Salmonfly Hatch, Spinner Falls, Trout PhD

In our region, stone flies hatch from January through August. There are at least two dozen species which are important in the adult stage to the trout angler. These range between the tiny Winter Blacks (3/8") to the giant Salmon Fly (over 2"). The Salmon fly hatch on Oregon's Deschutes in May/June, is arguably the best dry fly fishing the Pacific Northwest has to offer. The hatch starts at the mouth of the river in the first week of May. By May 25th there are usually a few Salmon Flies at Warm Springs. The first week in June is peak for the best fifty miles, between Maupin and Warm Springs. The hatch trickles off through June and there are scattered salmon flies around Pelton Dam most

years until nearly the first of July. The so-called hatch occurs when the nymphs crawl out of the water. The nymphs will usually seek out tree trunks or other vegetation or any solid but porous structure where the claws of the nymphal feet will stay fastened securely so emergence of the adult insect can progress with out interruption. Since this hatch happens on land, it is of small importance to fishing in comparison to may fly or caddis hatches that happen at the surface of water. Most of the actual "hatching" happens at night or early in the morning.

Salmon Fly in the grass.

hatching Golden Stone…Deschutes

It can continue in daylight hours on cloud cover days or in deeply shaded areas. It is after the insects have hatched and have become active adults that they become important as trout food. During the night adult salmon flies become inactive. Their favorite places to rest or mate is in the streamside vegetation. Much of this vegetation over hangs the water. In the mid to late morning as the air temperatures rise, the adults become active and start crawling and flying around. They are clumsy and some will inevitably land in the water. It is at the river's edge that the best dry fly action usually occurs. Since the majority of the salmon flies are concentrated around the water, the

trout will take up stations under overhanging trees and grass. Casting your salmon fly imitation up stream under the over hanging trees has always been one of the secrets to successfully fishing the hatch. During the warm part of the day there will be a fairly constant rain of fluttering and flopping bugs onto the water. Pin-point casting accuracy is much more important than delicate casts. Real salmon flies are heavy and

Salmon Fly with tattered wings at the end of the line.

hit the water hard. The perfect set-up is a medium fast action six weight rod, and a 6'-7' long leader tapered down to 3X. You need to be able to poke the fly under low hanging branches and through holes in the brush. In many ways fishing the salmon fly hatch has more in common with bass bugging that classic dry fly fishing.
Golden Stones, Olive Stones and Yellow Sally Stones are important before, during and after the Salmon Fly Hatch. Little Olive Stones tend to precede the Salmon Fly Hatch by a week or two. They remain available to fish throughout most of the

"big" hatch and disappear about the same time as the Salmon Flies. Golden Stones usually linger on for a while. They are replaced by Yellow Sallys which bright yellow and are size #14 to #16.

Links to Information on Stoneflies
Stoneflies of the United States
PLECOPTERA
Stoneflies

Salmon Fly Hatch Equalizer Kit

The salmon Fly Hatch is arguably the best dry fly fishing west of the Rockies. Here is an assortment of dry flies that will give you the edge when fishing this hatch. It contains (2) each of the six following patterns: Bullet Head Salmon, Bullet Head Golden, Clark Stone, Improved Sofa Pillow, Robotic Salmon Fly & Norm Wood Special. There are 12 flies total.
Item	Description	Price	To Top
SALEQUAL	Salmon Fly Equalizer Kit	$20.95

Spinner Falls
By: Hafele
Mayfly spinners. Every fly fisher knows about them. Most everyone has seen them. But not every fly fisher recognizes when fish are taking them or when they should be imitating them. That’s a big mistake.

Marcy Stone on the Deschutes...

