Visible Flounder (New Perspective)

So, before this hell cloud of rain and wind hit a few days ago, we had the chance to take the Heat out in our estuary to see what this flounder thing really is.  This whole flounder situation is like figuring out steelhead all over again.  You know, we learned about getting the right leader length, bead color, water level for steelhead, and it all took time.  That's how I'm feeling with the flounder right now.  This is a good game and I think we know the rules, we're just starting to figure out the strategy (to get all....movie trailer about it).  Something that we didn't know when we were blind fishing from the shore is exactly how close in the flounder come, when they do it, and why.  The Heat has given us a way to see straight down and travel around the flats to watch exactly what the flounder are doing.

What we've been observing is that the fish are definitely moving in with the tide (rocket science), and head to any depth on the flats between 10 and 2 to 3 feet.  The smallest juvenile flounder are even in the 6 inch to 1 foot deep water.  All of the flounder, no matter what age, are not like the gulf flounder of which I've found the most abundant information on the internet.  Gulf flounder apparently don't spook and are highly aggressive, but are in deeper (20 ft?) water with murkier conditions.  Anyway, what I know of our fish is that they are ghost spooky.  The idea of the shadow of the boat crossing their back spooks them.  We had first started fishing heavy sink tips but decided that with how shallow the water was, the sink trip dragging across the bottom was probably spooking the fish.  We set up in a drift with the tide or the wind (whichever was in our favor), so that we would float back toward the ocean while doing a slow strip or even just a troll almost to cover a large area of water.  We actually saw about 20 flounder all together,  but obviously didn't have the right presentation.  To confess, this was my birthday float, so we enjoyed a bottle of wine from the SILs and pretty much blanket casted our hearts out.

We did see quite a few of these sand lances doing what later research said was a spawning activity.  It was definitely cool to see these huge balls of sand lance and the flounder were always right in the vicinity.  New flies will be tied.

This photo was taken from the interwebs.  I didn't have the means to capture a sand lance at the time.

So again, no flounder to the boat, but I feel like we learned a lot.  We learned a lot just in time for some supremely shitty weather, so now I sit searching google for flounder instead of searching the estuary.  Soon.  On that note, here is my favorite picture found today of the starry eyed flounder.  The California Department of Fish and Game has a true artist on their hands...

Yeah, I'm a smart ass, but c'mon.  On a cooler note, we dredged the internet for this video today and got some insight into what it actually looks like when a flounder is interested in what you're waggling in his face.  When the weather clears, we're going to try this in a more fly fishy kind of way.  Rad.

Metolius Shake Up

Holy crows, it's been ten days since my last post.  I blame this solely on the fact that we have not been doing anything fishing related, and it has definitely been wearing on us.  Three days ago, we found a boat while cruising craigslist (which is a terrible habit) and decided that we definitely didn't have enough boats.  Also, we had been wanting to get over to the Metolius to fish and realized that we hadn't been there in about four years.  Conveniently enough, the boat was located in Bend so we decided to take a road trip and add a third boat to our arsenal.  Check out "The Heat."  Tippy is going to have a run for her money, I can tell you that.

Now, The Heat may seem like your average Coleman Ram-X Scanoe, but he (yeah it's a he) came with a badass galvanized trailer, a 2 horse Honda, and the ability to go almost anywhere.  Estuary beware.  Anyway, we were very pleased to get the boat and can't wait to get it in the water to see what it's capable of.  On to the Metolius...

 We actually used to live in Camp Sherman and fished the Metolius quite a bit in 2004 and 2005 so this was maybe our second time fishing this river since then.  When we first came to the Metolius in 2004 we were young and eager and slept on the ground in our sleeping bags.  We ended up freezing our asses off and had to zip our dog into the sleeping bag because we almost froze him to death too.  We decided to commemorate the first ass freezing by camping out again at the Lower Bridge.  This time however, we slept in the 4runner with memory foam pads.  Things change.  We didn't end up getting the whole boat thing wrapped up until about 3 pm, then actually made it out to the river by 4 pm.  We did make one little stop by Pine Rest camp ground before we headed out to Lower Bridge, but didn't catch anything there.

At Lower Bridge we ended up doing about a mile round trip hike up the left bank, mostly looking for bull trout.  In the past we have seen a few trout in there and hooked a few, but it's mainly a bull trout show.  T did end up hooking one in the flat right above the bridge, but couldn't keep his hands on it for a picture.  We've kind of figured bull trout out in that they will either be super aggressive and take a four inch black leech on the swing (which you always try first), or they will hit a four inch flesh leech dead drifted under an indicator.  They weren't having the black but did end up hitting the flesh which T promptly lost on the mid-river stump.  The last one.  Of course.  

