Second Annual Oregon Fly Fishing Festival

Dick Sagara of Temple Fork Outfitters Presents
At The Oregon Fly Fishing Festival

Dick's helpful program: "Fly Fishing 101- provides answers to  your questions about getting started in Fly Fishing"

New TFO 7’ 6” TiCr X & Pro Fun-Guns For the Salmonfly Hatch & Beyond
Written By: Dick Sagara,  Additions By Mark Bachmann

Sometimes longer is not better.  In fact, at times rods over eight feet can be a real disadvantage. Lefty Kreh, TFO rod designer, reminisces about fishing in Florida with Homer Rhodes and Joe Brooks.  “We used to use short little rods to cast flies up against the mangroves or bridge piling, what great fun!”  The new 7’ 6” six and eight weight TiCr X rods were created with these

experiences in mind. When anglers first test cast the rods, instant smiles came across their faces. They were convinced they would find many uses for a rod capable of casting low, tiny loops in situations where obstacles prevented elevated casting planes. So what specific situations are these rods best suited for?  How about casting under the streamside vegetation at Salmon Fly time where many of the largest fish wait for a tasty morsel to fall on to their dining room table?  Or, when fishing from a fast moving drift-boat, firing quick, tight casts to the bank with an assortment of flies ranging from streamers to

small dries & terrestrials?  It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it, so my son and I are off to the Deschutes to field test.  I found that the 7’ 6” length was very effective in keeping both back casts and forward casts of the large salmon fly dries in play and out of the trees and vegetation.

 In these situations being able to vary the casting plane from three quarter to sidearm allowed presentations to fish that rarely see anything other than the natural insects.  Be mindful of the length of line needed to be cast and the larger sized flies that will be used to imitate these large bugs.  Much of the salmon fly dry fly fishing is a game of short, precise casts of less than 35 feet.  As the TiCr X rods are fast action rods, I

found it most effective to “up line” the 6 weight rod to a 7 weight line to maximize turning over the larger salmon fly imitations at short distances.  Don’t worry about the weight of line used – only anglers seem to fuss about line designations.  Fish won’t eat what you don’t put in front of them.   Ditto for leader length – no need to handicap yourself with long leaders. Seven and a half foot leaders for this type of fishing work fine. (Or even leaders down to 6')MB.
Line selection is also critical in maximizing rod performance.  Lines with aggressive front tapers work best to turn over the larger imitations.  The Teeny Long Shot and the new Teeny Pat Ehlers weight forward floating warm water Professional series lines were the go to performers.   Pat Ehlers, one of the highly respected fly shop owners in the Upper Midwest, designed his lines with a longer rear taper to ensure pinpoint accuracy with larger flies.  He also added slightly thicker running line to avoid tangles.  Don’t be deceived by the warm water designation of the line; the line Pat designed have cold water cores. The white Teeny weight forward floating Longshot line has been a favorite of many and also works well in these types of applications.
(Another line that really delivers the goods in tight cover is the Sage Performance Taper).
Another TFO Rod that is specifically designed for fishing in tight places is the 7' 6" #5 Pro. At $139.95 it's a steal.  It offers a little more delicacy than the 6-weight TiCrX. MB

These new  7 ‘ 6” rods are fun, powerful fishing specialty tools. 
Call 1-800-266-3971 for more information!

Length: 7' 6"     Line: #8     Pieces: 4   

Length: 7' 6"     Line: #6     Pieces: 4   

Length: 7' 6"      Line: #5     Pieces: 4   

How does a fish view your fly?  You can never be sure.  What was the last guy using that fished your next piece of water? If you believe that fish have any capacity to remember, it might be to your advantage to use a slightly different fly. This is certainly true of super-hatches such as the "Salmon Fly Hatch".  You know the fish are going to eat, but you also know that the are going to get more educated as the season progresses.  If they get stuck a number of times while eating Sofa Pillows, they are going to loose their taste for Sofa Pillows.

About 250,000 shad poured through the ladder at Bonneville Dam Thursday, June 3.  The water was perfect temperature, 57 degrees.  Air temperature in the middle of the day was 77, bright sun, very little wind.  The perfect day to catch a boat load of shad, or at least you would think so.  Patty and I, with our friends Jeff and Tilda Runner loaded our gear in my Duchworth and put in a Dodson.  Being newbies to the Columbia River scene, we were in for a bit of a 

shock.  The bright sun produced a hatch of anglers and a horde of boats.  And the river was up two feet since our last trip a week ago.  When we got to our fishing area, there were boats anchored everywhere we wanted be, except one.  Only problem was our anchor wouldn't hold in that spot. The river was two feet deeper and a lot swifter than the previous week.  To bad....the fish finder showed shad passing through in a steady stream.  We tried other spots throughout the day.  All the spots where fish showed on the fish finder were too deep and swift for the fly gear that we had brought with us.  Also the bright sunlight made the shad run deeper in the water than last week    

Now surprisingly, the other boats around us weren't doing very well.  For the next four hours we were the only boat with fly anglers and the boat that was catching the most shad.  The tables had turned.  Our persistence had paid off and we were able to turn a humiliating day into a day where some valuable lessons were learned.  The end result was that we wound up catching a lot of fish.  What did we learn?
The old adage is still true. "The fly has to be in the water to catch fish."   If we had given up, we would have quit before we figured the solutions to our problems (and I wouldn't be writing this article). Water level makes a lot of difference.  For me a river the size of the Columbia is hard to read, but it's the same as your favorite trout or steelhead stream, just on a much larger scale.  Position in the river is everything.  If you are in the right spot, fishing gets easier.    Shad will bight 

flies as well as anything else, if the fly can be presented at their level.  Shad don't seem to rise to the fly.  The shad that we caught were the same size as the gear people caught, which averaged two to four pounds.  These are perfect fish for a six weight fly rod.  However these fish don't always travel where you can get at them with with normal six-weight fly lines.  At times it is handy to have a heavier rod and very fast sinking line.  Full sinking lines probably do a better job getting the fly to the fish than do sinking tip lines when fishing from a boat.  We also learned that we still have a lot to learn about shad fishing.