Just in case you are a little cloudy about mayfly spinners, the term “spinner” is the common name for the fourth and final stage in the mayfly’s life cycle: egg, nymph, dun and spinner. They’re important because they frequently land on the water in great numbers, and trout can’t resist them when they do. More technically entomologists refer to spinners as imagoes, which is just a fancy way of saying they are reproductive adults. This is significant if you are a mayfly because the preceding winged stage - the dun – look very much like spinners, but are not yet able to mate and lay eggs. Entomologists call duns, sub-imagoes, which literally means the sub or pre-adult stage. Thus mayflies have two distinct winged stages – the dun and the spinner. One can easily see the dun stage as they emerge on the water’s surface during a mayfly hatch. Those duns not eaten as they drift on the surface waiting for their wings to stiffen, fly off the water and land on nearby vegetation. There they sit quietly until they molt, or shed their exoskeleton, one last time to become spinners. The length of time before the dun molts into a spinner varies from a few minutes to a few days depending on the species. Twelve to 24 hours is typical for many species. The spinner stage lives a similar length of time. Thus, the dun and spinner stages combined may be as brief as an hour or two and no longer than four or five days. In a nutshell the spinner’s sole purpose is to mate and lay eggs, and they don’t have any time to waste.

When backlit by the sun mayfly spinners can be easy to see when swarming in large numbers above the water. Whenever you see such swarms always be on the lookout for fish taking spinners off the surface.

And mate they do, sometimes in rather dramatic fashion. Typical mating behavior begins when male spinners form large swarms. The swarms usually develop over water anywhere from a few feet to over 100 feet high. In some cases the swarms occur over land hundreds of meters from any nearby water. Males within the swarm fly with an erratic up and down dance-like motion. At times the whole swarm of thousands of mayflies seems to rise and fall with a rhythmic pulse. Females fly into the swarm, where males rush to be the first to grab a female in flight to mate. Copulation only takes a few seconds, after which females begin laying eggs one of three ways. Most species glide down to the water’s surface one to several times, and release a cluster of eggs each time the tip of their abdomen hits the surface. Some other species release their eggs in flight above the water. A few species crawl underwater – generally down the side of submerged rocks – and deposit their eggs directly on the bottom. Each female spinner lays somewhere between 500 and 5,000 eggs depending on the species. When all their eggs have been released, the females die spent on the water with their wings stretched out flat, creating what anglers call a “spinner fall.”

It’s critical that you learn to recognize duns from spinners, and how to tell when spinner falls are occurring. For some species duns and spinners look very similar, while in other species they are quite distinct. In all species the key difference is in the wings. The wings of duns are semi-transparent with a smokey brown, gray, or yellow tinge to them.

This mahogany dun shows the opaque wing coloration typical of mayfly duns.

The wings of spinners are completely transparent and clear except for the dark colored veins running through them. The wings of some species have dark colored spots in both the duns and spinners. Don’t let these spots confuse you. The rest of the wing will show the characteristic smokey color in the dun and be clear in the spinner. The body colors of spinners also tend to be brighter than the dull colored duns. Finally, male spinners have very large eyes for spotting females that fly into the swarm, and noticeably longer front legs than the middle or hind legs. These long front legs help hold the female during copulation. While sometimes it can be tricky to tell a spinner from a dun, when seen side by side there’s little doubt, which is which.

The spinner stage of the mahogany dun shows the spinner’s clear wings.

Spinner falls occur at various times of the day depending on the weather and species. In general during cold weather – fall, winter, and spring – spinner falls occur in the late afternoon. During warm weather spinner falls occur at dusk or early to mid morning. One way to judge if a spinner fall is likely to occur is by the size of the surface hatch of duns. Anglers are well attuned to spotting duns popping up on the water’s surface. When a couple days of good dun hatches have occurred you should be on the lookout for a heavy spinner fall later in the day or in the morning. One excellent clue is seeing swallows feeding heavily above the water. This certainly means some type of insect is swarming. Look carefully for the up and down dancing flight of the male spinners. A small pair of binoculars aimed at the swallows will quickly tell you if it’s mayflies, midges, or some other insect the swallows are feasting on, and what the trout will be feasting on next. Binoculars can also be help you see exactly what trout are taking off the surface. When the swarm of spinners is so thick it looks like fog over the water, you know you are in for some serious spinner fishing.