So, I wouldn't say that we were necessarily prepared for this trip.  We confirmed the boat deal at 9 am, packed up by 10 am and hit the road.  There was no fly prep.  The next day we walked down river from Wizard Falls with very little activity as far as trout, except in the Idiot Hole where T did hook a 4 inch fish that was promptly eaten off of his fly by a bull trout.  Very cool to see, but not exactly what we were going for.  We decided to call the trip around 1 pm so that we would be back to the coast by about 4 pm and potentially take The Heat out the next day.  We did make one more stop on the way out at Pine Rest where T caught a trout to round the whole trip out.  For a not so well thought out trip, it ended up being awesome just to get to the other side of the mountain and dry out for a couple days.

Dogs Day Out

Our last trip out was with Tippy and the new motor, which the dogs did not get invited to so when boredom hit today around 1 pm it seemed only right to make it a dog day.  We decided to drive up the road a ways from our house to a place where three rivers come together for a little hike.  There is definitely more hiking involved than fishing on this stretch.

 The cool thing about it is that we’ve only seen one guy up here before (which was actually kind of shocking).

Now I know that I said I was over steelhead for the season, but there’s just something different about it when you can hike and catch them in very small water.  Most of the time you can see them, and if you can’t, they’re either there or they’re not.  The pools are so small and the fish will be so hungry at this point that they are going to eat if they’re there.  As an aside, the cutthroat fishing can be awesome, and they are everywhere.  Every little pool behind every little rock can hold a cutthroat; the biggest topping out at about 14 inches.  The cutthroat fishing isn’t open until May 24th, but by-catch is inevitable and they tend to hang in the same water as the steelhead (funny thing).  

This guy was nicknamed “Piggy” because aside from eating a ridiculously large bead, he puked this up.

A trudge up from this spot is the one place.  The one where a fish will be if they’ll be anywhere at all, and today he was there.  A regret that I have is that I didn’t try to skate this fish up with a dry.  When I threw my beads in the water, before they even had a chance to sink, he came up and hit them.  I actually didn’t really know what to do, reacted like an idiot, tried to set the hook, stung the fish, and ultimately lost it due to horrible hookset.  It’s one of those situations that you replay in your head while berating yourself over and over.  Oh yeah, and when the hook left the fish’s mouth I promptly threw it into the only spindly tree within reach behind me.  T was down river and probably heard the expletives, because he kind of made his way up.  I sat for a bit and rested the hole thinking that there was no way after stinging the fish that it would eat again, but it did eat a bead essentially on the surface of the water.  After about 15 minutes he ate on my first drift.  Wonder how long I really needed to wait.

He was wild and hadn’t spawned yet and looked like this was the place that he intended to do so.  He was super healthy and I was actually pretty blown away by how acrobatic he was.  Pretty much made my day because up here you never know what you’re gonna get.

After this spot there is one other up and down a very long muddy trail, which we hiked for the dogs and just to be out of the house.

I don’t know if I said it, but this is a seriously beautiful place with skinny water, and green everywhere if you come at the right time.  We didn’t catch anymore steelhead, but one up here is all you should expect and hope for.  More and you’re just lucky to be in the right place at the right time.  It poured the whole day, but the dogs wore themselves out, we had fun for a couple of hours, and it makes sitting down to watch television at the end of the day seem like an okay thing to do.

Tippy gets a "new" pair of shoes

T’s grandfather graciously donated a motor to us that he had been storing since the fifties.  He apparently used it for about 5 years, and we’re pretty sure that the year is 1955.  Lucky for us, his grandfather was fairly meticulous with maintenance.  We think that he must have repainted it at some point, but other than that, it’s a stock 1955 Mercury Mark 20 in seemingly great condition.

There are very few rubber parts in this motor.  She’s all metal and weighs as much as I do.  T checked the spark plugs, looked for any evident damage, ran some Seafoam through it, and then we fired it up in a garbage can full of water.  Only 3 or 4 pulls and it fired up after over 55 years of sleeping untouched.  It kind of looks like a classic car being pulled by a shitty old winnebago, but if it goes, it goes.

We needed a safe place to test it out so we hit the Little Nestucca on the end of the high tide so that at least we could float back down river to the boat launch if the Mark died.  It may be the loudest and most environmentally unfriendly exhaust belcher, but damned if it didn’t get us quite a way up the river.  

 We’d heard word of one or two springers that have been caught, most likely by accident while fishing steelhead, but we brought some rods anyway.    The water was moving pretty slow, almost too slow for a swing with a heavy sink tip, so we cast a few times as we drifted down, then lost interest.  We’re both on the same page that we should come back when the water drops a little so when the kings come in they’ll be in the obvious places.  It also looks like it could be an awesome cutthroat fishery, but it’s not open yet so, bummer. 

