A monthly newsletter serving the southern Willamette Valley March 2019 OOMARCH 18 PROGRAM Fly fishing Oregon’s Wild and Scenic John Day River With Jim Cox Jim Cox, director of angling and donor relations for Western Rivers Conservancy, will make a presentation entitled “Fly Fishing Oregon’s Wild and Scenic John Day River.” Since 1988 Western Rivers Conservancy has protected lands on more than 160 rivers in nine western states. The program will provide a few short updates WRC’s current conservation projects, with a major focus on fly fishing Oregon’s Wild and Scenic John Day River, the second longest free-flowing river in the West, for its world-class smallmouth bass fishery and its excellent run of wild summer steelhead. WRC was instrumental in helping create Cottonwood Canyon State Park on the John Day, the second largest state park in Oregon, and has purchased another major ranch on the John Day in an effort to protect Thirty Mile Creek, a major cold-water sanctuary for wild steelhead. Cox joined Western Rivers Conservancy in 2011. He has more than 25 years experience working professionally in the nonprofit sector. Jim is a past steering committee co-chair of the Nonprofit Association of Oregon, and is an active member of the Northwest Planned Giving Roundtable. Jim holds a bachelor of theatre degree from Willamette University. In his free time, you can find him fly fishing and hiking along the outstanding rivers of the West. McKenzie Flyfishers 1 MONTHLY MEMBERS MEETING Please check your calendar and make sure that the monthly meeting of the McKenzie Fly Fishers is there in bold print – Monday March. 18, at Willie’s Restaurant. 400 Industrial Way, SpringEield. Drinks and time to chat and mingle at 6 pm, dinner at 7, speakers at 8. All are welcome. Find the club at mckenzieElyEishers.wordpress.com and on Facebook.
Transcript
A monthly newsletter serving the southern Willamette Valley March 2019
OOMARCH 18 PROGRAM
Fly fishing Oregon’s Wild and Scenic John Day RiverWith Jim Cox
Jim Cox, director of angling and donor relations for Western Rivers Conservancy, will make a presentation entitled “Fly Fishing Oregon’s Wild and Scenic John Day River.” Since 1988 Western Rivers Conservancy has
protected lands on more than 160 rivers in nine western states. The program will provide a few short updates WRC’s current conservation projects, with a major focus on fly fishing Oregon’s Wild and Scenic John Day River, the second longest free-flowing river in the West, for its world-class smallmouth bass fishery and its excellent run of wild summer steelhead. WRC was instrumental in helping create Cottonwood Canyon State Park on the John Day, the second largest state park in Oregon, and has purchased another major ranch on the John Day in an effort to protect Thirty Mile Creek, a major cold-water sanctuary for wild steelhead. Cox joined Western Rivers Conservancy in 2011. He has more than 25 years experience working professionally in the nonprofit sector.
Jim is a past steering committee co-chair of the Nonprofit Association of Oregon, and is an active member of the Northwest Planned Giving Roundtable. Jim holds a bachelor of theatre degree from Willamette University. In his free time, you can find him fly fishing and hiking along the outstanding rivers of the West.
A monthly newsletter serving the southern Willamette Valley March 2019
McKenzie Flyfishers �2
Prez Sez By Jim Rhoten The March hatch is one of my favorite hatches. After a long winter of fishing mostly nymphs with occasional dry fly action on blue wing olives, I look forward
to seeing the bigger fish looking up for the larger March brown flies. (See our Outings list for this spring’s tentative March brown dates.) I normally start fishing around the second week of February on the lower McKenzie or sometimes on the Willamette below the confluence. It usually depends on the water temperature and clarity. This year, the Willamette has been running high and off color. Usually the Willamette runs a few degrees warmer than the McKenzie. Some years, when it doesn’t color up, it can provide some good dry fly action early. Another thing to be aware of is Mohawk Creek. It can add allot of color to the Willamette river where it enters below Hendricks Bridge, if there has been a lot of rain or snow melt. As the bugs increase and fish start looking up more consistently, I tend to start fishing farther up river. My favorite runs are from Hendricks Park down to Bellinger and from Bellinger down to Hayden Bridge. Most days we put in around 11 am. We fish with nymphs, either behind a dry fly or Euro style. By around 1 pm we make sure we are sitting on a good flat where we have caught a lot of fish in the past. Even though nothing is coming up yet, we will start fishing dries with a soft hackle or small nymph below. We are hoping to pick up a few fish that are starting to key on emerging bugs. By fishing in an area that normally holds fish, and by using a bug that matches the hatch, we usually catch a few fish before the hatch starts. The fish usually start rising in the shallow water first. A lot of times these are the smaller fish. As the hatch picks up, we start to see larger fish coming up in the heavy water. At this time, we usually take the dropper off and just fish the dry. To catch more fish, try swinging a March brown soft hackle through the rising fish.
