First on the fly for the year!!!

S
Spydeyrch
So on Saturday, 05/07/2011, Brandon and I took off to a local stream/river to see if we could get into some of the native cut-throat and Rainbows.

The day was beautiful. The sun made intermittent peeks through the clouds in the morning and decided to come out almost fully in the afternoon. The water was just crystal clear as crystal clear can be. the level wasn't too bad considering that it had just rained the day or two before then.

The day started out with me getting up at 4:30am and feeding my newborn son and getting him to sleep again. I was hoping to get out of the house by 5am but I didn't get out until 5:30am :mad: I stopped by and got some gas and then drove what is normally a 1.5 hour drive but took me only 70 mins, down to Dallas to pick up Brandon. He was the only guy in a pair of waders with two rods, in a credit union parking lot so it wasn't too difficult to locate him. :D Then from there, we shot off and stopped by my mom's place to see how she was doing. She was cookin' up some bacon and toast. So we grabbed some bacon but didn't have time to wait for the toast. Then we shot off to the river.

We drove up into the local mountains/hills and parked off on the side of the road and from there hiked in about 1/4 of a mile to the actual river. We meandered upstream for the duration of the morning. There were so many perfect holes, riffles, pools, seams that one would think would hold some trout. But nothin'!! Not even a single indication of them being there. We each had a spinner setup and a fly set up. He had his 8wt and I had my 5 wt. And we were switching back and forth between them to see if we could get anything but nothing. But the lack of fish was made up by the beautiful vistas, the fresh mountain waters, the trees, the sun, the occasional shower, and of course, just being on the water was satisfaction enough!! :lol:

Here is brandon swinging hit 8wt around on a nice stretch of the river.
CIMG4264.jpg

So, around 11:30-ish we turned around, got off the water onto the trail, and headed back down to where we had left our bags to eat some lunch. Then from there, we headed back to the car to head down stream. By the time we got back to the car, we had done about 3 miles of hiking already........ but we weren't done yet!!!!!

We drove down stream a little ways and then walked down to the. We couldn't have picked a more perfect location. Absolutely beautiful!!! (Good choice there Brandon!!!) So we started tossing some spinners but nothin, still. Then brandon decided he wanted to try a different spinner. So I let him use one of mine. At the time, we thought that it was a rooster-tail but now that I think of it, I think it was a bang-tail, but same difference, right. Anyway, it was a black body, silver blade on one side and black with red on the other. Red treble hooks, and little strips of sparkle hair for some flash. He started casting and moving down stream. Then he made his way over to the far side of the river where some small bushes and trees where over hanging. I turned my head from watching him to cast and then I heard the magic words: FISH FISH!!!!!!

I spun my head back over to see Brandon's pole bending over and this beautiful cut-throat come jumping out of the water. I thought to myself: Awesome!!! We finally got into some fish. Man, he could really use a net. Wait, I have the net!!!! Get your butt over there and help the guy out!!!

So I started rushing across the river with pole in hand as the other tries reaching for my net attached to my back. We got the hooks out, revived him and took a picture before we let him back into the water. The colors were just astounding!!! We were so excited and pumped that we finally got a fish. Nice job there Brandon!!!

Here is brandon's fish.
CIMG4265.jpg

So now it was my turn. The pressure was on to not be out-fished, hehehe ;) I decided to see if I could get one with my fly rod. I had saved up for like months to get a fly setup and had done months and months of research before I actually bought it. I really wanted to get a fish on it!!

So I attached a small elk hair caddis and started casting out to some nice little holding spots behind some rocks. I don't remember how much longer it was from when Brandon got his fish but, I had been casting into the same spot for like maybe 10 minutes. I was trying some different techniques and trying to really hone my ability. I was skating the fly just on the water surface for a moment then letting the current take it for a second, then skating it again. Sometimes I would let it go under for just a second then pull it out to cast back out to that same spot.

Brandon had just walked over to where I was at and we were about to go head up stream a little further. I was literally pulling my rod back to pull the fly off of the water to move up stream when BAM!!! FISH ON!!! The crazy thing is that Brandon saw it way before I even saw it, hahahahaha. Like I said, I was pulling my line/fly out of the water to move on, I had just started to turn my head when Brandon saw the fish. It took me like 2 seconds to react but man, it sure felt like it was 5 mins!!! My head went numb and I thought for a second: I have a fish on? Wow I do!! Sweet!! this is cool!! I finally got one on my fly rod, AWESOME!! Oh hey, I had better set the hook and get it in!!!! YIKESSS! Don't want to lose it. :rolleyes:

So we got it in. It wasn't as big as Brandon's was but never-the-less, it was beautiful. We let it go then headed up stream. Needless to say, we didn't get any more fish for the rest of the day but it was well worth the long wait to get those fish!! It was my first fish on my fly rod and it was heavenly bliss. And now we were one and one.