On the way down river it became evident that the years in storage have not been completely kind to the Mark.  They may or may not be small fixes.  We’re thinking an idle adjustment and maybe a personal adjustment to the lack of throttle sensitivity.  With newer tiller motors you can feel an adjustment in between speeds before the boat starts to actually speed up.  With the Mark it just kind of jumps into high like the Delorean.  Not sure if we just need to pretend we’re as hardcore as people in the fifties were or if there’s a genuine problem here.  I think we’re both in agreement that for now, lakes and things that won’t suck us out to the ocean are acceptable for the Mark.  No outgoing tides yet.

No Flounder today

After our vacation to Munsel Lake we still had the flounder in the back of our minds.  Yesterday (Sunday, March 30th) we caught the end of the incoming to hide tide at the estuary.  This was officially the last day of spring break in Oregon so we were lucky when there was no one in the spot where we caught the flounder last time.  It’s not a very obvious place for fishermen, but I expected to see people on the beach or on horses.  

I don’t think that we have ever hit the incoming tide in this spot and it was surprising how fast it rips in.  Even throwing our heaviest sink tips, the tide ripped our flies from the bottom.  The idea was to keep our flies on the bottom and slowly strip them in bumping along the bottom the entire time.  When it finally got to slack tide, it was easier to keep them on the bottom, but the feel is obviously completely different with a fly rod than a spinning rod.  It’s hard to keep a feeling of connection to your fly on a sandy bottom in the ocean as opposed to the feeling of a weight ticking the bottom on a spinning rod.  We did not end up hooking any flounder, but I did manage to launch what appeared to be a small greenling into the air.  My hook set might have been a little overkill.  I never made the connection with that fish and he promptly fell back into the water.  I call this a no skunk day because a fish touched the end of my line.  Not much else to report on this one, other than the importance of stripping baskets when fishing any ocean water.  Fly line wrapped in beach grass/devil sticks is the most infuriating thing ever.  Every cast.  No bueno.

Olalla Lake

Waiting to spend a week in Florence was killing us so we decided to pack up a few days early and head to Newport to fish Olalla reservoir and stay at the family house.  We’re pretty horrible at waiting for anything, for that matter.  Anyway, in our haste to get fishing we forgot that we were heading out on a Saturday, the first day of spring break, and the week after the lake had been stocked.  It was a zoo.  Luckily, Olalla has a roped and semi-improved launch so we didn’t run into the same problems as Big Creek Resevoir.  In general the crowd at Olalla seems a bit more respectful of each other.  The people are really nice and actually courteously say hello, or at least wave.  The photo is pretty far away (which is where we wanted to be) from the party, but all of those dots on the hillside are cars, trucks, and RVs.  The boat launch is just to the left in the picture.

Since we weren’t on a mission to slay a boatload of stocked trout, we skirted the edge of the lake looking for shallow areas that might hold bass.  Olalla is a fairly deep lake and slopes quickly from the banks.  On a whole tour around the edges and arms of the lake we only found a couple of areas where bass could possibly be.  We did actually come upon a school of about 8 bass that were hanging out under some downed trees in the most gradually sloping shallow area on the lake.  As is always our experience this time of year, they wanted nothing to do with us.  Some of the smaller fish did actually look at a small trout popper, but they were either lethargic because of the water temperature (48 to 50 degrees) or they could plainly see us because of the amazing clarity of the water.  

The scissors in the picture are the 4 inch Dr. Slicks, for reference.  These poppers are really fun to work, despite the fact that they weren’t productive this time.  On stormy days we’ve been painting some of these up lately and have been trying to test how they work in the water.  It’s been a good no-fish day project.

So, no luck with the bass again which was expected, but at least we know where they are now.  Maybe in the fall when we get back from Alaska the weather will still be warm enough that the bass will be aggressive.  Olalla Lake sits right outside of Toledo, Oregon which tends to get hotter in the day than Newport because it’s about 10 miles inland.  It could happen.

The main mission for the day was to get out of the house and fish, but we also wanted to check out Tippy’s sonar/gps system for the Munsel Lake trip.  We ended up marking the deepest spot on Olalla at about 75 ft.  

While the fishing was pretty weak (aside from stocked trout), it was good to get out and explore the lake.  It was amazingly clear with lots of structure, some sandy bottoms, and cut trees actually in the lake.  For anyone out there with a real summer, I’d look into the bass when it starts to warm up.

Munsel Lake vacation

Finally vacation!  Only about an hour drive from the Newport family house and we were in Florence.  Munsel Lake is right before you hit Fred Meyer, so we didn’t even have to go into town.  We decided to go straight to the boat launch because we planned to boat across the lake and keep Tippy in the water the whole week.  The little rental we booked had an awesome dock with a boat slip which was incredibly convenient.

