The Caddis Fly: Oregon Fly Fishing Blog

• Jay Nicholas’ Salmon fisher’s journal: Elk River 2009

  Number of comments: 7
  Elk River, 2009 Saturday morning. Down the beach we went at daybreak - Bob, Ryan, and me. Paul and Jeff had abandoned us at the motel in the dark, sneaking away without even knocking on our door to see if we were awake. Fellow salmon fishers, most carrying white plastic shopping [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 1:08pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Video: Darkest days of the year — Idle hands are the Devil’s tools

  Number of comments: 5
  Rains come to Pacific Northwest and 12-foot waves pound the coast for weeks on end. For some, the guide season is on hold for a few months. The days are dark and the beers are darker. Might as well tie huge steelhead flies and have a few laughs on the [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 5:07pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Top fly fishing Christmas gifts 2009: Black Friday edition

  Number of comments: 1
  What are the top fly fishing Christmas gifts for 2009? Chris lays them out in this new video: Top Fly Fishing Christmas Gifts Glacier Gloves: Windproof fleece fold-over mitt Cyclone Buff Simms Windstopper Guide Jacket softshell fleece Sage Vantage Fly Rod Redington Youth Fly Rod Combo: Minnow Echo Dec Hogan Spey Rod Redington CT Fly Rod Simms Aluminum Water [...]
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  Posted: November 27, 2009, 1:10pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• McKenzie River Hatchery trout reduction or removal update

  Number of comments: 2
  On this Thanksgiving, we’d like to give thanks to you – the wild fish advocates – for standing up for wild trout on the McKenzie River. Thank you to all of the people who signed petitions, sent letters, filled out angler preference surveys and joined the McKenzie cause on Facebook. [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 2:22pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Native Fish Society gets behind McKenzie Hatchery Trout reduction/removal, goes Web2.0

  The Portland-based conservation organization, Native Fish Society has come on board to help our Trout Unlimited chapter reduce or remove hatchery trout in the McKenzie. I recently joined the ranks of the River Steward program for the McKenzie and NFS has agreed to fund some upcoming projects on the hatchery [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 11:00am EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Big water steelhead leeches: Bust out the big rabbit strips

  Number of comments: 2
  Not that salmon season is over, but I’ve started thinking more and more about fishing big water for steelhead and maybe even a few late season kings. There is still time to fish our Comets, Bosses, and Clousers. But it makes sense to carry some Intruders and Leeches for big [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 12:40am EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• ODFW YouTube channel documents record Oregon coho run

  According to Tom Murtagh, ODFW distric District Fish Biologist: A significant proportion of the Willamette coho run has entered the Tualatin and is currently spawning throughout the basin, mostly above Hillsboro. Coho counts at the falls is just above 25,000 adults, a record. Interestingly, about 94-96% are naturally produced, that [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 12:45pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• The battle for Columbia Salmon comes to a head in Portland courtroom today

  Number of comments: 1
  In September, the Obama Administration endorsed a flawed salmon plan or BiOp, as it has been called, for the Columbia River system. The day is here now when Judge Redden will hear final arguments in the courtroom on the legality of this plan. Today, a group of advocates and fishermen [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 9:51am EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Important fly fishing stuff online!

  Deschutes Basin Whirling Disease Report Via the Oregon Trout Unlimited Social Media site: Two OSU researchers just released this study funded by PGE which examines the risk of establishment of whirling disease in the Lower Deschutes, and subsequently in the Upper Deschutes as fish passage above the Pelton - Round Butte [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 11:32pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Salmon Crazy: Elk and Sixes report — Barrett, Rob and Piper put the hammer down

  Number of comments: 2
  I don’t know why I bother to set a 2 A.M. alarm when I have never been able to sleep the night before a south coast salmon fishing trip. After a late afternoon phone call from Greg Roberts confirming the river conditions, a plan was formulated to round up my [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 3:57pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Stormy weather brings hope to South Coast Anglers

