Dorado Flies
for fish called Dorado, Mahi Mahi or Dolphin Fish, Coryphaena hippurus
July and August are prime time for Dorado!

Mike Senatra and guide with nice bull Dorado. Mark Bachmann photo.

Dorado means gold in Spanish. It's a reasonable name for a fish that can turn bright gold along the sides, but they are usually bright greenish blue along the back and have liberal amounts of blue spots and the pectoral fins are very bright electric blue. Dorado are one of the most successful fishes and are found in tropical waters world wide. In Australia and most of the Atlantic Ocean the specie is call Dolphin (not to

be confused with a family of sea mammals of the same name). In Hawaii they are called Mahi Mahi. Dorados are prime fly rod sport fish for a number of reasons. They are very strong and acrobatic. They spend a lot of time around the surface of the water where they are comparatively easy to reach while fly fishing. Dorado grow incredibly fast. At one year old most exceed 6 pounds and may be over twenty pounds at age two. Three year old Dorado usually exceed thirty pounds. Few Dorado live beyond the forth year. The world record is 87 pounds. Once the fish reach maturity they spawn every six weeks and broadcast about 400,000 eggs. The eggs which are about the size of the head of a pin hatch in about 60 hours. The little fish start growing immediately. This fast growth rate keeps them eating constantly and they are very aggressive biters most of the time. They feed on bait fish

of many sizes and are fond of sardines, flying fish, mackerel and squid. On a recent trip to the sea of Cortez several fish were vomiting up squid as they were being played. This attracted more Dorado which quickly consumed the free
meal. Some of the squid were more than a foot long. When hooked a Dorado runs hard and often jumps spectacularly, then slugs it out all the way to the boat. They can exceed 50 miles per hour for short bursts. Ordinarily they save a bit of energy to thrash about madly as the angler tries to either release, or land the fish.

Dorado have multiple groups of wicked little teeth that can chew your leader and flies. Patty Barnes photo.

Dorado have multiple groups of wicked little teeth that can chew your leader and flies. It is advised that when large fish are expected that a shock tippet of 50-60 pound test is used. A simple leader formula is as follows: 12" or less #50 shock tippet, 16'" or more of #16 or #20 class tippet, 3' of #50 butt section. Sections of leader can be assembled with surgeon's knots. Smaller fish can be landed on straight twenty pound test tippets. Our favorite rods for Dorado are #10 to #12 weight. Fast sinking shooting head fly lines such as the Jim Teen T-Series or

Cortland's Quick Decent lines are a good bet for fishing bait fish and squid patterns. Intermediate or floating lines with intermediate tips are best for fishing poppers. Dorados like to hang around anything that is floating on the water. Floating weed mats, debris, rays or turtles will often have Dorados under them. I once hooked a 20 pound Dorado from under a single floating Styrofoam cup. Most Dorados that are caught with flies after having been chummed up with live or cut bait. Another way to attract Dorado to the boat is to simply troll a fly and when a Dorado is hooked the commotion will attract others that can be cast to. Dorados can be picky. Often they will be keyed on one type of food. It pays to have a range of sizes and kinds of flies that imitate the range of food organism that dorado eat. On a recent trip to Loreto Mexico,

Ron Walp with Mexican Dorado. Mark Bachmann photo.

it was very large flies that saved our trip. We found that trolling 12" Marlin flies was the easiest way to pull deep feeding dorado to the surface where we could get at them. Once a school was around the boat, we could chum them with sardines and then get them to eat flies that looked and behaved like the sardines, but is was the big flies that got the game started. Ordinarily the bigger fish like to feed on larger flies.