We knew that the first day was going to be the best weather day, so we really tried to fish long.  It was pretty evident that the lake had been stocked a few days prior because all of the trout were still hanging around the launch area, as were the boaters.  We decided to go ahead and fish the trout instead of wasting the nice day scanning the perimeter of the lake for bass.  It was pretty damned windy when we got there and Tippy’s little trolling motor was barely pushing through on the highest setting, but we managed for awhile.  Stocker fishing was good and actually mildly exciting because there were a lot of varied sizes of fish.  The wind kicked up pretty good around 5 so we headed in, got settled, and drank some beer.  We loaded up again around 6:30 and had a shot at dry fly fishing at the main inlet that feeds the lake.  This part was awesomely frustrating because the fish were exploding.  Unfortunately, we were in the middle of a biblical midge hatch and the fish were taking the midges rising to the surface as well as some surface insects.  We did rise a couple of fish, but there was such an abundance of food that our flies were not all that rare or enticing.  At about 7:30 we decided to call it and so did the fish.  Off to the shack for more beer and leftover chinese.

The next day (Tuesday March 25th) it became apparent that we were going to have to split up.  Tippy rides two people (and two dogs) max so MIL and I took the kayaks.  This was my second experience actually using a kayak and my first fishing from one.  I absolutely had a blast doing this.  There was still a pretty strong wind coming directly from the part of the lake that MIL and I wanted to fish so we would powerhouse all the way to the other side of the lake and then drift with the wind until we were outside of the area where we were getting hits.  Do this 30 times in a day and you’re getting a pretty good workout while fishing.  Our arms were screaming at the end of the day.

With the wind situation there was no way that we were fishing dries, or that a midge could even control its flight pattern.  We have a kind of tried and true method for fishing stockers and actually have a fly that we call “the lake fly” for this exact purpose.  We use floating lines, tapered leader with a bit of tippet at the end, and a small black mohair leech with an orange tungsten bead (as seen in the boxes in the previous Munsel Lake Prep post).  It destroys stockers; they can’t resist it.  Just cast out as far as you can and do a variable strip.  I pleasantly found out that you can even troll this fly in a kayak (or other vessel) and that works well too.  

During the time the MIL and I were fishing stockers, T was looking into the yellow perch over in the deep part of the lake.  He was fishing by himself in Tippy with the dogs while FIL was still in bed at about 9:00 am.  Using the sonar he would mark fish in the depths and try to mark the gps, but the motor is on one end of the boat and the sonar on the other.  He really needed two people because with the wind by the time he got to the back of the boat to check and mark a location, he had already drifted off.  He did, in a brief break from the wind, manage to locate quite a few fish down deep.  He attempted to fish them with a fly rod, but it was basically impossible to get down to where they were, aside from trying to properly present all of the awesome flies that we tied up just for them.  Luckily, we had already pretty much anticipated this and brought the light tackle spinning rods and some small Gulp soft plastics.  He set up a drop shot rig and fished on a rise starting at 60 feet deep and retrieving up to a 40 foot depth.  With the wind, and running the whole show by himself, he managed to hook one yellow perch about 6 inches long, though he was marking many more fish.  Throughout the week the weather got progressively worse, so we didn’t end up fishing perch again, but at least we figured it out and got one.

About the weather.....We had been so jacked for this vacation that when the bad weather hit, we really just stuck it out.  When we went out early in the morning (around 8:30 or 9am) the wind was not so bad at around 10 mph.  It really kicked into rage mode around 1pm.  I live on the Oregon Coast and the rain was actually pretty impressive to me.

When it became apparent that there really wouldn’t be any other fishing than stockers, on the third morning we all decided to have a friendly numbers game competition.  Most and biggest.  That morning before we came in for breakfast was awesome!  We found pods of porpoising kokanee, which was a huge surprise.  We chased them around the lake and cast into the pods.  Bonefishing for the Oregon Coast.   The game immediately changed to most and biggest kokanee.  We hate eating trout, so we generally don’t kill them (FIL and MIL like them though so we whacked a few of the bigger ones), but I don’t think that I had ever eaten kokanee before this so we needed enough for a fish fry that night.  We went out again after breakfast and did see a few of the pods still and managed to catch about 8 to 10 kokanee for dinner, but throughout the day they seemed to dwindle and by the end, it was hit or miss.  The trout were actually also spreading themselves throughout the lake so that began to dwindle as well.

I’m aware that the picture is a little gruesome, but MIL was overzealous about her victory in the competition and decided to clean all of the fish before we could get a full body shot.  The trout is in there for body comparison.

