Water Boatman

Water boatmen have the hind two pairs of legs fitted with hairs and the outer joints of the hind legs are oar-shaped which allows them to paddle and swim. Adults range in length from 3/16 to 3/8 inch long and are usually dull colored brown or olive. Water boatmen often swim in open water where they are easy prey for trout. They are comfortable in cold water and often a good choice for an early season trout fly in lakes.

Water Boatman, Brown Water boatmen are reported to occur in fresh water through out most of the world. In certain local ponds lakes and reservoirs they occur in dense populations. In the edge water of many local rivers with habitats as diverse as the spring fed Deschutes to the glacial fed Sandy water boatmen populations can be very prolific. When other aquatic insects are still dormant from the cold of winter, water boatmen can be very active.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
00531-12	Water Boatman, Brown	12	3 for $5.25

Water Boatman, Olive Approximately 130 species of water boatmen have been cataloged in North America. Like all aquatic "true bugs" water boatmen lack gills and must come to the surface of the water to breath. They frequently carry an shiny air bubble attached to their rear abdomen so the can breath from it. Try dressing your fly with a powdered dry fly dressing so it will gather air bubbles. Then fish your fly with a slow sinking line and a jerky retrieve.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
00532-12	Water Boatman, Olive	12	3 for $5.25

Up-to-Date INFORMATION on Early Season Fly Fishing Lakes.
Scroll this table for instant information. Click the links for more information.
Our Lakes Information Section is constantly evolving. Be sure to check often for up-dates.

Ana Reservoir:	Ana Reservoir was stocked with 3000 legal size rainbow trout a month ago from Desert Springs Hatchery. Ana Reservoir will be open all year long for rainbow trout and hybrid bass angling. Fishing is very good for rainbow trout. Hybrid bass are being captured using streamers just off the bottom. Night fishing for hybrid bass is legal. Many hybrid bass captured are over 10 lbs. This is the best time of the year to catch trophy hybrid bass.
Chickahominy Reservoir	The reservoir is eight feet below full and almost entirely ice free. The fish are concentrated. Angling is fair for 12 to 18 inch rainbow trout. Fishing will improve as the water warms.
Harriet Lake	Will be stocked mid-April and throughout the spring and summer.
Lake Billy Chinook	Bull trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, kokanee, smallmouth bass. The Metolius arm opened to anglers beginning March 1. Anglers are reporting fair success for bull trout. There is also opportunity for rainbow trout, brown trout and kokanee.
Mann Lake	Angling is good for cutthroat trout when weather conditions allow. Mann Lake is expected to remain low this summer.
Pine Hollow Reservoir	Has been stocked and is open all year. Pine Hollow should be good throughout the spring, since good numbers of fish over-winter in the reservoir. Good numbers of largemouth bass are also available.
Rock Creek Reservoir	Has been stocked and is open all year. This is a real good early season fly fishing lake

Outcast PAC 9000 Pontoon Boat
Pontoon Boat Accessories	All pictures are Mouse-over. Read Test Report On This Boat

The PAC 9000 has all the ideas and features you can pack into one boat. Each 9' pontoon consists of two side-by-side, full- length air chambers so it actually rides on four separate pontoons. If one tube were to fail (highly unlikely, of course) your boat will still ride level and be completely maneuverable. The frame is secured with air pressure from within...no straps and no d-rings! The craft rides higher in shallow water situation making it easier to spin and get into tighter spots. The 10" low profile tubes make the PAC 9000 much better in windy conditions on both still and moving water than other pontoon boats.
FREE: Custom 12-pound River Anchor Delivered With This Boat.
Always wear a life jacket on uncertain water!


The PAC 9000 was designed to be an extremely shallow draft boat. Because four pontoons are twice as much labor & time to build as two pontoons the PAC 9000 is expensive to build. The cost of the PAC 9000 kept me from close investigation because I couldn't see an added advantage from the added expense...that is before I rowed a PAC 9000 down the Clackamas River in June 2007. The PAC 9000 is a very safe, practical, agile craft on moving water. The twin pontoon designed in a boat this size has some extreme advantages over regular single round pontoons. It draws less than half the water that a conventional pontoon boat does. This makes the PAC 9000 one of the most fun boats that I have ever rowed because you can explore places in this boat you can only dream about getting into with a conventional pontoon boat or raft. 04/06/08 I just returned from a successful hunt on Wild Billy Lake in Southern Oregon, where the PAC 9000 preformed in a totally impressive fashion, both with oars and with fins. This is the superior one person craft for fishing lakes. I am so impressed with this boat that tests will continue over an extended period of time.