But it is always more fun catching rising fish on dries. Some days we find the fish don’t want a fly that rides high on the water. If you are getting a lot of refusals, try a fly that the bottom half sits below the water line. One of our favorite patterns is a March brown tied in the clink hammer style. If you don’t have a fly in which the bottom half sinks, try removing all the hackle on the bottom side of your fly so it sits lower in the water. Another thing to try is to keep your bushy dry fly on and tie a smaller cripple or emerger pattern behind it. Also, as the hatch progresses throughout the season, the flies tend to get smaller. Sometimes I might start fishing March browns in size #10, and by the end of the hatch, I might be fishing a #16. Try changing the fly size first before you try another type of fly. I don’t like to tie a dropper line of my hook shank. It covers part of the hook gap and decreases my chance of a good hook-up. I prefer to tie my upper dry fly off the main line on a short dropper above my bottom fly. Another thing I do sometimes is tie a dropper from the hook eye instead of the hook bend. The colder the water the less the fish are looking up. Fish start biting at 38 degrees but temperature around 40 degrees up is even better. I always look for water levels that are stable or dropping. Rising water levels can make for tough dry fly fishing. To get the best presentation, play with your leader length until to get your fly to land softly on the water. When you get it right, the last 12 to 24 inches of tippet should stop and flutter to the water surface. A good book by John Judy is called Slack Line
Strategies and talks about the importance of a proper leader and how to set it up effectively. Always remember the big three: effective presentation, productive location, and proper fly selection. Concentrate on these three things, in that order, and you will
catch more fish. I have a friend who learned to fish the McKenzie from his dad as a kid. He knows the McKenzie like the back of his hand. He fishes a lot and uses dry flies the majority of the time. In fact we call him Dry Fly Tommy. He is a great fly fisherman and I have learned a lot from him. He used to tell me what his dad told him: “The most important thing is presentation, presentation, presentation. Get out there and catch some fish.
A monthly newsletter serving the southern Willamette Valley March 2019
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2019 Outings Schedule Date: Location: Fishmaster: March 16 Munsel Lake (Florence area) Jeff DeVore April 6 or 13 or 20 McKenzie River March Browns Bill Laing Weather dependent so we have listed various dates May 14-16 (mid-week) Deschutes River (salmon fly) Greg Williams May (TBD) Umpqua River shad outing Clint Brumitt June (TBD) Willamette town run (steelhead) Gary McKenney July 26-28 East Lake, (callibaetis) Phil Johnson August 6-8 (mid week) Umpqua (smallmouth bass) Clint Brumitt Sept. 13-16 Gold Lake (brook trout) Board October (TBD) Kalama Cup with Evergreen Club (North Umpqua)
Munsel Lake outing coming up March 16 The first official club outing of the year will be this Saturday, March 16, at Munsel Lake north of Florence, and the weather forecast is looking great, 55 degrees and mostly cloudy, lovely compared to the chilly and rainy outing last year. Jeff DeVore is organising this outing again, which means a hot and hearty lunch of high-quality dogs and sausages with all the trimmings, along with likely beans and chips and stuff you never eat at home, but taste absolutely gourmet after a morning on the water. The trout are all planters (up to 16 inches), so you can take them home without guilt, or give them away to those with less “skill.” Some kind of boat or float tube is recommended since bank fishing is limited. And most success comes from sinking lines with buggers, blobs and boobies. To get an early start on the outing, meet at 8 am for breakfast at the nearby Three Rivers Casino. — TJT
The intrepid Mark Rauch landed arguably the biggest trout last year in the rain. Will there be an award this year?
March brown outing sign-up Contact Bill Laing at [email protected] ASAP for the outing scheduled for April 6 or the following Saturdays. Meet at Armitage Park at 10 am for hot drinks, muffins and shuttles. Boats will put in at Hayden Bridge and fish the confluence area. Tell Bill if you have a boat and/or space for passengers.
A monthly newsletter serving the southern Willamette Valley March 2019
McKenzie Flyfishers �4
Club rocks big Fly Fishing Expo In Albany, again! By Terry Willis
The 2019 Northwest Fly Tying and Fly Fishing Expo has just concluded, and the McKenzie Fly Fishers have done it again with an exceptional show of support at not only the EXPO but at the annual Awards Dinner. Overall, our club handled the entire registration desk and registrations for classes desk. Processing this large number of visitors into the EXPO is not an easy feat but we did it. Here are the details.
