Get Ready for the McKenzie Green Caddis

It is GREEN CADDIS time! The McKenzie river gets a big green caddis that really pulls the large rainbows from the depths. You can really have some amazing days of fly fishing during this hatch, and two places where it really shines are the McKenzie and Middle Fork Willamette Rivers. The fly is large and very active on the water; making for an excellent hatch for beginner and expert fly fishers. It is the kind of a fly that you can skitter across the water, and some explosive takes from aggressive rainbow trout result. The best thing is how the fly is large and easy to see on the water; so you can watch those trophy rainbows CRUSH your fly!

A Freshly Hatched Green Caddis Adult

The fly can be fished in both a wet and dry version, and when they are hatching; you will know. There will be explosive rises out in the fast whitecap soft chop water. It sometimes takes a moment to realize that they are rise forms; since the water can be fast and bouncy where these flies hatch and get taken by hungry trout. When you experience a good day of McKenzie Green Caddis fly fishing; you will be hooked, and every season you will make it a priority to experience.

A Fat Rainbow Trout That Ate a Green Caddis Dry Fly

 The hatch tends to come off about 2pm-ish, and it can last for hours intermittently. On the sunny hot days, there can be epic "evening rise" times; where the trout are eating them gluttonously, and you can rack in the numbers of trophy rainbows. The best days tend to be the muggy days with spotty rain showers and sunny breaks in between. The kind of days where you have your rain gear on, but you never really get wet. All you have to see out there is literally a few of these large caddis, and you will know it is time to put one on. The fish get super keyed into them, and they will seek out green caddis and that will be it.

Many Trout Like This on a Green Caddis Day

The Green Caddis is one of those hatches that can be considered one of the best times to fish the McKenzie River, if not the BEST. If you are interested in booking a guided trip for trout, call me at (541)-232-6360 or email me at fish@mckenzieangler.com .

Summer Steelhead Time is Here!

Steelhead numbers have recently been increasing for the Willamette Valley rivers like the Middle Fork of the Willamette, McKenzie, North Santiam, and the South Santiam. Also the Clackamas River should be kicking into high gear with the arrival of fresh summer run steelhead. The early summer steelhead can really make your fly reel scream as your fly line empties out into fly line backing many times when you hookup.

Clackamas River Steelhead with Dry Fly

The early summer steelhead are super vigorous, as they arrive into the rivers very sexually immature. The omega three fatty acids convert into egg mass and sperm sack mass in both the males and the females as they mature while being in fresh water. Due to this, these steelhead are very aggressive and somewhat predictable in their habits. Also they are in the fresh water rivers for about 9 months versus winter steelhead which enter fresh water on a mission to spawn and return to saltwater as soon as possible.

A Chrome Bright Willamette River Hatchery Summer Steelhead

These summer steelhead will move far for a fly, and sometimes they will literally swim 10 feet to destroy your swung wet fly. After they are hooked, many aerials will happen, and your fly line will scream out of your fly reel so fast; that you will have to clear your knuckles in order to prevent bruising them or breaking the fish off. Fly Fishing for summer steelhead is a total addiction, and it can be done with a spey rod, a single handed rod, swinging flies, nymphing flies, etc.

Willamette River Steelhead Caught in the "Town Run"

Fly Fishing for summer steelhead in the Willamette Valley can be everything from a traditional style wet fly swing on a floating line to spey fishing with Skagit Heads and large intruder like patterns. The moal leeches in black/blue or purple/pink are two of my go to colors, and also a fly called a motion prawn in purple with a pink butt is a wonderful out there. A Silver Hilton is a great traditional pattern that works very well on the Willamette River steelhead. The McKenzie River and the North Santiam tend to have colder temperatures; so the fish tend to be more oriented with sinking tips and larger weighted flies. Nymph fishing also works very well on the McKenzie steelhead, and the fishing tends to be a more swing oriented style on the Willamette and Clackamas Rivers.

High Water McKenzie Steelhead

Fly fishing the Clackamas River for steelhead is the trip for you; if you are looking to book a guided trip while visiting Portland, Oregon! If you would like to try the McKenzie River for steelhead while swinging flies, nymphing, or sight fishing, then contact me to get a date booked before they fill up. If swinging a spey rod is what you love, then the Middle Fork of the Willamette is what you are looking for; so get a hold of me to book a guided fly fishing trip for summer steelhead.

Tight Lines!!

McKenzie River Trout Fishing Is Hot - Get Yourself Out There!!