This blue-winged olive dun shows the opaque wing coloration typical of mayfly duns.

Confusion often begins once the spinners have laid their eggs and lie spent on the water. That’s because spinners, lying dead on the surface with their wings out flat, are virtually impossible to see, especially in the fading light of sunset (use those binoculars). Further, because spinners a dead, fish feed on them with leisurely, very subtle, almost invisible, rises. Therefore, what the angler sees is a few small rises that look like dinky little fish, and no insects flying off the water to indicate a hatch worth fishing. What the angler doesn’t see is the large size of the fish below those dinky little rises, or the spinners floating flush in the surface film. So, just when things get interesting many anglers think it is all over for the day and head home.

The wings of this blue-winged olive spinner are now clear and transparent.

Remember, spinners in the air will mean spinners on the water, even if you can’t see them. So, if you see spinner swarms, pay very close attention to the water for softly rising fish, and look for dead spinners caught in small pockets of dead water behind near-shore rocks or debris. If you find some, definitely pick them up so you can get a fix on their size and color and select an appropriate pattern.

After laying their eggs female spinners die on the water’s surface. With their wings flat on the water, anglers often fail to see them, but trout see them easily and regularly feed on them selectively.

Excellent spinner fishing doesn’t always result in excellent fish catching. I have found that trout feeding on spinners can be some of the pickiest and most difficult trout I’ve ever fished for. Part of the reason is that since the spinners are dead they make no movement on the water other than what the current imparts on them. Therefore, un-natural drag on your fly, of even the smallest amount, will tip off trout that something isn’t right. The other problem is that trout can take up feeding lanes in quiet water where the current funnels spinners down to them. The smooth surface makes it easy for fish to spot the natural spinners on the surface, and easy to spot un-natural imitations and the leaders attached to them. Therefore, fine tippets – 5X at least, and often 6X or 7X is needed – and perfect drag-free presentations are critical for consistent success during spinner falls. I also find that downstream slack-line presentations generally fool more fish than upstream or up and across presentations when fishing spinners to picky trout.

It’s always a good idea to carry a selection of mayfly spinner patterns in different sizes and colors. Fortunately such patterns are simple and easy to tie.

On the plus side, the patterns used to imitate spinners are simple and easy to tie. A few split tail fibers, a slender body of dubbing or quill to match the color of the natural, and a pair of spent wings of synthetic or natural material is all it takes. Of course the correct size is important. Spinners, like most insects, always look larger than they really are when seen flying in the air, so try to catch a few naturals to get a good match in size and color. The color and size of males and females differ significantly for some species. When that happens match the female rather than the male, since it is predominately females that end up floating on the water’s surface.
Despite all the different species of mayflies out there, the most common spinner color by far is a rusty brown. If you keep a selection of rusty spinners from size 12 to 20 in your fly box, you will be well prepared for most spinner falls you might encounter.
For in-depth information on the behavior, effective patterns, and fishing tactics for each life stage – including spinners – of all western mayflies, check out Rick’s newest book (co-authored with Dave Hughes), Western Mayfly Hatches.

Sight-fishing a spinner-fall can be very rewarding.