		ALF Nursery Schooler, Olive Sardina Sardines are prime Dorado food. Be sure to have plenty of these flies if you are planning to fish anywhere in Mexico.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
00732-2/0	ALF Nursery Schooler, Olive Sardina	2/0	$3.50

		Epoxy Head Bait Fish, Anchovy The Epoxy Head Anchovy is proven along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Baja. Salmon, tuna, yellow tail, wahoo and dorado find this pattern appealing.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
64287-2/0	Epoxy Head Bait Fish, Anchovy	2/0, 3.5"	$3.25

		Epoxy Head Bait Fish, Gray Back Minnow The Epoxy Head Gray Minnow has been affectionately dubbed the Mexican Killer because it has proven trip after trip to be the most effective fly on tuna, dorado and even rooster fish from Manzenelo to East Cape.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
64277-2/0	Epoxy Head Bait Fish, Gray Back Minnow	2/0, 3.5"	$3.25

			Flashy Fish Popper, Blue #2/0 -9/16"x 4 1/2" Blue back color. Good in-shore and off-shore. This is an all around good popper for larger game fish.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
00840-2/0	Flashy Fish Saltwater Popper, Blue	2/0	$3.75

		Pencil Popper, Holographic Green #1/0 - 3/8" x 2 3/4" Green back color. Good for small to medium size jacks, dorado and bonito.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
00861-1/0	Pencil Popper, Holographic Green	1/0	$2.95

			Deceiver, Streaker One of the original dorado flies. This fly traps a lot of air so that it stays near the surface. Pull it fast so that it streaks along the surface. Looks like a baby Dorado.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
50050-3/0	Deceiver, Streaker	3/0, 6"	$4.50

			FPF Blue Mackerel A very good fly for all species of billfish, and large Dorado. Big Dorado eat large bait fish. Tish one fly you definitely need in your assortment. Tandem 5/0 hooks.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
01164-5x5	FPF Blue Mackerel	5/0x5/0 9"	$18.95

			FPF K.T.'s Squid Dorado will eat large quantities of squid when they are available. Tandem 5/0 hooks.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
00715-5x5	FPF K.T.'s Squid	5/0x5/0 7"	$18.95

Quality and Equality On The Water
By: J. Morgan Jones

Weather you work at a keyboard, a phone to your ear or a wrench in your hand, even staying at home raising the kids, each of us performs a small part of what makes this sometimes insane system work. We all play our part, like it or not. For the vast majority of us, we are rated according to what we accomplish. This is as it should be. We all need some scale in order to rate what we do at work. It's just life. But, I think that all of us need a place, even for just short periods of time, where we are not judged by the "More IS Better" mentality. On the river, I tend to judge others by the amount of enjoyment they foster in myself or others. I have always thought that it is not the size of the fish, but rather, the size of the heart in the fisher. This, then, is the standard to which we should be held accountable, and no other.
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For those of us who make our regular trek to the water to fish, regardless of where that might be, we should examine our motives and actions while participating in our chosen pastime. The more all of us indulge in "stream side etiquette", the more we will enjoy our fishing. We should strive to be equal on the water. And we should share that water. I know that this last seems a bit much, but, we should. I don't care much for "Giggle Barges", or rafters if you will. Kayakers that sit in my runs tend to get me pumped up. Hole Hogs do the same. I have no desire to know if your dog is "real friendly" or not, and I really have no need to listen to your music at late night camp, regardless of the type (perhaps some more than others). I seem to have a real hard time with some guides who think that private citizens are in their way. But, it's your water, the same as it's my water. I respect that. I will always go out of the way to try and let you enjoy your experience as best I can, no matter what your actions say. You can always count on me to do that for you. You have the same right to be here that I have. Can I count on you?
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I must confess that I have always been a small rod nut. I have recently had brought to my attention that there was some question about using too small of a rod on larger fish, causing undue stress to the fish that I catch (at least on the days that I catch one). I have never really been known as the "brightest bulb on the tree", so bear with me. My reasoning process is trying to tell me that this is not so. I do not know how you are rigged up, but at the end of my fly line I have a leader, and more often than not, a section of tippet. I use tippet that claims to have a resistance to breaking up to 4.5 pounds of pull, weather it be caused by a rock, bush or fish. It seems to me that the breaking strength is going to be the same regardless of what I anchor it to. A three weight rod or the back of my car should make no difference. I like to think that I am usually stressing my tippet at close to the breaking strength when playing a fish, and, as a result, I fail to see how the size of the rod makes any difference. I am of the mind that if a person over-plays the fish, they will do so regardless of the rod used. If you were to use the rod correctly, then it is the tippet strength that could cause you to over-play the fish. Tell us what you think.
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Insects hatching, birds in the air flying low over the water, a fly that matches the size, color and actions of the natural, "and not a fish in sight". What should you do????
You might want to try an attractor pattern. Something with a bit of color like a Royal Wulff, Coachman, Green Humpy and so on.
Those old patterns can still get the job done.

