Sandy River Spey Clave 2005

Sandy River Spey Clave

Jon Covich (Winston, Patagonia) 
George Cook (Sage, Rio, Simms, Ross, Tibor)
Greg Snieder (Thomas & Thomas)
Tim Rajeff (Echo, Airflo)
Randy Sholes (Cortland, Hardy)
Juro Mukai (CND Spey Rods)
Dick Sagara (Temple Fork Outfitters Rods, Wheatley, Jim Teeny)
Mike Perusse (G. Loomis)
Kerry Burkheimer (C.F. Burkheimer Rods)
Bob Meiser (RB Meiser Fly Rods)
 

If you are interested in meeting other steelhead spey fishers and hope to learn a lot about spey casting and more about steelhead fishing, the Sandy River Spey Clave is for you.  The  event  will start at Oxbow Park on  Saturday morning  the  14th  of May  and  conclude  on Sunday 15th.  Exhibitors may set up on Friday May 13. 

This  time of  year there  should be plenty  of Summer  Steelhead.  It  is  also the peak of the  Spring Chinook  run. The  days are long and  the  weather is warm.   
This event was first proposed by The International Spey Page and Discussion Group.
If you are interested in spey rod casting and fishing, we would strongly recommend that you join this warm friendly group.      Spey Discussion Group

C. F. Burkheimer Fly Fishing Rods

Length: 8' 9"     Line: # 4    Pieces: 4

Length: 9'     Line: #5     Pieces: 4

Length: 9'    Line: #6     Pieces: 4

Length: 9' 5"    Line: #8     Pieces: 4

Length: 13' 3"    Line: # 7    Pieces: 3

Length: 13' 9"    Line: #8     Pieces: 3

Length: 14' 3"    Line: #9    Pieces: 3

In the current issue of Fly Fisherman Magazine the John Day was ranked the #1 Smallmouth fishery in the United States ! Sign up and find out for yourself.  

We will be meeting up the evening of May 31^st in Condon, Oregon at dinner time to prep talk the trip. We will arrange shuttles of the cars at this time. There are two paces to lodge in Condon. I recommend Hotel Condon. (541)-384-4624 , www.hotelcondon.com.  Also the Condon Motel can be reached at (541)-384-2181 . Our phone number during Bass season is (503)-819-4035 . There are also two RV parks in town.

The next morning we will meet everyone for breakfast at the Country café in Condon. The rest of the crew will already be at the river setting up the boats so everything is ready to go when we arrive at the river for our three day trip. After breakfast everyone will head to our launch site.

We provide all the camping gear with the exception of your sleeping bag and pillow. We provide life jackets and two dry bags for every guest. One dry bag is small and is perfect for your carry on items (camera, rain jacket, sunscreen, ...) that you will bring on the guide boat with you. The other dry bag is large and will be sent on the gear boat. It will carry your sleeping bag, extra clothes and everything else that you would like to be waiting for you at camp when you arrive. Every day our gear boat will be going ahead of the rest of the group to set up a camp at a pre determined spot. Your tent is set up, cots and sleeping pad laid out, and luggage carried up. The kitchen is up and working. All the meals are first class. YOU WILL BE SPOILED!!

Float down the river and enjoy the day casting flies to aggressive Smallmouth Bass! Mornings and Evenings provide the best top water action. Poppers in many colors work very well. Mid morning, when the sun pops up, wholly buggers are fantastic. Having a variety of trout flies will take rising fish too. Rods of choice vary from 3 weights to 6 weights.

Skilled anglers average over 60 fish per day and it is not uncommon to release over 100! The smallmouth average between 8 and 12 inches and monster 6lb smallies can be taken at any time.

            Rivers and water are the soul of all life on our planet, so please join us in enjoying, marveling at, and protecting the river as we travel its length. With that in mind, we practice no trace camping. Footprints should be the only clue to our presence after we leave.

If you have never fished this river now is the time.  

Space is limited to 6 Guests. Join us!  

$900.00 per person 

You walk into the Fly Fishing Shop, look around at all of the things that we have for sale, and perhaps you wonder who decides what we carry or do we just sell whatever becomes available? Believe it or not, we really have a procedure by which we decide what items are in the store. It is not really a “set in stone” type of thing and while it seems to “ebb and flow” at times, we do have a set of criteria that we apply to the products that we offer

for sale.  Usually, the first thing we want to know about a product is if it useful or not. Rods and reels are fairly easy to figure out. We need to determine if a rod casts well (for its price or quality level of course), look at the fit and finish, does it come with a tube? We also need to determine if the rod (or any other product for that matter) fits into our store. For example, bait rods need not apply (as we are exclusively fly fishing). Reels need to be smooth and be cost effective in comparison to brands that we already carry. Some products we carry because they are the only item available. We still stock some old spools and parts because we may have sold many of the reels in the past (while we cannot carry everything-we make an effort). The list of things goes on and on. One of the things that we look at it is who manufactures a particular product. If the manufacturer is known to have quality items and are able to supply when we have the need, it helps. Like you, we are a customer also. If they seem a little shaky, we tend to shy away. There are a few companies out there that made a fairly good product, and they made a good start with us, but for whatever reason, went down hill on the quality or supply or even the warranty on their products, and forced us to stop stocking their particular product(s). Other products loose their demand simply and stop selling. There might be nothing wrong with an item, but if it stops being in demand, it usually ends up being “history”. There are about ten different types of fly flotant that we carry, so while we aren’t actually closed to having another type, it better be good enough to replace one of the ones that we have now. We have thousands of items in the store, and I think that every one of them was hand picked by us. This is a great deal of work, but we are a bit anal about what we sell to our customers. This process has worked for about 25 years, so we don’t think this is the time to make changes in that department. We have always bought things for the store the same way we buy things for ourselves. If it does not work for you, it is not going to work for us. We are not perfect, but it is not from lack of trying. As many of you well know, there are exceptions to most rules, and the most often used exception is your opinion. Believe it or not, a good deal of what we carry, and what we do not, is decided by you, the customer. If we can get something that we do not have for you, it makes us wonder why you wanted it. Things like this just make us curious. We carry well over 800 different fly patterns, and like most of you, we are still looking for the perfect fly. I expect we always will. We are here for a number of reasons, and yes, one of them is to make a living. We want to sell lots of products to lots of people. Having admitted that, I think that every one of us here likes nothing better (in the shop) than being able to put a good rod in your hand and watch that slow smile inch its way across your face when its the “right” rod. Or get a quick e-mail from someone that we have never met face to face stating “Perfect!!!!!! Thanks for sending me this rod!” John M. Jones