Howdy,

This month’s flies feature a classic from Fly Fishing innovator Lee Wulff and one of my personal patterns.

Trout Fly of the Month

Wulff Style Mayfly

 Recipe:

• Hook:  Dry Fly sizes 10-16
• Tail:  Moose or Elk Mane
• Body:  Natural Dubbing (Beaver, Fox, Oppossum, Muskrat)
• Wing:  Elk or Deer Body Hair, divided
• Hackle:  Brown, Tan, or Grizzly

The Wulff series of fly patterns were developed by Lee Wulff. It presents a bushy, high floating fly, that remains visible into the evening twilight, and rides well in rough water. Every modern fly angler should have one or more of Lee Wulff’s innovations. He designed and sold the first fly fishing vests, championed reeling with the left hand on fly reels (so the rod was in the stronger right hand), invented the first palming spool fly reels, introduced the fly-O casting practice rigs, popularized the “riffling hitch” for salmon fishing and designed the popular triangle taper lines. However, Lee Wulff’s best-known innovations were in his flies.

Wulff patterns were the first flies to use hair for fly wings and tails. Almost all dry flies available in the winter of 1929/30 were, according to Wulff, anemic and too delicate, which he ascribed to their British tradition. The reason for very slim flies was that if a fly was too bulky the feather materials did not have the buoyancy to hold it up. Wulff also noted that dry flies with wings and tails of feathers get slimed up and are not very durable. To Wulff, the solution was obvious use bucktail (deerhair) for tails and wings. The mobility and buoyancy of elk and deer hair has made it a favorite North American fly tying material. 

Steelhead Fly of the Month

Riverwood Eyed Critter

 Recipe:

• Hook:  Salmon/Steelhead size 2-6
• Tail:  4 Dyed Grizzly hackle tips
• Rib:  Gold Tinsel
• Body:  Purple Angora Dubbing
• Body Hackle:  Purple Schlappen
• Wing:  4 Dyed Grizzly hackle tips
• Eyes:  Dumbell or Spirit River IBalz

The Riverwood Eyed Critter is a big purple thing with eyes.  Long schlappen body hackle and dyed grizzly hackle feathers for the wing and tail (four feathers at each location).  Finished with a dyed guinea feather for the collar.  The body is angora dubbing.  I developed this fly for fishing deep runs and pools for both Steelhead and Salmon.  With the weighted eyes, this fly will get down in the water column quickly.  

Tight Lines!

Dave

Howdy,

After picking up the kids bright and early from PDX and returning home, Christian, Emma and I hit the river.  As usually happens during spring break, we get one good day of weather before it turns bad.  This year is no different.  Having learned from previous years, we headed for the water quickly. 

 Christian had a Double Wing Elk Hair Caddis tied on (from last fall) and started off with that while Emma and I turned over rocks to see what was living under the surface.  We located some mayfly nymphs, stonefly nymphs and big ole Caddis Larva about 1″ long!  With so much food available under the surface, I didn’t think Christian had any hope of hooking anything with the big dry fly on.  The only bugs in the air were BWOs, some small Speckled Caddis and some March Browns.

Emma holding the Dark Olive Caddis

 Next thing I know, Christian is hollaring from downstream.  I look over my shoulder to see his 4 wt. doubled over and shaking wildly.  My first thought was that he had hooked into a steelhead, but once I got downstream to him, I saw the flash of a pretty rainbow trying to race upstream.  Christian got him turned around and he moved into the slower, shallower water.  Next thing the fish tried was to lodge itself between a couple boulders.  Christian moved downstream a bit and got him to turn again.  We got him landed, snapped a picture or two and released a beautiful 17″ Native Rainbow back into the North Santiam.

Christian's 1st fish of the year (it won't be the last)

I decided it was time for me to do some fishing.  I missed a couple takes on nymphs before we headed for the house.  As usual, Christian outfished me.  He didn’t catch anything later on either, but his only catch was quite a fish. 

Sunday brought rain, Sunday night and Monday morning brought more rain.  Looks like a typical spring break.  At least we learned enough from past years to take advantage of every opportunity.

Today has been spent at the vise, working on a few patterns to imitate the bugs that Emma and I collected.    Once the rivers are back into shape, we’ll have a couple new patterns to test.

Top to Bottom - Big Stonefly, Little Yellow Stonefly, Mayfly Nymph

Tight Lines!

Dave

Howdy,

Sunday morning (03/21/10) brought with it grey skies and a light drizzle as Mike, Craig and I boarded the Rapid Sucess for a drift down the North Santiam from Mehama to Stayton.  The purpose of this trip was to introduce Mike and Craig to fly casting for Steelhead.  Both of them are beginners in the sport, but have years of fishing experience using other types of gear.  To start them off, I rigged up some Oakey Drifters to let them warm up and get the feel of the boat as we made our way downstream to some better water for fly casting.

Side channel on the North Santiam

An hour or so into the drift we stopped on a nice wide gravel bar and I gave a few basic instructions, rigged up a couple fly rods and set them off thrashing the water for a bit.  I observed from a distance and picked up on a couple of adjustments that they needed to make.  It wasn’t long and their casting began to improve.  As with most newbies to the sport, they did a LOT of casting and very little fishing.  I then gave them my best professional advice by telling them that 99.999% of fish are caught on a fly when it’s in the water, not when it’s being flung forwards and backwards in the air!  Being the quick learners that they were, more fishing ensued.