The McKenzie River is in peak condition right now, and fishing will remain strong until the first heat wave of the summer, or if we get an unfortunate large dosage of water. As long as we do not get a heat wave, or the water levels stay steady, the fishing will be very good. The green caddis has not been reported yet, nor have I seen any when I am out there. It is the time though, and they are seemingly late as of now. Although, this year seems to be late for many things though; so lets hope those big green bugs start hatching soon. 

Fish On!!

 Recently, I tool out a regular client for a day on the lower McKenzie, and our trip was focused on improving techniques and skills. Shortly after we started, Gail was really getting dialed in on her nymphing skills, and she was casting the heavy flies upstream with a nice D-loop water loaded roll cast motion, and then mending the strike indicator just upstream from the flies. I was impressed by the improvements I was seeing, and I knew that a trophy fish was in the making to reward those skills.

Lower McKenzie River Sunshine....

We had a serious dunk on the strike indicator not to far from the ramp, but the connection with hook and mouth didn't exist when Gail struck; so it was time to attempt to get another presentation intercepted. We probed the flies into the depths; since nothing was looking up, and I told Gail nymph fishing would be most productive until the fish showed interest towards the surface around "hatch time". A little ways down, the strike indicator went down, and Gail struck the line tight. The line swam off, and it was FISH ON!! The rod had a deep bend in it; so I assured her that the fish on the other end was a serious one to contend with. I managed to get the boat to a safe landing spot, and the fish ceased to the landing net after a sturdy battle. 

Picture Perfect McKenzie Native Rainbow Trout

We fished on throughout the day, and caught a lot of fish, but none were larger than that gorgeous rainbow. A short windowed March Brown hatch occurred, but they only came off for literally about 10 minutes, and just as the fish started to respond with surface feeding; it was over. Luckily, the wet fly swinging had really picked up after that short hatch happened; so it at least made the fishing more surface oriented. A gorgeous weather day it ended up becoming, and I would say that the McKenzie fished much better when there is some intermittent showers in the mix. High pressure and bright sunshine are not the most productive of conditions for the river, but being in the nice weather is always a plus.

Carp Time! Fly Fishing the Carp Flats

Carp fly fishing is something that I did not pay much attention to when I had lived down in Eugene, but when I moved up to Portland things changed. I knew there were plenty of areas where these weary fish lurk around, and I also knew that it is a relatively underground fishery. One of my favorite things is to tap into a underexploited fishery; so I can see what potentials there are, and sometimes you get "hooked" on something new. It turns out that I am totally into carping out in the flats, and it is probably one of the most technical fisheries that exists.

When I have been going out, the fish have been cruising along the shallows, and they are rooting out looking for bugs & crayfish. They are super weary, and you basically are spooking them when you are standing 40 feet back from the water; so you have to more or less walk are slug speed. That is one of the main things to success, and also realizing you have to have ultimate patience while waiting for them to start feeding around you.

When you get into position finally, you then have to cast accurately and gently too. When you get the good cast into where you want it to be, then you have to present the fly, and that is determined by the pattern you are using. Some flies have to escape prey; while others need to sit dead as a doornail on the bottom. If you are fishing a crayfish, it'll swim away when a predator moves into the area. When you are fishing an aquatic worm pattern; you must have it sit on the bottom perfectly; without any movement. The rewards are awesome! The fish fight a relentless strong and sturdy battle. They are rather larger, and seem to average at least 3-4 pounds and can get to be 20 pounds and larger. They challenge the best of anglers, and you are fishing a similar style to something like Louisiana redfish marshes; except you have not even left the state. It is a great avenue for the fly fisher looking for something very different.

Lower McKenzie Trout - Grannom Caddis Blizzard

(Fishing Report From 4/12/2011)

I apologize for the dated report, but I wanted to document some days from the recent past. Since I have been transitioning for a former Kaufmann Streamborn employee to a full time fly fishing guide, I have been really busy, and posting entries has been conflicting with my life's schedule, but now I am more or less all caught up and ready to roll on this blog style website. 

Recently I had a trip with two of my regular clients, and we had a fun day out on the river as usual. At first, the fishing was good, but the catching was rather slow. It was sunny, bright, and high pressure filled the sky, but I always have the attitude that it is better to be out in the sunshine with slower fishing; than to be out in a nasty weather day getting cold and catching fish while being wet. At least sometimes...

Beautiful Rainbow Trout Taken on a Golden Stone Nymph

The hatch came off at about 2pm, and it was rather gruesome. There was a grannom caddis hatch of epic proportions, and it was literally all about "bug mass" out there. It was basically snowing out of the water, and the bugs were matting up over a couple of inches thick on some of the current seams. If you took a seining net; you could gather pounds of insects in no time (LITERALLY!). 