The fourth day (Thursday March 27th) was kind of the final hurrah.  The weather had degraded to thunderstorms with brief periods of clarity which we took advantage of.  At this point the fish had all spread throughout the lake and fishing was pretty poor.  We all pushed pretty hard because it was the last day, but we were burnt out and had basically used up our fishery.  I did manage to troll up three trout, but could not actually catch any when I was physically casting.  On the first day the trolling thing was exciting, but on the last day it was kind of infuriating because it felt like a cheat or a lottery.  You never know when you’ll win.  After trolling the three trout I finally just let the wind push me home and called it a vacation.  We all came in around 3:30, pulled the boat out of the water, dry docked the kayaks, drank copiously, played card games, listened to FIL’s old motown music, ate steaks, and finished out the vacation.  All in all I’d say it was a great time with some unexpected fish, but somehow vacations never live up to the hype that you create in your own brain.  Maybe things would have been different if the weather was better.  I certainly have nothing to complain about though, and would go to Munsel Lake again.  Maybe more shine than rain.

Admitted cheater

We can’t get our minds off of flounder.  A little more exploring at the estuary was definitely in order, but we were on a mission to see if there were actually any flounder left in the area so we took desperate measures.  We found a great place to pump some sand shrimp (yes bait!) so we went out yesterday with just that in mind.  We did end up fishing with some of the sand shrimp on light tackle spinning rods at the end of the day on an outgoing tide and had a pretty good time.  Yeah, it’s not fly fishing, but that will come later.  Yesterday night with the sand shrimp we did end up hooking a dungeness crab, a bull head, a greenling, and a tiny flounder. With confirmation that the flounder are not extinct in this area, we were pumped to make a day of it the next day.

Thinking that it would be best to fish the south side of the estuary on an incoming to high tide, we showed up a little early.  We’re still using the light tackle spinning gear here.  No fly rods were brought this day because we were out to see where a major population of flounder were.  It ended up being a greenling show.  We brought our good guide buddy along and he caught about 20 (roughly) greenling.  That was really the only type of fish we saw aside from a few bullheads and a couple of asshole crab that wouldn’t stop stripping our bait.  Although, it was kind of fun seeing if you could slowly reel the crab in all the way to the rocks before they let go.  We decided to pack it in and head to the north side of the estuary while the tide was still coming in.  Luckily on a Tuesday, no one was in this particular spot.   

Now, despite being only a couple of miles away, the tide was already toward the end of slack high when we got here.  The crab stripping was doubly bad here, but I’ll come back for them later with the right equipment.  It took a little bit to find just the right habitat for flounder (deeper clear flats with some surrounding underwater low growing vegetation), but it turned out that our presentation had been correct all along.  We just had to find the right spot.  Basically you cast out as far as you can straight across, or even quartering upstream if the tide is starting to rip out.  You want your weight (or fly) on the bottom.  Slowly retrieve (and I mean painfully slow) so that you’re keeping your fly as close to the bottom as you can, basically just giving it some action while canvassing a large area.  Flounder are ambush predators so even though we were fishing bait, they really wanted to see it moving.  We had no takes when the bait was stationary.  This was actually pretty reassuring, because it ups our chances greatly with the fly rods.  From what I’ve read online it looks like we’re still going to do better if we dip our flies in some stinky, but I’m not opposed to that.  I’ll try it naturally first, but I like winning.  

So, finally I started to feel this subtle pecking.  It was actually hard to figure when to set the hook because it never really felt like the fish had committed.  It’s not a rapid peck, but a series of single spaced individual pecks.  Peck...peck...peck...little pull...peck....little bit longer pull.  The whole time, I kept with the slow retrieve, which I think led to the fish finally committing.  I still didn’t feel confident that the fish had the hook in its mouth, but I was kind of afraid that if I waited any longer it would lose interest.  On the last longest pull I finally set the hook.  Flounder just kind of get lazily pulled to shore right up to the point where they are almost touching it, then they kind of light up.  I really just wanted to get the damn thing to shore so I could touch it.  Even with letting it really get its mouth around the hook (I thought) I had barely lipped the fish.  Their mouths are seriously tiny!  Bring skinny hemostats.  

So, I finally caught a starry eyed flounder, and then our good guide buddy caught one in the same area right after.  This all happened at the beginning of the outgoing tide.  As the tannic river water started to mix with the sea water in the outgoing tide the fishing completely shut down, presumably because the fish were headed back out to sea.  

It was an awesome time though, and we are seriously jacked to take our fly rods back out there on the right tide and see what happens.  The funny thing about these two areas of the estuary that we’ve been fishing is that they are incredibly inconsistent.  We’ve fished the same way on on a variety of tides and can never replicate the prior experience.  The tides have been coming in at slightly different heights, but on our part, we haven’t changed much about our presentation.  So, look to the future for my post on fly fishing this area for flounder.  It could be good, it could be great, or we could quit flounder for the year.

