Fly Fishing Insider Newsletter featuring Opening Day, Sandy River, Clackamas River, Deschutes River, Steelhead, Spring Chinook, Spey Rods.

Marmot Dam Wild Winter Steelhead Counts
In the March 26 "Insider" I gave you the good news that the Marmot Dam wild steelhead run counts were up by 60% and predicted that the total run size for the year would be up proportionately. I also asked (with tongue in cheek) if nature is quantifiable? The sad news is that as of March 17, 2001 the Marmot Dam count is down for the year at a total of 437 wild steelhead with 544 for the same period last year. This is a 20% decrease. This is not the total for the entire season as wild steelhead will pass over Marmot as late as July.
Sandy and Clackamas River Summer Steelhead runs seem fairly strong. The Clackamas run appears to be better than the Sandy. Fish are in good numbers from the mouth clear to River Mill Dam. The lower Clackamas is a great spey rod river.
Spring Chinook have entered the Clackamas and Sandy in decent numbers. Since the Clackamas is warmer it gets more fish early. There are 137,000 Spring Chinooks over the Dalles Dam and 95,000 over John Day Dam. Deschutes Spring Chinook are as far up river a Sherar's Falls in good numbers. Rumor is that they will take flies presented deep and slow..

Up-to-Date INFORMATION on Local Lakes at a glance.
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Our Lakes Information Section is constantly evolving. Be sure to check often for up-dates.
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Badger Lake	The road is still blocked by snow.
Barnes Butte Lake	Superb fishing for both trout and bass.
Chickahominy Reservoir	Fishing is good with most of the fish in the 12-14 inch range and a few in the 18-20+ size.
Clear Lake	Road still blocked by snow.
Crane Prairie Reservoir	Opens April 28.
Davis Lake	Water levels are low. Launching boats is difficult.
East Lake	Opens April 28.
Frog Lake	Road still blocked by snow.
Grindstone Lakes	Open for fishing.
Harriet Lake	Last stocked 4/16
Hosmer Lake	Opens April 28.
Laurence Lake	Last stocked 4/16
Lost Lake	Road still blocked by snow.
Mann Lake	Most fish are in the 12" range with bigger fish running 18"-20"
Olallie Lake	Road still blocked by snow.
Pine Hollow Reservoir	The reservoir has been stocked and trout fishing is fair to good around the dam. Last stocked 4/16
Rock Creek Reservoir	Last stocked 4/9
Roslyn Lake	Last stocked 4/16.
Timothy Lake	Accessible from Skyline Road & Estacada. Ice around edges.
Trillium Lake	Road closed.
Wickiup Reservoir	Opens April 28.

John Jones with a Deschutes steelhead caught on a 3 weight.

Reflections on Learning to Spey Cast
by: J. Morgan Jones

Monday. Early. Steelheading. The Sandy River. Spey Rods. A Red Raincoat. Trout guys. What is this about? It's two about trout bums learning how to steelhead with two- handed fly rods.

It is not quite light when we arrive at the Sandy River. It is raining lightly as I change into waders and boots and rain gear, when, to my complete surprise, I found that my companion's attention was focused on my bright red

raincoat. I realize that this has no bearing whatsoever on learning to spey cast but, I thought perhaps it might serve to warn others from falling into the same ugly trap. When you are steelhead fishing wear clothing that blends with the scenery. Fish are easier to catch if they can't see you.

  For a guy that is used to handling a nine foot and smaller trout rods, the spey rod seemed gigantic! In addition to the size, it seemed quite heavy and the action felt pretty slow. I have always preferred a fast rod, and in light of this, I was thinking that it was going to be a long day.