PMD Poly Spinner, Pinkish Orange Most pale orange or pink PMD spinners have transparent wings and this fly is a good match. When these light colored spinners are on the water trout will often target them. The real spinners are often very difficult for anglers to see on the water, even when the surface is smooth. Carrying a pair of binoculars to study the hatches can be a big help.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
3160-18	PMD Poly Spinner, Pinkish Orange	18	3 for $5.25

Pearl Wing Rusty Spinner Some PMD spinners are rusty color. This fly also matches spinners of other species of mayflies and is a must-have pattern for every trout fishers fly box. Pearl Wing Spinners are very low floaters and will often sink in rough water. Don't despair, trout often feed on these spinners after they have sunk.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
01101-16	Pearl Wing Rusty Spinner	16	3 for $5.25
01101-18	Pearl Wing Rusty Spinner	18	3 for $5.25

Pale Evening Dun Spinner After they hatch from the water, mayflies fly to a convenient spot in the streamside vegetation and within several hours, go through another physical transformation. They shed their outer layer of skin and become true adults called spinners, which are able to procreate. Soon after copulation, females lay their eggs, and becoming exhausted, fall upon the water spent. These dead carcasses contain bits of edible protein. In certain water flows where these spent spinners collect in sufficient numbers, trout will feed on them like a man eating popcorn. The trick is seeing the real ones laying flat on the water and figure out the "hatch".
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
1059-16	Pale Evening Dun Angel Wing Spinner	16	3 for $5.25

		Green Drake Spinner Some reference books will tell you the Green Drake spinner-falls occur only in the dark and are of no consequence to the angler, but I have encountered several. My first Green Drake spinner-fall was in the mid-1970's on the pool upstream of Bridge 99, on the Metolius River. We had arrived too late for the hatch the day before, but I had noted some very large Green Drake spinners with a few trout rising to them. I caught a couple spinners and put them in a jar. Later at the cabin, I tied three flies using stiff poly
yarn for the wings. This morning the hatch had been very sparse, but the hatch the day before had been very heavy, and this days spinner-fall was equally heavy. The trout went nuts and my new fly was an instant success.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
2015-08	Green Drake Spinner	8	3 for $5.25

Get your Trout Fishing PhD
With fly-fishing author and instructor Rick Hafele,
and a supporting cast of: Mark Bachmann, Josh Linn & Ron Walp
June 9, 10, & 11, 2010 on the Deschutes River

5:00: Jet boat ride back to Mack’s Canyon.

You will be pampered!
You will stay in a very comfortable tent camp on the water.
A Camp Person will be available at all times to make your stay as comfortable as possible.
All cooking and eating will be done in a spacious screen-house.
Comfortable sleeping cots and pads are supplied in double occupancy tents.
All food & non-alcoholic beverages are included.
Price includes Deschutes Boaters Pass.

Bring your own sleeping bag, clothing, toiletries, waders, rain gear, rods, reels, flies & tackle.
Price does not include Oregon Fishing License.

Item	Description	Deposit	To Top
TROUT-PHD-060910	3-day PHD trout school with, Rick Hafele, Mark Bachmann, Josh Linn and Ron Walp, June 9, 10, 11, 2010 - balance due is $1,000 by June 1, 2010 - non-refundable deposit is $250	$250

Loreto, Mexico Blue Water Fly Fishing Vacation - A couple of openings!
June 24 - July 1, Timing is for prime Dorado fishing!			Pargo Video
Review the June trip report: 2009 2008 2007			Billfish Video
Book Now ! No Price Increase for 2010 !!!			Dorado Video

Join Mark Bachmann and Patty Barnes for an adventure in bluewater fly fishing. Loreto, Mexico has long been regarded as one of the best Dorado ports in the world. Striped Marlin and Pacific Sailfish compliment your fly fishing menu along with Pacific Bonito and highly prized Rooster Fish. The scenery is spectacular, featuring a starkly rugged desert contrasting with dark blue water. The weather will be hot and and your clothing will be skimpy. Fishing periods start at daylight and end in the early afternoon, allowing for lots of leisure time around the pool or walks into town. There is also plenty of time for what may be the best of all Mexican traditions, the siesta. As with any trip of this nature, the "destination operation" has a great deal of influence on your enjoyment. We have chosen the

most practical accommodations and the most experienced fly fishing guides in the area. You will be provided with a spacious air conditioned beach front "Villa Class" room at Hotel La Pinta. Guides, boats and fishing logistics are provided by Baja Big Fish Company. In this trip all of the bases have been covered and all of the tricky details are dealt with. Items such as Mexican

Fishing License, bait for chum, lunches, water in the boat, are covered in the package price. You show up at the Loreto Airport with your fishing gear and luggage and a nice lady will be waiting with a couple of very large vans and and a crew to transport you to your hotel and your room. Mark and Patty will be there to help you get settled in and show you around. That evening there will be a group meeting to orient you for the fishing that will occur the next morning. Loreto Weather Report.