Registration tables Overall, our club worked two shifts per day and
processed hundreds of visitors into the EXPO. Everyone attending the EXPO were personally greeted by our club member and asked if they were a Fly Fishing International (FFI) member. If that person expressed interest in the FFI, the visitor was guided to an advisor and we discussed the benefits of joining the FFI. Otherwise, the visitor was directed to the cashier and processed into the EXPO. This quick alignment of visitors not only allowed quick entry and processing into the EXPO, it allowed us to meet a large number of potential FFI members to join our FFI ranks. In addition, many of our club members also took advantage of the opportunity to join the FFI for the first time or renewed their membership into the FFI.
Our Club stepped forward and volunteered the largest number of support personnel with 29 MFF members volunteering their time to work the EXPO. Many of these members have now returned for their third volunteer EXPO effort.
I would like to express my appreciation to the following MFF members for donating their time and efforts to not only waive the MFF flag but to offer their support to the EXPO. Those members are: Skip Hosfield, Bill Laing, Mike Starr, President Jim Rhoten, Mike Layne, Alan Stults, John O’Conner, Steve Savill, Terry Robinson, Sparky Rice, Al Eckerdt, Kurt Ruble, Peggy Roga, Dick Barnhart, Gary Mckenney, Mark Rauch, Phil Johnson, Tom Fauria, Mark Campbell, Mike
Brinkley, Tim Knerr, Dave Bailey, Greg Williams, Steve Hackett and Terry Willis. (Bob Howell volunteered but became ill — his support is appreciated).
In addition, I hired two police security officers David Friendahl (retired Tigard PD) and reserve Sgt. Matt Bostrom (Linn County Sheriff’s Office). Last and most deserving of recognition was Jan Fisher who volunteered to cover the entire weekend of the classroom registration area. Her support meant not having to delegate our members to work this important function and our appreciation is forwarded to Jan for her efforts.
FFI memberships Our club is breaking records for signing up new
FFI members, not only at the NW EXPO but we are being recognized by the National Council for our membership records as well. In 2018 during the
EXPO, we signed up 97 members, 77 of which were new members and 20 were renewals. The FFI national president took notice of our campaign and how the MFF members were greeting all of the attendees at the door and sending them to an FFI desk person. At the national campaign in 2017, they signed up approximately 25 new FFI members but after copying our EXPO lobby plan, they increased new FFI membership
to over 220 members during the 2018 National EXPO.
In 2019, we broke our record again by signing up 138 new and renewal members to the FFI. A new record.
(continued on next page)
A monthly newsletter serving the southern Willamette Valley March 2019
McKenzie Flyfishers �5
L
Founding Fathers photograph Most of you know that our distinguished club
has the honor of calling three of our members the Founding Fathers of the McKenzie Fly Fishers, the Federation of Fly Fishers and the Northwest EXPO. These Founding Fathers are Skip Hosfield, Bill Laing and Mike Starr and they were able to meet with the FFI President/CEO Len Zickler at the EXPO (photo at right). As newer members join our club, they may not have been aware that these distinguished individuals founded the life we all enjoy as fly fishers and no other club in the world can make this historic claim. Skip, Bill and Mike were also present for the Friday afternoon shift to greet members and to also meet and speak with the FFI President/CEO.
Expo awards dinner The Expo dinner was attended by 21 members
of our MFF Club to not only support our club but to support the receipt of a special award. In addition to our club members, our table was graced with Skip’s wife, Donna, and son Hank. Dave Thomas and Monte Mathews also joined us to round out the largest club representation at the EXPO of any other Oregon club.
Frank Moore Conservation Award This distinguished award this year was given
to the McKenzie Fly Fishers for our conservation efforts and support of Salmon Watch. Dave Thomas was present along with President Jim Rhoten to accept the award. (See bottom photo).
In addition, Rhoten and former President Al Eckerdt met with the FFI President/CEO Lynn Zickler and the Oregon Council FFI President Sherry Steele to receive their very gracious contribution of $1,500 each ($3,000) for contribution to the Salmon Watch Program. The MFF requested and were granted a $1,500 grant from the Oregon Council Grants Committee and this grant was matched by the National FFI for an additional $1,500 grant. The $3,000 has been added to the MFF contribution of approximately $5,500 to Salmon Watch.
Thank you all who supported the FFI Oregon Council’s 2019 EXPO and to help make this EXPO event a success and to give back to the Oregon Council of the FFI.
Terry Willis is MFF/FFI representative to the Oregon Council, Executive Board member of the Oregon Council, Oregon Council Grants Committee member, and Oregon Council Awards Committee member Dave Thomas and Jim Rhoten accept the 2019 Frank
Moore Conservation award from Keith Burkhart, FFI Oregon Council chair.
Jim Rhoten, Al Eckerdt, Sherry Steele and Len Zickler with the $3,000 check to Salmon Watch.
Mike Starr, Skip Hosfield, Len Zickler and Bill Laing pose for the Founding Fathers photo.