BC Res Rant

We grew up in a Central Oregon Coast town that has two little reservoirs back to back.  The first reservoir is about 20 acres and the second I couldn’t find the exact acreage, but seems about double the size.  The first reservoir is bank fishing only with a guard rail for cars that lines the lake.  It’s pretty obvious that there is no boat access except for ones who would want to haul their pontoon/float tube over the side, which wouldn’t be that hard really.  The second larger lake has multiple access points on the south side of the lake with multiple places to pull off of the road.  The only real fishing in these lakes is for stocker trout.

(This is a stock photo I found online, but you can clearly see the blockages.  This is not even a quarter of the traffic during stocking times)

Admittedly, not the most exciting fishery due to the lack of diversity, it is still fun to put a small boat in and try to catch the trout once they’ve acclimated a bit to the lake.  We’ve been out several times with the opportunity to cast to rising fish, or just strip small streamers/nymphs for them.  When you just feel like going out and having an afternoon of fun that’s local, this is a great place to go.  That is, it’s a great place to go if you can manage to launch your boat.  The thing on my mind today is boat launch fishing etiquette.  I’ve looked all over online about this and there is a wealth of information on launch etiquette in particular, but not on people actually physically sitting on the boat launch in chairs fishing.  I’m talking, completely blocking the boat launch, cars parked in front of the boat launch, wall of asses in camp chairs with rod holders, and mini camp out set ups.  Whenever we come here to fish it’s fingers crossed that at least a car is not parked in front of the launch.  If we only have to ask people to move, they’ll grumble and give us the stink eye (if they actually have to move their car it’s like we’ve asked a teenager to clean their room), then resume blocking the launch after the boat is in the water.  Once they see us actually casting fly rods out there, the return to the launch is even less welcoming, if there can be such a thing in this situation.  I don’t even want to go into the animosity between bait and fly fishermen right now, as that could be a full post on its own (can’t we all just live and let live?).  Basically, it all boils down to the fact that a boat launch is where people go to launch their boats into the lake.  It shouldn’t have to have a fence around it for people to know that they shouldn’t be sitting there, or at the very least, should move their shit politely when a boat pulls up.  We shouldn’t have to feel like we’re disrupting their day by using a facility that is provided for our purpose.  I guess the part that makes me really pissed is the entitlement that seems to permeate the air here.  A - There are multiple access points around the lake.  Though the stocked trout do tend to congregate for awhile around the launch right after they are put in the water, after about a week they acclimate and move out into the lake.  I know this!  I’ve caught many fish at different (further) access points with power bait on a plunking set up from a chair.  B - I am aware that this is pretty much it for access by disabled persons.  It should go without saying (but I’m gonna) that these few spaces around the boat launch should be given to people with limited mobility/accessibility problems.  When all of these spaces are taken up, that does not default to the boat launch.

So, you can tell that this really fires me up, but no one else seems to talk about it or deal with it.  I would have taken a picture to post, but I wasn’t really into asking permission to publish.  I really haven’t been to too many other places where this was an issue, but there must be some out there.  

I guess I’ve said my piece on this.  Maybe I don’t know the other side of the story and some irresponsible boater ran over a bankie’s gear at some point, but I think that we should all just bury whatever hatchet is festering and have some mutual respect.  None of us own these facilities (which have almost been shut down due to litter and misuse of property), we are allowed to use them by the city.  ALL of us.

Munsel Lake Prep

Alright, so when we haven’t been attempting to fish for flounder lately, we’ve been researching for our upcoming spring break vacation to beautiful Florence, Oregon (to be said in the voice of Bob Barker on the Price is Right).

We won’t actually be in the town of Florence (except for libations) as we’ve acquired a small vacation rental with the family on Munsel Lake.  If you read my prior post about Tippy and the bass, this is the reason we’ve been beefing her up with seats, oars, etc.  We will be spending almost 5 days here exploring a lake we have never fished.  Coastal lakes tend to have very similar traits while also having their own unique characteristics.  We’re hoping that we’ll have it all figured out by day five, which is usually how that works.  Year round the lake is supposed to hold yellow perch, cutthroat trout, and largemouth bass as well as annual stocking of rainbow trout.  We all (as a family) agreed on this lake for these reasons.  The variety will keep us busy for the week, but if we bomb out on the resident species at least we can all drink beer and rail on some stockers.  I heard a guy call them “catchables” the other day.  Ponder that for awhile.  I think he meant keepables which is even funnier.

