Oregon Coastal Saltwater Fly Fishing Time With the Family

I was just out at the coast with my wife, mother-in-law, and father-in-law. We did a bunch of fishing along with other coastal activities. Out of the group, I am the one who fly fishes in the saltwater of Oregon, and everyone else throws spinning gear. We had all sorts of conditions ranging from calm to windy, and fishing times ranged from dead as a doornail, to moderate, to off the hook. The more I fish out there, the more I can say there is no rhyme or reason to when it will be good out there. People typically say that the two hours before high tide is the time to go. Other people say around the slack tides is the time to go. Many people say night time is the best, but I fished at night and it was good at times and sterile at times.

Calmer conditions are a must for successful Oregon coast fly fishing off the rocks

The one thing I see over and over again, is that it is all about the currents. Converging currents, and foam lines seem to be more about the success. The other issue is the current speeds, and by that I mean that fish are very fickle in what current speed they seem to be able to be caught in, or what current speed makes them want to bite. Whatever that part of the equation is, it seems to have correlation likely with feeding desire, and how hard the fish are working to be comfortable in their environment. Big currents and washy conditions seem to make the fishing shut down, while foam lines, and foam blankets on the surface, slow current speeds, converging currents, current breaks, and other features that provide cover, comfort, ambushing ability etc, seem to be the times when I am catching fish consistently.

A nice Pacific Black Rockfish that was on a converging current boundary

When I am out there, the conditions are ever changing and the features I just mentioned change dynamically. One moment you are fishing a foamy giant eddy, and getting fish on about every cast, and then you get a hard current pushing straight along the bank, and your line seems to be getting slacker and slacker with a subtle current pushing straight into where you are fishing from. Minutes later is settles down, and gets a soft chop slow mellow current and you are roping into a fish on every third cast for 10 minutes. It keeps on changing, and also depending on where you are standing matters too. Sometimes 50 yard to your right has a perfect setup, and you are in a fast current that feels unproductive. Walking down that 50 yards could be the difference of success for that 20 minute period, but then you may have to find another spot that fits the what you are looking for.

This Lingcod was caught near dead low tide as it was starting to slacken out.

It is ever changing as the tides are always moving higher or lower. The winds influence the currents and the tides also. Swells are another variable, and then the direction and interval of the swell also plays a big role in how the fishing pans out. The one thing I have come to realize is that you cannot tell how the fishing will be unless you simply go out try it. Only then can you know if the fish are biting. Tight lines!!!

Nice grill on this Ling

The Helios2 Saltwater 6wt is a fun lightweight rockfish rod (typically 7wt or 8wt). It also handled the Ling very nicely (lings are a 8-10wt fish).

Nikki eclipsing the sunset while casting for rockfish......

Not a bad view to check out while fishing......

Getting ready for a cast.....

These jellyfish were all over the beaches

A little kite flying time.....

A Quillback Rockfish that fell to a swim bait

Blacktail deer strolling on the beach in the early morning

A Pacific Loon patrolling for baitfish....

Rockfishing Class Pics

Well after having to postpone the class twice; we finally had a break in the wind and swells to get out there. Everyone did really well out there, and fishing got really hot during the last hour of the class. It was so good to the point where someone was hauling in a fish at all times for that hour, and we saw several doubles with multiple fish on between class members. Really fun and successful FF301 class!!!

Nice fish on large white bunny leech

Nice healthy pacific black rockfish that really pulled hard

Fishing was really hot right when the tide started to ebb

This rockfish fell to a chartreuse, white, and blue clouser minnow

Fishing Has Random Good Things That Happen - Spring Chinook While Rockfishing

Nikki and I decided to go target rockfish and lingcod off of a jetty this past Sunday. Luck does happen once in a while, as Nikki's very first cast of the day proved. Shooting heads can be a nightmare to cast for some fly fishers; so Nikki opts for a spinning rod in those situations to avoid the "Huck and Duck" casts that can prove to be dangerous. She was fishing with a spinning rod rigged with a jig head and a white rubber worm with a curly tail (what I attempt to imitate with my white conehead bunny leeches). Normally with rockfish, you can cast out and let it sink, and then jig it back to you while doing a very slow retrieve. Well, Nikki's first cast ended up with a rod folded over, and I was fired up. I was thinking that something good was on the end of the line by the way the rod was bent and the line was ripping out of the reel. My assumption was lingcod, but I was wrong when something silvery thrashed on the surface for a moment. It did not reveal itself long enough though; so I though it may have been some kind of a random ocean fish. Instead, the fish materialized again, and I noticed it was a salmon. "Holy cow, %$^X&@#?+* honey, you have a springer!!!!," is what I yelled. It was one of those special moments in fishing.   

This Spring Chinook Salmon decided a rockfish/lingcod jig was too hard to resist

There were guides in their bay boats trolling all sorts of random hardware (like planers, divers, etc), and then two people walk on the jetty and throw something not even for salmon out; only to drill a chromer! Nikki worked the fish in with ultra efficiency, and we wondered how we were going to land it. Luckily we had some seriously stout leader on (25# test), and so I grabbed the leader and tailed the beautiful chromer on my first try. Lucky!!! We were stoked! The only bummer was that the fish was what I would call a mis-clip, meaning that it was fin clipped, but appeared to have an adipose fin like a wild fish. If you even look at the picture you can notice the adipose fin is intact, but not with the appearance of a wild fish. The top of the adipose fin has a strange look to it that wild fish do not portray (downward concave). We even had a guide in his boat telling us that a group of volunteer kids did the fin clipping of the fish, and many of the fish had their adipose fins cut improperly; so many of the fish are mis-clipped. The fin was not worth the judgement of the game police though; so we let the beauty go free back on its way to the fresh water river it was headed to. No fish is worth a ticket; no matter how mis-clipped it is. It was a pretty awesome experience to see my sweetheart catch that random salmon off of the jetty, and I really loved every moment of watching her simple rig pull in such a quality fish.

Spring Chinook caught off of a jetty while rockfishing

Times like this one prove that random things happen in fishing when you least expect them to. White is maybe a much more important salmon fishing color than we maybe are aware of (I did catch one a few weeks back on a white bunny leech). We also do not know as much as we think we know about fishing and specific fisheries; otherwise we would have it all figured out, and these crazy random fishing acts would not happen the way that they do. Maybe people could be catching springers off of jetties, and it is not as random as everyone thought it was. You never know.....That is what keeps us coming back for more!!!

Rockfishing - Fly Anglers Can Offer Sound Advice to Conventional Anglers

This past Tuesday, I went to the coast to attempt some jetty fly fishing. I was out to target both pacific rockfish and lingcod. The day ended up being pretty nice; considering that it was supposed to be raining hard and semi windy over there. Instead it was relatively calm in regards to the winds, and the weather was between sunny and showers. The showers were short lived and the sunshine was warm and pleasant. The fishing was so so, and by that I mean that at times I was catching them on every cast, and at times I went a while between a grab. All in all it was a pleasant day of fishing, and it was worth the trip. It was especially fun having several guys conventionally fishing asking me what I was doing and what I was using. They saw me catching fish more consistently than anyone else out there; so they were prying me for information. That was a good feeling to have the fly guy being the source of how to get into the rockfish while fishing the jetty. Especially the fly guy from the city giving passing on information on how to be a more successful salty dog!