Here is my fish.
CIMG4266.jpgCIMG4267.jpg

We had a great time. We want to hit the river again but hopefully get a few of you all to go with us next time.

Thanks Brandon for hittin' the water with me. When ever I am down in the area to visit my mom again, I will let you know and see if we can do some more fishing.

Take care every one.

-Spydey

Oh, and after I landed my fish, I guess I was still a little jittery because I lost my footing in fell on my butt and soaked my back and arms. hahahaha:D
 
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B
bigsteel
nice fish and nice report,looks like a nice little fly fishing creek,next time let me know ide like to join you guys
 
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I
ICamel49
Hope you guys were fishing streams that are open for trout fishing! None of the Northwest zone coastal streams are open to trout fishing until 5/28, and only a few areas in the Willamette zone opened as of 4/23. Don't ask me how I know this!
 
B
bigsteel
ICamel49 said:
Hope you guys were fishing streams that are open for trout fishing! None of the Northwest zone coastal streams are open to trout fishing until 5/28, and only a few areas in the Willamette zone opened as of 4/23. Don't ask me how I know this!

A few????there are lots of rivers and streams open for trout now
 
S
Spydeyrch
bigsteel said:
nice fish and nice report,looks like a nice little fly fishing creek,next time let me know ide like to join you guys

Most definitely! We would love to have you come along next time. I live up here in Beaverton and so have to drive thorugh Salem to get to Brandon's and my mom's. So it is a hop skip and a cast on my way down there. :D

And yes, the stream was a very beautiful stream.

-Spydey
 
S
Spydeyrch
ICamel49 said:
Hope you guys were fishing streams that are open for trout fishing! None of the Northwest zone coastal streams are open to trout fishing until 5/28, and only a few areas in the Willamette zone opened as of 4/23. Don't ask me how I know this!

Thanks for the concern. We were fishing in the Willamette zone and this particular stream opened as of 04/23. I have had my eye on it since like oct or nov of lst year. It is practicly in my mom's back yard so every time I would go down to visit her, I would check the regs, just to make sure that it really was the 23rd of april. I was hoping that maybe some magical leprechaun had changed the regs just for me, hahahahaha.

We were in the green for this stream so it is all good.

-Spydey
 
N
nwkiller
nice man!
 
B
beaverfan
bigsteel said:
A few????there are lots of rivers and streams open for trout now

Not in the NW part of Oregon there isn't, virtually all the streams on the north coast and pretty much all of the streams in the PDX/Metro area are closed to trout till the 28th. :(

All the open streams are south or east of us PDXers.
 
B
bigsteel
beaverfan said:
Not in the NW part of Oregon there isn't, virtually all the streams on the north coast and pretty much all of the streams in the PDX/Metro area are closed to trout till the 28th. :(

All the open streams are south or east of us PDXers.
sorry,i keep forgetting up north there isn't much year trout fishing in the rivers,,,,,,get down here with your fly rod and we will hit some open rivers jay
 
L
lilsalmon
i want to go!!! I want to go!!!! I know some really nice open streams but last time we were at a couple they were too high.

BTW...good job...looks like you guys had an excellent day
 
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troutdude
troutdude
A very nice log entry Spydey. Congrats on gettin' the first on a fly!

But, where's the pic of Brandon waiting in the parking lot w/ his waders n' rods? LOL
 
brandon4455
brandon4455
awesome report bro. that was definitely a fun trip. some of the most beautiful waters/woods ive seen. illhave some of those stimulators iw as talking abut next time as a i saw quite a few stones hatching. im a,lso picking up a tippet spool and stuff so im prepared. can't wait to do it again and hit those spots that were lower down river we didn't see. that turn off next to that deep spot looks perfect.
thanks for taking me with and helping me out when i ran out of tippet! and i would not have got that fish if it wasn't for your offering to let me use one of your spinners. slipping on rocks and laughing about ti was a blast. next time we need to stop at the bridge again and hit the spot below that little spot were first started at,there was current up against the opposite bank and it looked to be a good 4ft deep. perfect for nymphs and dries! can't wait to do some more exploring . and boy that dry fly take was amazing! it kept playing back in my head :lol: i saw your fly about to come out of the wter and he smoothly got airborne and swooped the fly off the water! it was a very memorable day for sure it will be fun to bring others along! i jumbled up a quick blog post of it by the way if anyone wants to take alook :D




brandon
 
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S
Spydeyrch
lilsalmon said:
i want to go!!! I want to go!!!! I know some really nice open streams but last time we were at a couple they were too high.