A monthly newsletter serving the southern Willamette Valley March 2019
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Snowy flakes and fishy takesBy Mark Campbell
Like most Sundays I was playing hockey and while exiting the rink at 11:30 pm I quickly started to realize the 2-4 inches the weatherman predicted had come and gone. I headed up to work plowing the roads for the next three hours only to wake up the next morning to 16 inches of wet, wet, wet snow on the ground.
I spent the next three days plowing and cutting up trees as they fell, blocking streets, crushing cars and falling on condos. After nearly 40 hours of work over three days I was glad to finally have power restored Wednesday, as the frequent gas runs to fill the generator were getting old.
With the week behind me and the family (Rachel, Scarlet and Oxford) all up in Hood River on a train ride adventure, I found myself staring at the last few inches of snow remaining on my driveway, which I hadn’t had time to shovel. I shoveled the short driveway and then climbed in my boat to shovel the 4 inches remaining in it. I drove down to the Armitage boat ramp with just my truck to survey whether it was possible to launch a boat. With a large pile of limbs stacked near the boat ramp I found it accessible but not plowed. So, I proceeded to back up and down the boat ramp making tracks and aiding in the melt of the remaining snow. Confident I could back my boat in and successfully retrieve it at the end of the day I went back home to get my boat. First time I’ve put my boat in on a snow covered boat ramp.
Before starting the motor I noticed March browns in the air and actively feeding trout on the surface. I motored down to my favorite spot
on the river expecting to be the only yahoo out for the day when a yellow jet boat went ripping by me up river — well, at least it happened right as I got there. I grabbed my dry fly rod and began casting a large March brown pattern over
feeding fish. With the sun high in the sky I quickly realized my fly was too big, too flashy and not going to work. I pulled out a different March brown pattern in the 14-size range and began to catch cutthroat trout. I watched as several large trout surfaced towards the middle of the river and I managed to hook into
one nice one that I wasn’t able to pull out of the heavy water before my barbless fly came unhooked. After an hour of
catching 10-12 inch cutthroat trout I decided to move down river a little farther than I had ever fished before. I noticed a deep channel with a nice seam below a rather swift riffle. I cast into the bottom of it, about 3 feet off of the shoreline, and hooked another 10-inch cutthroat.
I was a little disappointed as I think catching small fish in a run has a tendency to put down
the other larger fish. But I had started at the bottom and had about 60 more feet to the top of the seam forming out of the swift riffle. I made my next cast about 20 feet farther up and the redside surfaced as I set the hook. I was a little shocked to find such a nice fish in a small section of the river — it took me a bit to get the
fish on the reel as I managed all the line I stripped in as the fish ran at me. After a minute I got the beautiful fish to hand, capping off a wonderful winter day on the McKenzie River.
A monthly newsletter serving the southern Willamette Valley March 2019
• Jim Boyd • Bob Bumstead • Jim Dougher • Skip Hosfield • Bill Laing • Hal Legard • Glen Love • Frank Moore • Peter Patricelli • Bob Rasmussen • Mike Starr
INVITATION TO JOIN You do not have to be an expert fly fisher to join the McKenzie Flyfishers. Our monthly meetings are an excellent opportunity to meet other area anglers, to have the best of regional experts on subjects dear to the hearts of fly fishers — and our outings and classes are wonderful ways to hone skills and lead local waters first-hand. Interested? Just curious? Contact Dick Barnhart, (541) 501-1774.
Intense winter weather this year might be a real pain to deal with, and it certainly complicates fishing, but the good news is that the snowpack in our part of the state is now above average. Hopefully, the snow will melt gradually this spring, keeping waters cool and fish happy.
A monthly newsletter serving the southern Willamette Valley March 2019
McKenzie Flyfishers �8
If you live in or near Eugene, you don’t have to go far to practice your triple-haul casting, try out those new flies, and maybe catch a nice trout for dinner. The Canoe Canal in Alton Baker Park is stocked regularly with legal-size rainbows, providing fun for kids and beginners, and even some well-seasoned adults. Here, Steve Brehm shows off a speckled beauty he caught on what looks like a blob or booby — flies that don’t look like anything in nature, but planters can’t resist them, The colorful flies were tied at the club class happening downtown this month, led by Clint Brummit and Tim Knerr.
Those flies are reportedly effective on stocked fish in Cleawox Lake and other coastal lakes as well. And spring is upon us so don’t forget to sign up for the March brown outing that could happen as early as April 6. See info on Page 3. Some late-breaking news: Carolyn Mason and Gail Campbell hooked up steelhead this past weekend on the Umpqua with guide Ty Holloway. And we hear from Gary McKenny that the first summer steelhead has been counted at Willamette Falls, heading for our river system. There’s hope! — TJT
Winter fishing report
Have stories and photos for the newsletter? Email Ted Taylor at [email protected]
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