Inflated Size	Tube Dia.	Capacity	Weight	Anchor System
108" X 60"	Dual 10"	400 lbs.	68 lb.	Included

Item	Description	Price	To Top
200-000440	Outcast PAC 9000 pontoon Boat, color red	$1,799
200-000450	Outcast PAC 9000 pontoon Boat, color green	$1,799

AquaLux® Fly Line

A must-have line for the serious lake angler. Castability has always been a problem with clear intermediate sinking lines because there are no lubricants in the coating and the lines drag through the guides. RIO has solved the problem by incorporating proprietary lubricants into the running line coating that make the line slick. The running line is translucent green while the head is completely clear. With an intermediate sinking rate of 1.5 – 2.0 inches per second (3.7 cm/s), the line is perfect for fishing subsurface and shallow shore lines. Ideal when stealth is required for wary, selective fish. Made on a low memory supple monofilament core with a coldwater coating and welded loop on the front end. Our recent tests have disclosed that this line will fish to four feet deep pretty quickly, but will enable you to fish shallow water easily when fish are patrolling the edges of a lake. This often happens early in the season, just after ice-out as the shollow water along the edges of a lake often warms first. The Rio AquaLux® Fly Line has less memory when cold than do most other sinking fly line, which makes it easier to cast then the weather/water are cold during the early season.
WF3I - WF9I Length: 100 ft (30.5 m) Color: Clear AquaLux

Item	Size	Description	Price	To Top
RIO20798	WF3I	Rio AquaLux clear fly line WF3I	$64.95
RIO20790	WF4I	Rio AquaLux clear fly line WF4I	$64.95
RIO20791	WF5I	Rio AquaLux clear fly line WF5I	$64.95
RIO20792	WF6I	Rio AquaLux clear fly line WF6I	$64.95
RIO20793	WF7I	Rio AquaLux clear fly line WF7I	$64.95
RIO20794	WF8I	Rio AquaLux clear fly line WF8I	$64.95
RIO20795	WF9I	Rio AquaLux clear fly line WF9I	$64.95

Sage 486-4 ZXL
By: J. Morgan Jones
Spring is in the air and a man's fancy often turns to love,...love of graphite that is...
So…George Cook, our Sage rep calls the shop awhile back, and swears that he has a rod that I need to try. His words were, and I quote,” I know what kind of rods you like and I have a ZXL you really need to cast.” I’m thinking that I am glad that he called, as there is a new 5wt spey rod that I have almost convinced myself that I needed. I am trying to turn the conversation towards this very subject, but he keeps talking to me about this ZXL rod. “Why do I need this particular rod?” I ask? “Because I know you and I know what kind of rods you really like, I’m going to send it to you.” I really tried, but he insisted that I really NEED TO TRY THIS ROD. It is the new Sage 8’ 6” four weight ZXL. “Why not the 9’ I ask?   “Because the 896-4 ZXL is one of THOSE rods. It’s a really special rod in the ZXL series.” Well, the ZXL rods are a very nice series of medium (my own rating for rod speeds) action rods, and I prefer a 9’in most rods, but, no, it’s got to be the 8’6” model. O.K., but I am thinking that I am perhaps getting way to easy to give things to, but I like this rep, so I decide to give in.
The rod arrives and I put a Sage Performance Taper 4 wt line (really good line, by the way) on the rod and give it a toss. I must admit it does cast really well in the parking lot test, so I need to schedule a water test to find out if this as good as it seems to be on land. I head off to the Deschutes River a few weeks ago with a few other 4 wt rods for a comparison test. I actually, um, have, well more than one 4 wt rod, so that I can make a good comparison, but this is the only reason…….:-)
It’s February and on the Deschutes you can get all kinds of weather. I had sun, rain and lots of different winds and a few periods of dead calm during that day, so you might say that I was able to put together a fairly good test. Dry flies, nymphs (single and double), weighted nymphs and even a few double weighted nymphs. With indicators and without. And I threw in a 12’ leader just to see what that was like. Well, truth be told, it was not that good of a test. I never put together any of the other rods. I simply did not want to put the ZXL rod down all day.
ZXL rods are really well made rods from a manufacturer that is very experienced in making top level rods. I have found the entire lineup very nice to cast. But now and then you find a real exceptional gem in the bag of gems. This is one of those rods that seems to be just a bit better than it should be, one of those rods that tends to make me smile when I cast it. I have had a Loomis, Winston and a couple of C.F.Burkheimers that are very special rods. Anybody that can cast well is able to try any of these rods and understand why people might like them. The Sage ZXL 486-4 rod is one of those special rods. You might prefer a 9’or a 3wt version perhaps, but this 486 is a special rod. I really hope George (the Sage rep) will understand, but I don’t think that I can give this one back…

486-4 ZXL			Length: 8' 6" Line: 4 Pieces: 4

The ZXL is an upgraded version of Sage's famous LL (Light Line) Series that was so popular in during the RPL era (1985-1995). LL rods were extremely popular with spring creek trout fishermen who demanded maximum fineness from their tackle. Generation-5 technology allows this same forgiving action with better dampening qualities, which produces slightly higher line speed and even better accuracy so essential in dry fly fishing. Rod weight: 2 15/16 Ounces.
Item	Series	Line Wt.	Action	Handle	Price	To Top
486-4	ZXL	4	Medium	A	$665

	*	Search	Catalog	Trips & Schools	Bargains
	Our Waters		Order Info	Steelheadquarters	Events