  Number of comments: 4
  It’s only mid week and the migration to the Southern Oregon Coast has begun. Elk, Sixes, Rogue, to name a few are staged to be in perfect shape for fly anglers to catch chrome bright Chinook Salmon. Bring your shooting heads, type 3 and intermediate at a minimum. A bunch of [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 8:10pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Jay Nicholas’ salmon fishers journal: South Coast Kings

  Day 4. Load- 4-Runner . Drive. Walk down beach in dark with Gordon. Difficult keeping up. Wade across river mouth. Start casting. Keep positive. Hope. High anticipation. Poor catch yesterday translates to fewer fishers today. Same guy fishing Skagit Compact line on east side of lagoon. Acts like he knows [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 10:51am EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Cascade Family Fly Fishers put on Taimen talk at Eagles tonight

  Number of comments: 1
  Head out to the Eugene Eagles Aerie tonight at 7pm to catch a talk on Mongolian Taimen, hosted by the Cascade Family Fly Fishers. [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 5:50pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Rivers of a Lost Coast DVDs now available!

  Hot off the presses, the new Rivers of a Lost Coast DVDs are now available. The new DVD package includes never before seen extra footage, deleted scenes, bonus features and a beautiful 41-page color insert booklet with original writings from Russ Chatham, Peter Moyle, Jack Berryman and Conrad Calimpong. See interview [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 10:52pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Tillamook Salmon Report: Where have all the salmon gone?

  Number of comments: 10
  “It’s been terrible,” Bob Rees confided, the wind buffeting his cell phone mouthpiece. “Been this way all season,” he added. Bob would know. He’s one of Tillamook’s most established guides, as well as being a vocal advocate for wild fish, clean water, and coastal rainforests. He shares information with several [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 8:51pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Redington improving fly fishing gear, keeping prices down

  Number of comments: 1
  In a fly fishing world dominated by Sage and Simms, it’s easy for guys who work for a fly shop and get guide discounts to overlook a budget-friendly fly fishing company like Redington. But a couple weeks ago on the Deschutes steelhead trip, I was really impressed by two items [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 11:53am EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Gary Williams’ Lucky Strike: Year-round trout searching pattern

  Number of comments: 4
  According to Gary Williams, local legend Jim Lucky who has fished and appreciated the McKenzie River for over 50 years gets credit for the Lucky Strike Pattern. This is a great year-round searching fly. Tie it in a bunch of sizes from 10-16. Low-riding, high-vis trout fly with peacock and [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 10:50am EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Support Oregon’s Casting for Recovery retreat — donate flies and fill this box!

  Number of comments: 5
  Next month, the breast cancer awareness and support group Casting for Recovery is hosting the Confluence Films newest feature Rise at the David Minor Theater. For those of you unaware of CFR, here is a rundown of their work: Casting for Recovery, founded in 1996, is a national non-profit support [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 2:34pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Fly fishing glossary: Dollie to Elmer Fudd Hat

  Number of comments: 6
  This is the seventh installment of The Fly Fishers Glossary: Snippets From the Underbelly of Fly Fishing, Fly Tying, Fish Biology, Dusty old Facts, Hallucinations, and the Plain Truth as I know it, by Jay Nicholas. Dollie Formerly, a Dollie (sometimes Dolly) was an undesirable but rare trash fish detested because they [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 12:57pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Not many tix left for tonight’s showing of Where Hope Resides

  Number of comments: 1
  Not many tickets left down at the shop for tonight’s showing of Where Hope Resides at the David Minor Theater at 6:30pm. Tix are $10 and the proceeds go to the guys from JahTrout who’re taking their fish conservation message on the road for an Oregon tour. For more on [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 3:52pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• The fly fishing glossary: Chuck to Dead Drift Nymphing