I pointed Mike to a side channel that looked promising for trout.  I rigged a tandem nymph setup with a Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear (bead head) with a trailing Soft Hackle and instructed him to work his way down the channel back to the main river.  I went back to check on Craig and noticed that he had switched to the baitcasting setup and was sidedrifting the Oakey rigs.  I picked an unused fly rod and made few casts myself.   A few moments later I head Mike’s voice and looked over my shoulder across the island to see the tandem nymph rig stuck in the trees across the side channel.  We met in the middle of the island and traded rods.  He taking the 8 wt. St. Croix with a Santiam Stoneattached and me taking the 5 wt. Pro Logic with nothing but a broken leader.  I re-rigged with an old time pattern commonly used on the east coast called the “Sheep Fly”.  For you west coasters, it’s best described as a Timberline Emerger (Kauffman) on steroids.  Tied on a #10 nymph hook with a fat grey dubbing body, soft hackles of partridge or pheasant body and grizzly hackle tip wings.  It’s definitely not a “pretty” fly, but it is effective.

Mike and Craig working on their casts

Since Mike had moved back to the main river, I decided to finish out the side channel.  On the 3rd cast I missed a take.  I immediately ran the Sheep Fly back through the same slot and felt another soft pickup.  I stripped in about 4 inches of line quickly and then dropped it back in the current – WHAM!  I lifted the rod tip and the fish immediately took all the slack and was on the reel pulling line.  I got him turned and he raced back upstream into the deep slot.  The fish felt heavy, but gave up pretty quickly.  I assumed it was a Whitefish by the fight, but was pleasantly surprised when a beautiful native rainbow came to hand.  I hollered at the guys across the island, held up the fish, gave it a quick measure next to the rod, snapped a couple pics and released him safely back in the channel.  He was a “specimen” of a fish.  Not huge (18″), not a hog, but rather just a perfect example of what a native rainbow should be.  Clean, beautiful coloration, perfect proportions and best of all – willing to take a fly!  It was simply “one of those fish”.

18" Native Rainbow

We piled in the boat and headed off downstream again.  With a mix of sun breaks and downpours, we continued to fish on the move, stopping briefly at a couple spots.  Later in the afternoon the water came alive with hatches – Green Drakes, March Browns, MB Spinners, BWOs and the occasional caddis – little black ones and medium greys.  Obviously the fish were ignoring the adults because we only saw 2 fish rise all day.  Not what a guy who loves dry fly action wants to see, but a good sign that there was an abundance of under the surface food for the fish.

As with all river trips, there were the moments of comic relief.  Craig calling his cast (ala Babe Ruth) then proceeding to cast into a tree just like he said.  Craig trying to untangle the snag from the tree branch with his hat fallen down over his eyes.  Mike snagging in the rocks while I’m struggling to retie a rig for Craig, etc. etc.  The way I see it, those are the things you’ll remember from the trip that allow you to forget the rain and cold.  There are also the unexpected moments that nature provides that just leave you amazed…………..

A native rainbow of another sort. A great finish to a fine day.

Tight Lines!

Dave

Howdy,

Took the boys on a float yesterday evening down the lower section of the North Santiam from Stayton to Shellburn.  Dylan brought along a spinning rod and Jordan brought his fly rod.  You may remember a post earlier this year about Jordy catching his first fish with a dry fly.  It was now time to learn to fly cast from the boat.

We shoved off around 3:30 pm, with the air temp in the low 90′s.  Pretty warm for this time of year, but great for an evening on the river.  There was a lot of bug activity with hoppers, october caddis and a good grey mayfly spinner hatch going on.  We anchored up around the second bend and Jordy began casting a #12 Ausable Wulff.

North Santiam River near Stayton

He got a couple fish to rise, but no full on takes.  We scooted on downriver a ways and Jordan began casting to the banks on the deeper outside corners.  A few more rises and misses, but he was doing a great job of keeping the fly dead drifting.  Around the next bend we anchored and he worked an area next to a submerged stump.  There must have been a dozen fish in that spot because Jordan got a fish to rise on just about every cast.  I think they were little tiny buggers and didn’t have enough size to get their mouth around the fly.

North Santiam in Late Summer

We moved down river again and Jordan got into his first fish.  A pretty little 5 ” rainbow.  It wasn’t long and he was hooking more than he was missing.  Dylan wasn’t having near as much luck with his spinning gear and was starting to get frustrated.  We anchored up and had some dinner before moving on down the river.

Jordan with a little rainbow

 Things really started heating up after dinner.  Jordan was hooking fish on just about every other cast.  Mostly small stuff, but occasionally a fish in the 9-10″ range.  I’m pretty sure he missed a couple big fish.  Both were sipping bugs and just showing their snouts.  They looked to be in the 12-14″ range and just rolled on the fly.  I set up my fly rod and handed it off to Dylan, with a few instructions.  After a couple beginner casts, he hooks into a fish. 

Dylan's First Fish on a Fly!

The sun began to inch closer to the horizon and time grew short.  We pushed on down the river and once we had the take out in sight, we anchored up one last time.  Somewhere along the way Jordan lost his “lucky” fly and I tied on a tan Elk Hair Caddis.  He got one good cast in before snagging it on a overhanging branch.  It was ok though, he was pretty arm sore by then.  All in all, he landed 15 fish (all native rainbows), and probably missed twice that many more. 

The Shellburn takeout at Sunset

Needless to say, it was a great evening,  with lots of action and a “first on a fly” for Dylan.  He’s already giving me specs for the fly rod he wants me to build him…………………

Tight Lines!

Dave