BTW...good job...looks like you guys had an excellent day

We would love to have you along!! And you will have to show us some of those open streams.

troutdude said:
But, where's the pic of Brandon waiting in the parking lot w/ his waders n' rods? LOL

I was thinking about it, but at that time, Brandon hadn't met me yet so he might have thought is kind of wierd that some strange guy in a white mini-van is snapping pictures of him, alone in the parking lot. hahahahahahaha:lol:

but it would have been pretty funny! Just messin' with ya brandon. ;)

brandon4455 said:
awesome report bro. that was definitely a fun trip. some of the most beautiful waters/woods ive seen. illhave some of those stimulators iw as talking abut next time as a i saw quite a few stones hatching. im a,lso picking up a tippet spool and stuff so im prepared. can't wait to do it again and hit those spots that were lower down river we didn't see. that turn off next to that deep spot looks perfect.
thanks for taking me with and helping me out when i ran out of tippet! and i would not have got that fish if it wasn't for your offering to let me use one of your spinners. slipping on rocks and laughing about ti was a blast. next time we need to stop at the bridge again and hit the spot below that little spot were first started at,there was current up against the opposite bank and it looked to be a good 4ft deep. perfect for nymphs and dries! can't wait to do some more exploring . and boy that dry fly take was amazing! it kept playing back in my head i saw your fly about to come out of the wter and he smoothly got airborne and swooped the fly off the water! it was a very memorable day for sure it will be fun to bring others along!

Yes, it was quite awesome!! Thanks for going. I was finally able to get out. I had been trying for like months but my fishing buddy has kind of given up on it, even though he doesn't admit it. So getting out and meeting other fisher-folk was great!

Yeah, those lower sections should be amazing!!! they looked pristine!! I would love to try some of those stimulators. I have heard a lot about them. We will have to see how good they really are. hehehehe :dance:

No problem about the tippet. I had plenty so I am glad I could help you out. And I was surprised that that trout was able to get it's mouth around not only 1 of the hooks on that spinner but all three of them!!! CRAZY!!!!

I don't know how many times I slipped and slid but never fell in, until I got excited about getting another fish, wasn't watching my footing, and BAM, in the water I go. hahahaha :rolleyes:

Yeah, that opposite banks sounds good. I should be down in that area again soon, probably like in a few weeks. Maybe we could hit both rickreall and the other one from saturday. Two for one man!!!

I was pretty stunned that the fish took my dry fly. I think I stood there for a few split seconds not sure exactly on what to do. I felt like a complete n00b all over again, hahahahahaha :lol:

We will have to do it again soon. Take care brandon.

-Spydey
 
brandon4455
brandon4455
sounds good to me. rcickreall has some slow water stretches perfect for dry fishing. you can park yoru car at my house and we can fish the whole creek! im stocking up on fly and spinning stuff on may 20th so is hould have enough stuff by the time rickreall opens up. this will be a blast. bigsteel might come up becvuse i offered to take him to rickreall creek also. you guys just need to be in good enough shape to walk across town :lol: ill be pinching my barbs on my spinners next time so they come out easier. even though minimal damage was done to that fish id like an easier release.
 
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S
Spydeyrch
Sweet. That should be a good trip. I am not too worried about hiking around town. I am in pretty good shape and still pretty young so not too worried. :D

Yeah, I usually de-barb my hooks but hadn't don't it on a few of my spinners. I should get around to doing that.

See ya soon!

-Spydey
 
L
lilsalmon
BTW....can't go wrong on elk hair caddis....thats my fave. I was thinkin of driving up and checking out one of our open waterways this week. i don't have class until thursday.....or i could check on line what the level is.....a lot cheaper since the price of ethanol :D is so rediculous

Also, I am old and out of shape but hiking and fishing go very well together :D
 
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brandon4455
brandon4455
lilsalmon said:
BTW....can't go wrong on elk hair caddis....thats my fave. I was thinkin of driving up and checking out one of our open waterways this week. i don't have class until thursday.....or i could check on line what the level is.....a lot cheaper since the price of ethanol :D is so rediculous

thats cool. the water seems to be in good shape most places besides the willamette. bring some stimulators too, the stoneflies have been hatching quite a bit. royal stimulators and tan elk hair caddis have to be my top 2 dries good luck out there :D
 
GungasUncle
GungasUncle
Sounds like you guys had a killer trip :)
 
S
Sinkline
.
 
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