothing, no hits, no snags, no anything. Moved on to the second and further out seam, same thing making sure I left no water untouched, WHAM! Second fish hits, this one took the egg pattern again. It struck with vigor, but I quickly realized it was no steelhead. Turned out to be a nice 14 inch rainbow which was kind enough to regurgitate its breakfast for us in the net. It looked like it had been feeding on all the bait fisherman’s leftovers and a few leeches. My partner still at this point has not had a fish, let alone a bite.

We push on weaving in and out of boats to hit the last few spots before the take out. A float down a nice narrow rapid lead to a wider section with a gorgeous looking tail out. I tell myself this has to be the spot; this is the last place I can remember that has decent looking water before the take out.  Like the generous host I am I let my friend fish the spot first and simply watch. After seeing no action after ample time for him to get a bite I decide to go for it. Fist cast, no fish. Second cast, no fish. Third cast, no fish. What is going on? This is the spot it has to be, then after too many casts to county it happens. The fish I had been waiting for, it took that egg fly and ran. It made a good initial run downstream and then came barreling up towards the boat. I am trying to reel and keep up with it, when it happens. It all happened in slow motion, the fish rose to the surface showed it’s shiny 25 inch body then poof, spit the fly right at me and it was gone. The hit the run and the rise to the top are what we live for, the spitting of the fly that is just to keep us laughing at life. Once we got over what had just happened we made our final spot picking up one more rainbow to end the day with 3 rainbows landed and one resistant steelhead hooked.

The key to the day was hitting the seams with walking pace water and using any kind of egg pattern. There is still so much to learn about this river.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Bring on the Rain

So all last week I was itching to get back out on the water and fish. My work schedule does not allow me to fish during the week so those 5 days of work just kill. My dilemma the whole week was do I fish where I know there are fish or do I try some place new and hope?

I went against my better judgment and fished someplace new. It was the first time I had fished the Nestucca so I figured I would try a pretty tame float between 1st bridge and Three Rivers. Like all of the reports it was pretty straight forward, and thanks to the sporting goods shop in Hebo for the shuttle service, the car was taken care of.

The morning started out with overcast skies but no wind or rain, Yet! The water level was down a bit but I figured I came all this way, might as well go for it. Right as I was putting in I saw 3 salmon spawning right by the boat launch so I knew it was going to be a day of seeing a lot of dark beat up fish.  About an hour of no bites or tugs I hooked into about a 15 inch cutthroat. It fought pretty good for using a 7wt rod. After that little guy I am pretty sure I was living thing on the water and in the water for about 2 hours. As the rain and wind started to pick up in those two hours I kept thinking to myself “I bet the McKenzie is doing pretty good right about now”. A spawning salmon did take to a Stone nymph which ended up staying with the fish and not returning to the rightful owner, myself. Once that fish took my fly everything about the day changed, for the worse. The sky became dark grey and the showers became full on tropical rainstorm, basically the size of gumdrops. As I was making the final stretch to the Three Rivers boat launch, the heavens had broke open and this was it. The rain, the gale force winds, the ominous clouds overhead. The winds were so strong up stream it was creating a current that was flowing upstream, I felt like I was in the perfect storm just trying to row to get home.

As I pulled into the launch after my 30 minute battle against the wind and waves I saw a man get out of his truck and grab his pole and head to the water. Right as I was thinking to myself this guy is completely nuts, did he not see the signs that a hurricane was likely to take place anytime soon, he asked how I was doing? I replied, “Good except for the rain, and yourself?” His response, which took me off guard for the situation, “Good, just thought it was a good time to go fishing”. That was it, in passing these few words were said.

Looking back on it, I didn’t know what he was talking about. “Thought it was a good time to fish”, come on these where hurricane conditions. But the more I think about it this is the guy that I have always wanted be, the I don’t care about a little rain or wind I am going to do what I love to do kind of people. So my day of floating on a river trying to hook into a steelhead turned into a thought provoking afternoon that I will not forget anytime soon.

The Clackacraft that I have recently aquired worked great. I can't be more happy with the decision, and the slogan of "Fear No Rock" holds true. I am ready for the Winter Steelhead season to get underway, this year is going to be a good year!