The first stop on the river brings instructions from our esteemed guide, Mark Bachmann. His first words sets the tone for the day. It's longer and it's heavier, but the bottom line is: it's just a fly rod, and it acts like any other fly rod. Instead of using one hand, you use both of your hands to power the rod. As the day wore on and I learned to handle the rod, his words were proven true. Two-hand rods act like single-hand rods except they are larger. The motions you go through in order to load the rod differ somewhat from the conventional fly rod. But, if you can understand how a fly rod works, and you can cast a single handed rod, you can use a spey rod.

I highly recommend that you obtain some sort of instruction before going out on your own, but, yeah, you can do this spey rod thing. There is some terminology to deal with (anchor point, D-loop.....), nothing too difficult, and there is the concept of not trying too hard, but it is actually fairly simple. Beyond that, If you are doing it correctly, casting the spey rod does not seem to take much energy. It seems that one of the key issues to spey casting is to let the rod throw the line, not your arm. As a matter of fact, the harder you throw, the shorter the cast. I realize that this is a gross over-simplification, but that is the way it seems to work. I HAD assumed that my arms would be tired at the end of the day. Not so.   Had I been using a single-hander, I would have been more tired. This was a pleasant surprise.

  Is it worth the effort to invest in a spey outfit? If you are a steelheader/salmon type of fisher on larger rivers, yes. It's not really difficult to learn to cast. If you like making loooong casts, yes. If you like to catch fish, yes. A longer cast puts your fly through more water, and any steelheader knows that translates into more fish brought to hand. Would I buy one? I think so. I enjoyed using the spey rod for fishing, and that WAS the point.

I can¹t help but wonder if I can get a deal on a spey outfit/raincoat package?

Although I caught no steelhead on the Sandy River that day, I headed over to
the Deschutes the following week. Some steelheaders claim that you only
catch fish if you deserve to. Could this be true? Took this one on a March
Brown dry, 3 wt rod and a 3.5 lb tippet. There is no possible way this could
be related to landing fish, but, I did have a new raincoat with me.

A GOOD FISH STORY... A couple went on vacation to a fishing resort up north. The husband liked to fish at the crack of dawn. The wife liked to read. One morning the husband returned after several hours of fishing and decided to take a short nap. Although she wasn't familiar with the lake, the wife decided to take the boat. She rowed out a short distance, anchored, and returned to reading her book. Along came the sheriff in his boat. He pulled up alongside her and said, "Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?" "Reading my book," she replied ... as she thought to herself, "isn't it obvious?" "You're in a restricted fishing area," he informed her. "But officer, I'm not fishing. Can't you see that?" "Yes, but you have all the equipment. I'll have to take you in and write you up." "If you do that, I'll have to charge you with rape," snapped the irate woman. "But, I haven't even touched you," groused the sheriff. "Yes, that's true, she replied, "but you do have all the equipment." MORAL: Never argue with a woman who knows how to read. It's likely she can also think.

Item	Description	Price	To Top
HSSP4-NB	Harding Single Spey Rod/Reel Case, for 4 piece rod, color Navy Blue	$65.95	-->SALE ENDED
HSSP4-FG	Harding Single Spey Rod/Reel Case, for 4 piece rod, color Forest Green	$65.95	-->SALE ENDED
HSSP3-NB	Harding Single Spey Rod/Reel Case, for 3 piece rod, color Navy Blue	$65.95	-->SALE ENDED
HSSP3-FG	Harding Single Spey Rod/Reel Case, for 3 piece rod, color Forest Green	$65.95	-->SALE ENDED

Harding Double Spey Rod/Reel cases fit two rods with reels attached. This is the best protection and organization when traveling with two spey rod set-ups.
Item	Description	Price	To Top
HDSP4-FG	Harding Double Spey Rod/Reel Case, for 4 piece rod, color Forest Green	$87.95	-->SALE ENDED
HDSP3-FG	Harding Double Spey Rod/Reel Case, for 3 piece rod, color Forest Green	$87.95	-->SALE ENDED

Sandy River Fishery Information Bank
Daily Fishing Report Watershed Over-view Sandy River Book Biology Etc. Watershed Council Web Site To Top