I have seen this hatch come off year after year, and it is funny because the fishing is literally never that good while they are coming off. It seems like there is simply too much bug life out there when this phenomena occurs, and the fish either get full, overstimulated, or something we do not know. People may try and be "know it all" and say, "we should put an emerger on, or a subsurface pupa pattern." My rebuttal to that one is other anglers, guides, and I have already tried all of those tricks, and not one of them has worked yet. I have seen the hatch bring all of the nice fish up, but that is literally only on a few occasions over all of the years. On the flip side, when the March Brown mayflies hatch while the grannoms are hatching; it creates a feeding frenzy that brings the hefty trout up to the surface. During that time the larger native trout become vulnerable to swung wet flies and dead drifted dries.

 Rainbow Trout Appreciation

After a while, the hatch tapered down to a level where the fishing got better, and you could start to target specific fish rising to flies. Wet fly swinging and dead drifting dries was consistent, but the larger fish were hard to come by. Many times, the caddis hatch like this will bring the interests of the "little guys" but the big ones seem to want something different. We were going to go back to nymphing again; as we wanted to get a trophy rainbow trout.

Lower McKenzie 20.5" Rainbow Trout

We got into a good spot and the day was really winding down. The fishing had slowed down to a level, where the surface action was more or less shut off, and we nymphed around some probable bed rock slots and boulders. The indicator plunged down, Bruce struck the line tight, and life was on the other end. The line went out of control for a few seconds as Bruce gained the line back onto the reel. His Rio Indicator Line peeled off of his reel as the large trout surged downstream. It was the trout we had been looking for, and now landing it was the quest. I pulled the boat over to the bank and Bruce hopped out to battle the fish from the beach. After a few runs and surges, the fish was in the net, and it measured out for a reading 20.5". Sweet!! We let that nice male native redside back off into the river to continue on with its bug feeding; so it could maybe be seen again at 21+". A couple more fish after that, and we called it a day. A wonderful day it was!!!

The McKenzie River really shines hard for the next several weeks, and there is a large Green Caddis that will be hatching from about here on out until summer really heats up. It is more or less the best time of the year to experience the lower McKenzie for its large wild trout. If you are interested in booking a guided trip for trout, call me at (541)-232-6360 or email me at fish@mckenzieangler.com

Welcome to my Website!!

Welcome to my new website!! I am really excited to get this blog rolling, and I am hoping I will get a lot of people bookmarking this site.

Lower Deschutes Rainbow Trout

South Coast Fall Chinook

There will be plenty of fishing reports to check out, because I try and document where I am fishing at and what was going on for the day. Typically I will post up photos and video content of the day's fishing events. I will also put up informational entries like fly tying videos, topics like product reviews, and equipment/fishing technique discussions. 

Smallie taken on "Mr Wiggles"

My typical fly fishing would be going for trout or steelhead, but I really love fly fishing for just about any species that is willing to take a fly. Many times of the year rivers for trout or steelhead can be too high, too low, too cold, too warm, or it's too bright out, and conditions can make it not the best option out there to choose to fly fish for one of the two species. Many anglers simply give up and say, "It's too low and warm out there; so I'm not going fishing." In the meantime, you can be out there catching one of these......

Summertime Doldrums Bluegill

Steelhead are the species I have the most passion for, and I enjoy nothing more than putting a person who has never caught one on a fly rod into their first fish. Nothing feels better than to see the look on someone's face when they see their first successfully landed steelhead. It is super rewarding being a part of the whole experience and I really enjoy guiding people for steelhead

First Steelhead Caught - McKenzie River

Obviously I like to catch steelhead on my free time too....

Filbert and I admiring a winter chromer

Traveling to the tropics is what I have the least experience in, and I would really love to build my saltwater resume up with fish like bonefish, GT's, a permit or several, snook, redfish, roosterfish, and a whole lot more. What I have done so far was a blast, and that is simply the reason to want to pursue more tropical saltwater fly fishing. Even the smaller fish feel like they are huge, and make a reel scream like you are hooked on a car.

Bluefin Trevally

Basically, I love fly fishing, and really enjoyed being involved in it any way that I can. Whether I am out fishing for fun, guiding someone into their first steelhead ever, or witnessing a blanket caddis hatch with clients while we are trying to figure out what the trout will be taking; I am totally stoked on this wonderful sport we have. Time to go hit the Clackamas river for some fly fishing!

TIGHT LINES!!!