Happy Holidays

2

Deep in the Sandy River canyon between the Old Man's Hole and the House Hole is a wooded gravel-bar island named after Indian John. For the last 40-years, I wondered who Indian John might have been, and am still not sure.  But, an article in the September 2006 Portland Magazine caught my eye.  This is what the inset in the picture says (in brief):
Indian John (??-1893)
Chinook Chief
Settlers in 1890s Portland knew him as "Indian John", an ancient Chinook elder who entertained with early Oregon legends. John told of meeting Lewis and Clark near the mouth of the Sandy River in 1805, then would show admirers his dearest possession: a small silver spoon, one of several gifts from the explorers. Sheriff Penumbra Kelly, who had known John from childhood, told the Oregonian newspaper that at the time of his passing, the chief was at least 125 years old.
Anyone who can add more to the story; it would be greatly appreciated. 

A Toast To Julie
We got this picture & comments sent to us by email...love to see couples enjoying fly fishing together.

Rio's WindCutter is still the most popular winter steelhead spey ling.  There are several reasons why. The WindCutter design has the right head length to make it easy to cast with the widest variety of spey rods and casting skill levels. It is a highly adaptable fly line that may be lengthened or shortened because it has two loop to loop connections in the belly and multiple accessories that can be adapted to it.  Windcuttters come with (5) 15' tips and two mid-sections in the box.  Some very astute winter anglers have discovered that the WindCutter is even more versatile if  you add some longer sinking tips to your bag of tricks. Longer sinking tips will often penetrate deeper into the water and allow for special applications not well covered by shorter tips. A wider selection of tips can make you more versatile and productive.   Normally the front two sections are removed from the WindCutter and any tip longer thatn 15' is attached to the rear loop.  Since the stock two sections that you are removing are each approximately 15' long, about 30' will be removed from the head of your fly line.  This will leave the rear portion of the head which including rear taper is 22'.  Most tips that you will use are normally much shorter than the portion of the fly line that you have removed.  These tips can range in length from 16' to 24'.  This will result in an overall head of a much shorter length than the stock item.  On the average it will also be somewhat lighter in weight.  However the longer length of the sinking portion of the line will allow deeper penetration into the water.  Head and fly line configurations of this nature can also be also be very handy for fishing under overhanging limbs or anywhere where a shortened back cast is needed. 

The RIO Big Boy Series of 24' density-compensated  tips are handy in the 200 grain & 300 grain sizes for eight and nine weight rods.  The 400 grain tip is useable on most ten weight rods.  This is true for both single and double hand fly rods.  Longer tips get deeper than standard length tips under many circumstances.  Big Boy tips are density compensated so they tend to sink progressively faster toward the end that has the fly attached to it.  Therefore it is not advisable to trim them.

Customized sinking tips can easily be made from Rio T-14 Salmon Trolling line.  This extra fast sinking tungsten impregnated line is gaining popularity for use as raw material in making sinking tips and shooting heads.  T-14 comes in a roll and can be cut to any length.  The most popular application is with the "spey rod steelheaders set" who use T-14 to build customized sinking tips for the Rio WindCutter fly line.  If tips of more than 16' are being used, the front two sections are removed from the WindCutter and a T-14 sinking tip is attached to the rear loop.  Most popular T-14 tip lengths are 16' to 22'.