To give you as much individual freedom as possible, ground based meals are not provided in the packages. Hotel La Pinta has an excellent restaurant and bar on the property. There is also a wide variety of other restaurants within easy walking distance. Cab service is secure and inexpensive. Shopping, sight seeing and diving is available for the non-fisher.

What can you realistically expect for fishing? Many of the fish in the Sea of Cortez are very large and can be challenging. If you bring only one outfit make it a #12 weight with 300 yards of backing. Take the time to learn how to cast it with flies that range from 3" to 9" long. If you haven't fished bluewater before, expect that there may be a learning curve. Also expect that your guide will be coaching you during your entire trip. Your guide shouldn't have to teach you how to cast. He should spend his time teaching you how to make practical presentations. The rewards can be incredibly large. This is a big boy/big girl arena. Hope you can join us.
This group is limited to 12 anglers.

Dorado/Billfish/Rooster Fish Trip: June 24 - July 1, 2010 7-nights, 6-days fishing Arrive: Thursday, June 24 Fish: June 25, 26, 27 ,28, 29, 30, July 1 = (6) days Depart: Thursday, July 1, 2010 Stay At: Hotel La Pinta Deluxe Rooms, 6 days 7 nights Includes: all ground transfers, bait for chum, licenses, lunches with beers and water in each boat. Not included in the price are: on-shore meals, tips to guides, airfare, or items of a personal nature. Fishing: days are 8-hours on the water. Usual 6:30am - 2:30pm Boats are large, modern 26' Super Pangas rigged for fly fishing. Check your connection time in LAX. You will want a layover of at least 2-hours to clear customs and make connecting flights. This trip is based on double occupancy in rooms and boats. It is designed to accommodate fishing couples or fishing pairs. This trip will only be booked for two people fishing together and rooming together. Single anglers may apply, but will only be booked if a suitable fishing/room partner can be found.
Description	Price	To Top
Loreto, Mexico - Hosted Trip - June 24 - July 1, 2010 Trip: 7-nights, 6-days fishing deluxe package: Full price is $1850 per person	$1,850

Sandy River Spey Clave 2010 In Review !!!
It was the biggest and the best ever...no doubt about it!

North Santiam Spey Casters breakfast crew, Cal & Dwight

"Spey Forest #1" in front of the Sage, G. Loomis, Echo & Winston displays.

"Spey Forest #2"

Derrick De Young creates magic on canvas.

The Simms booth raised the bar on showmansip.

Eric Nuefeld helps a customer try on a pair of boots at the Simms booth.

Fueled by pure Pepsi, Brian Silvey demonstrates how to rig a tandem tube fly set up.

Even celebrities showed up...Dick Sagara with Sandy & Clave...

Families had lots of fun.

More Sandy River Spey Clave Reports to follow....

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Salmonflies Hatching early on the Deschutes this year!

New Patterns	Little Stones	Clark Stones
Salmon Fly Hatch Kit	Realistic Big Stones	Traditional Big Stones

Date: June 9, 10, 11, 2010 8 students only! First come, first served.
Price: $1250 per person.	Non-Refundable Deposit: $250	Balance Due: $1000 by 06/01/10

Trip report 2003.	Trip report 2004.	Trip report 2005	Trip Report 2006
Loreto Equipment List		Up-to-date Fishing Report