Anyway, as you can see the deepest point of the lake is 25.5 meters (or about 83.5 feet for everyone that will ever read this blog), with the shallowest points between 0 and 4 meters (13 ft).  Seems to be slow sloping depth so the bass areas should be fairly evident.  Of course since they are the weirdest and most out of our depth or range with the fly rod, we’re going to need to catch some yellow perch.  We dig weird fish.  From what I can get on the internet, they live in fairly deep weedy water.  All of this info is coming from middle America so I’ll try to report on that more if we consistently catch them in certain areas and on certain flies.

So there’s the foreshadowing for the next post. 

With the excitement of a vacation looming we have been in the tying cave for hours and even days trying to cover all of our bases.  We are bringing EVERYTHING.  The main staples that we know for the stocker trout are small black leeches with an orange bead.  From what I’ve read the yellow perch like chartreuse so there’ll be a bit of that.  Bass are just assholes this time of year so we’re bringing topwater poppers, articulated things, crawdad patterns, you name it.  I think we’re even bringing the crawdad traps, though it’s way too early.  You never know.  Those are for us, not the bass though (yum).

These are the stocker flies.  The orange bead black leeches are particularly good everywhere we go to the point that we just call them “The Lake Fly.”  There are a few chartreuse and sparklies in there for the yellow perch.  Only two of the pink bead peacock leeches so they’ll probably crush them.  So those are the hunter patterns.

My real hope for the stockers is that they have settled down enough that when we get a hatch, they’ll rise.  The Oregon coast is not exactly dry fly heaven, and though there are steelhead, salmon, and cutthroat (who’ll rise on occasion), we just don’t get that eastern of the cascades rise.  What we’re going to see for a hatch is midges, which will probably be bigger than you’d think to pack for.  So here’s the midge box....Big and small and just blurry enough so that no one can see them (not intentional, my camera makes me murderous), I think we’re probably going to be okay there.  

At this point, the only thing we’re missing for this adventure is an actual motor.  For now we’re tethered to battery power, but I feel pretty good about it as the lake is only 110 acres.  We happen to have two batteries (thank you to our good buddy guide friend for letting us use one of his).

Oh, on a side note, while we have been holed up in here tying we’ve been listening to the relatively new Open Fly podcasts which you can check out at theopenflypodcast.com.  These guys a pretty dry funny and the guests that they have on the show can be unintentionally hilarious.  They do talk about some serious conservation issues, but in a light way that keeps you from just breaking all of your fly rods over your knee.  If you have time to sit and listen for two hours at a time, give them a look.

Tippy out on the Town

Everyone, I’d like you to meet Tippy (she gets her name from her blatant instability).  Tippy came from craigslist for $700.  We were looking for something to get into the lakes, bays, estuaries and the like but we’re poor so it had to be VERY economical.  

We started off with just  a shell of an old 16’ Alumaweld and made some modifications.

When I say we, I mean my husband did everything.  He created carpeted plywood platforms for the front, back, and floor, as well as a carpeted cushion seat in the middle. He also had to completely pull the trailer apart, replacing the shocks, bearings, and then finally a coat of no-rust spray paint.  I’m pretty sure this has been his most fun (funnest should be a word finally) project in the last few years.  Finally, we had a trolling motor for the back, but wanted to be able to stand, steer, and cast, so we found a foot controlled trolling motor on craigslist.  It’s pretty awesome. 

We kept the boat like it was for quite awhile, but came to the decision that it needed some kind of seats for balance.  

So we got the new seats in the mail two days ago and decided that since we had to go into town to get the installation hardware anyway, we should just put them in at the lake and then test them out right there.

After about an hour, we had the seats in and got on the lake with only a few other people around.

 They ended up working great and we got a few hours on the lake in the sunshine.  The water had come up from our last trip two weeks prior and was murky compared to its usual clarity.  This lake just outside of Pacific City has a few bass, recycled steelhead, and stocker trout at times.  They hadn’t stocked yet so we didn’t have to deal with a crowd, and there were a couple of steelhead to chase around.  They tend to sit really high in the water so if you can spot one you can sight fish to it.  Unfortunately, they are definitely a first come first serve fish and once they’re spooked they’re going to be put down for awhile.  We had another boat on the lake that was specifically fishing to these steelhead so that was kind of a bust for us.  That’s not to say that we didn’t give it a shot.  We’ve had the best luck with casting a small nymph (pheasant tail, prince, pink scud, etc.) past them and then slowly stripping it in front of their face until they chase.  No dice on that today though.

The coolest part of this lake is that it’s a bass aquarium.  There are certain places that the bass will be, so we always have to go take a look.  They hang somewhat together with a few solo bass here and there and are notoriously dismissive this time of year.  The younger ones spook when you slap your line on the water, but the older bigger bass will completely ignore you, your flies, your boat, your gun...Now, later toward the summer when they’re pairing up and getting on their beds, they are more aggressive and we’ve done okay then.  Unfortunately we leave June first for Alaska, so we don’t really get to see how they react as the summer goes on.  I am going to guess though, that the bigger bass here will not take top water.  Maybe some of the younger fish would, but they seem very conditioned to ignore humans.  Always with the theories....

