Jetty Class Pics & Report

This past weekend offered two differing scenarios. Saturday was postponed to the alternate date of April 6th due to a super windy storm that rolled into the coast right when our class was scheduled. We went by the forecast which was a tough decision; since the coast was semi calm and nice for the morning hours. The class was scheduled to start at 2:45pm, so I went with the gut instinct, and we opted to go for the class on the alternate scheduled date. It turns out that Chris from Sunday's class came down with his wife on Saturday, and said it was one of those days where you could barely get out of the car to see the beach. Super windy and stormy; which does not agree well with casting shooting heads and larger flies. Postponing the class was a wise choice in the long run. 

A Pacific Black Rockfish taken on a large white conehead bunny leech

Sunday's class was a whole other story regarding the weather. Swells were small rollers; so the jetty fishing was nice since the water was relatively calm. Winds were light, and never went over 10 knots; so all of the students were able to cast the shooting heads very well. It was really nice to see the students bombing out big nice casts with tight loops. Everyone in the class fished very well, and looked really good casting off of the awkward jetty rocks. Fishing was relatively slow for what I am used to seeing out there, but that is why we call it fishing and not catching. Several students had some action from the Pacific Black Rockfish, and one of the students who did not land one said he was receiving bites on some of the presentations. There was just enough action to keep things interesting, and it was refreshing to let the students know it was ultra slow; even though we were still catching something. Nice to know that slow equals to several fish, and not zero fish like we can experience with something like steelheading.

Two of the students were lucky enough to tie into a lingcod each. One of the fish was what I would consider "leader landed"; while the other fish was officially landed. The first lingcod took a small chartruese and white Clouser Minnow tied with bucktail. The second fish was caught with a 2/0 white tungsten conehead bunny leech. Everyone was fishing with 28' long shooting heads ranging from type II through Type IV with intermediate running lines. We were using rods in the 8 - 10 wt range and one student was using a 8wt switch rod. It was a really fun class, and we were gifted with perfect fishing conditions. The fishing could have been much better, but it also could have been worse. It was a great primer to show 5 people the underutilized fishery that exists right here at the Oregon coast.

The Saturday class that was postponed to April 6th (7:30am-12:00pm) had one spot open up due to a student having to cancel out of there spot due to something that has come up for them. if you are interested in the Rockfishing/Lingcod class that will be on April 6th email me at fish@mckenzieangler.com or call me at (541)-232-6360. For more information on the April 6th Rockfishing/Lingcod Class Click Here.