  Number of comments: 5
  This is the sixth installment of The Fly Fishers Glossary: Snippets From the Underbelly of Fly Fishing, Fly Tying, Fish Biology, Dusty old Facts, Hallucinations, and the Plain Truth as I know it, by Jay Nicholas. Chuck Archaic term meaning to cast a fly, as in, “Chuck it out there Dude”. [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 1:13pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Jay Nicholas: A salmon fishers journal

  Number of comments: 4
  Introduction A Journal should begin at the beginning, I suppose. This Journal doesn’t, so the reader will need to figure out what comes first, what follows what, and sometimes, how everything is connected. I don’t keep a daily Journal. Some fly fishers do, I’ve heard, recording information like water temperature, [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 10:43am EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Support Washington’s wild steelhead — Take the Chum survey

  Number of comments: 2
  Fly fishing blog monsters Moldy Chum launched an online poll recently asking how much anglers in Washington state value wild steelhead as opposed to hatchery-reared fish. Per the Chum’s press release: “We’d like to demonstrate to the state just how important wild fish are to those of us who spend [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 12:10am EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• PDX showing of Where Hope Resides Wed. night

  Jeff Hickman is hosting a showing of Where Hope Resides Tues 11/10/09 at 6:30pm at Jeff’s office (1821 SE Ankeny St, PDX). The event is partnered with Sierra Club, Native Fish Society and Kaufmann Streamborn. $10, FREE BEER and snacks!!!! For Eugeneans, come check out our showing Thurs night. -MS [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 11:53pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Three days swinging flies for Deschutes River Steelhead

  Number of comments: 9
  Trout Creek to Harpham Flat, Nov 5-7: Eight of us set out last week from Eugene to the high desert to chase steelhead on the Deschutes River. Ethan Nickel Outfitters ran the program to celebrate the end of the ‘09 guide season and we came along for the ride, enjoying [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 1:27pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Big fly fishing events in Eugene this week

  Wednesday night, November 11th steelhead book author John Larison will be signing books at the Caddis Fly Shop from 3:30 to 5pm. John will also be presenting at the McKenzie Upper-Willamette Chapter of Trout Unlimited’s meeting that night at 7pm at the Eagles Aerie, 1375 Irving Rd. in Eugene. John’s [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 9:22am EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Deschutes Fall Trip 09; A Passage in Time

  Number of comments: 1
  Mid October brought some fine fall weather from Trout Creek to Harpham. This Fall trip was special, I brought along my son a recent U of O grad. His first overnight trip was age 8. He’s older now and much stronger or simply stated: less boat bags to haul, less [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 2:12pm EST
  by Caddisfly

• New Hareline fly tying contest: Unibobber patterns

  Number of comments: 5
  For our next Hareline Dubbin fly tying contest, we’re looking for your best original patterns using Unibobbers. Contest rules are the same as last time. We want to see your best Unibobber pattern, either an original or your own spin on a classic. Fly Tying Unibobbers are sure to keep [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 12:01am EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• 1872 Mining Law reform on the horizon

  Number of comments: 1
  Reform of the 1872 Mining Law has been on the agenda of every major conservation organization for years, and it looks like the issue is finally coming to a head. For those of you unaware of the 1872 Mining Law, here is a summary from TU’s Web site. The General Mining [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 2:57pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• The Complete Steelheader: John Larison Q&A and book signing

  Number of comments: 3
  John Larison’s The Complete Steelheader has changed the way I fish more than any other book I’ve read. There are lots of other books out there that have had an effect on my life, fishing philosophy, etc. But no other book actually changed the way I approach the mechanics of [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 2:12pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry

• Pacific salmon on the fly — best day of fishing of my life

  Number of comments: 10
  In the cold pre-dawn on a Pacific tidal estuary, Rob pushed us out with the tide into a maze of muddy banks that all looked alike, snaggy dead trees sticking up out of the water, reaching for the boat. We had fog shrouding the hills around us, rain falling around [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 12:59pm EST
  by Matt Stansberry