Field Test: Winston Ibis 12' 6" #6/7 Weight Spey Rod
	Appropriate Lines For This Rod: WindCutter 6/7/8 WindCutter 6/7/8 with tips MidSpey 6/7 Appropriate Reel Weight: 6.5 - 7 oz.

I recently tried out the new Winston Ibis 12' 6" 6/7 Weight Spey Rod. The Stonefly Maidens Fly Club is sponsoring a women's fly casting clinic on August 16. Five of the members have been practicing their casting and instructor skills so that they can help other women learn how to cast. I have been acting as an advisor and casting coach for this group. Our last get together was 07/13 at Oxbow Park on the Sandy River (at the Spey Clave Run). While the "Women's Casting Clinic" will only deal with single hand casting, I decided to bring one of the new Winston Ibis spey rods to the party. The girls are getting pretty good with their casting and instructional skills and after observing the group go through their routines for a while I decided that there wasn't much for me to add. I assembled the spey rod for an initial test drive. The test line was a WindCutter 6/7/8 with tips mounted on a Waterworks ULA Force 3.4 reel. My first impression of the rod was that it is very lightweight and well balanced. The action might be termed "Modernized Traditional". It is a little bit faster than true traditional. Single spey, snap-tee, snake roll and double spey casts were performed with both floating and fast sinking tips. The rod worked well throughout the session, although I had to really slow down with the sinking tips. This rod loads down deep into the butt for long casts, but as soon as I found the "sweet spot", 80' casts were smooth and easy. Naturally some of the girls wanted to try out the new rod. It was interesting to watch. Two women had used spey rods before. One had caught a steelhead from the Deschutes the morning before the practice. The other two participants had never tried a spey. All four who tried the new rod preformed serviceable casts in short order. That says something about this group of women. For me, it was an interesting way for me to test this new rod. One of the things that I have noticed about spey rod actions is that some are easy to time and some are not. This rod appears to be a design that is easy for people to get used to in a hurry. That is a huge asset.
There ain't nuthin' the matter with easy.

Model	Length	Line Weight	Sections	Rod Weight	Price	To Top
IBIS67126	12' 6"	#6/7	4	6 oz.	$495

Model	Description	Price	To Top
67126COMBO	Ibis Spey 6/7 Summer Steelhead Combo, includes Ibis Rod & Case, Waterworks Velocity 3.5 Reel & Case, Rio WindCutter with Tips Fly Line	$725

Summer Steelheadquarters....!!!!
It's beginning all over again as the runs swim upstream past the ancient Cascades
of The Columbia River...Columbia River Dam Counts

Proven Summer Steelhead Flies!
Summer Steelhead Fly Selection
Waking Flies
Steelhead Wet Flies
String Leeches
Agitators
Tube Flies

Steelhead Leaders
Maxima Tippet Material
About Spey Casting
Spey Discussion Group

In pursuit of the West's most beloved fish...

fishpond 360-Degree Swivel Retractor

fishpond Clipper
fishpond Thermometer

Item	Description	Price	To Top
SR-AC	Fishpond 360-Degree Swivel Retractor, assorted colors	$18.00

= How To Get A Free Fly Line?
You might also want to know how to get free backing.

ALF Olive Sardina	Pencil Popper
Epoxy Head Anchovy	Streaker
Epoxy Head Gray Back	Blue Mackerel
Flashy Fish Popper	K.T. Squid

	"Where the forgotten art of customer service has been found". The Fly Fishing Shop, Welches, OR
1(800) 266-3971

= How To Get A Free Fly Line? You might also want to know how to get free backing.

= How To Get A Free Fly Line?
You might also want to know how to get free backing.