Well, despite my theories, on this day one bass (literally only one) decided to be aggressive.  Though we always cast to the fish (because how can you not?), we’re pretty used to the silent treatment.  This is where T is testing flies.  This particular fly is a two in one.

The back of the fly is tied with foam at the top.  The front section is a tube fly with a heavy cone head.  The idea is that the cone head top will sink to the bottom while the floating end of the fly can float up and be manipulated to create movement without moving the fly from its place.  Pretty cool idea, especially in the lily pads when you’re trying to piss off a bass by being in their area.  We’ve always had the best results when we can keep our fly in their face/space, without repeatedly casting to the same area.  You have to invade their space and stay there until they can’t stand it anymore.  Success!  We must be getting some penance for our repeated flails lately.

They’re a month away from being paired on beds, but this fish looked like she was ready to pop so we tried to be careful, took one photo and sent her on her way.  I’m still thinking it had some form of fish rabies because the behavior was just unlike anything that we see this time of year.  Not that I’m complaining.

Fish...beer.

I know that I’m following the guy on my blog list, but if you haven’t had the chance to check this blog out, go grab a beer and do it now.  The man is eloquent and dastardly.  

www.fishbeer.com

Estuary Hike

So, after our enlightening excursion that produced a couple of black bass, we decided to go round two, but this time hike out to the mouth of the estuary and concentrate more on flats fishing for flounder.  We were definitely planning more of a fun  exploration day and didn’t have much hope that we were going to see any fish.  The first day that we fished here, we hit pretty close to perfect conditions as far as tide went.  This time, the tide was on it’s way out, and looking to get to low tide at around 3:45 pm.  We got to the rocky spot at around noon and decided to try for a few more rock bass while we waited for the tide to get out so that we could really see all of the channels of the estuary on a low tide.  Sadly, as we suspected, fishing was pretty terrible.  When you have no hope though, any fish is exciting.  We managed to get a couple of bull heads on chartreuse and white clousers.

When the tide was out far enough that we could walk the flats, we started what would become a three mile round trip hike through sand and mud.  We followed the little channels that were probably no more than 6 feet deep in the deepest pools.  In this spot when the tide goes out it REALLY goes.  We were having a hard time slowly swimming our flies across the bottom without just swinging through.  Our shoulders were actually sore the next day from repetitive casting and fighting the wind.  I did notice that there seemed to be an abundance of food in the estuary.  There were tons of broken cockle and razor clam shells, eel grass, and baby fish of some kind (which would scatter when we got within 5 feet of them), and most disturbingly, quite a few dead immature dungeness crab.  The strange thing about the crab was that they weren’t pecked to death from birds, nor did the birds care to touch them after they had died.  Just hollow full body shells that seemed like the insides mysteriously vanished from.  Maybe due to the Oregon dead zone? We did end up with a confirmed sighting of a flounder that was about 3 inches long, which T promptly spooked, making a photo impossible.  Just seeing one got us pretty excited though, that we may be able to fish them on an incoming tide at some point.  As it became clear that we were not really going to have productive fishing today, we cast less and walked a little faster cherry picking the deeper pieces of water.  When we got to the confluence, we put in a few casts just to say we had, and then walked back in a straighter line.  We did end up coming across a guy pumping sand shrimp and chatted with him a bit.  He mentioned in an ominous way that there used to be flounder in here, pointing to the area that had looked most promising to us.  He seemed a little stand offish (like maybe we were casing his shrimping grounds) so we left him be without asking what in the hell “used to be” entailed.  By the time we were back to the car it was 4:30 and the tide was just about to start moving in again.  We were toast though.  On that note, one more gratuitous picture of a bull head.

Spring Steelhead Slowdown (Mental)

So aside from the changing river conditions in our area on the central oregon coast right now, steelhead fishing is getting into the “off the chain” mode.  When the river is not blown out right now, people are having huge number days.  When I say people, I mean the one fly fishing guide that we are friends with has been pulling big numbers in hook-ups on guided trips.  Anywhere in the 6 to 11 hook-ups range per day.  I’m not sure how the gear guys are doing but, by the sheer wall of drift boats on the river, it’s probably pretty damn good.  The strange thing about this time of year for me is that I have already mentally exhausted my desire to fish for steelhead.  We’re out there fishing starting in mid-November just hoping to see one chrome fish all day and catching a few weird summers.  We continue to fish throughout January, slowly starting to see more bright fish depending on how much the water has come up and down.  Into February the trips become fewer for one reason or another, mostly because the river starts to blow out randomly.  Mostly.  This is the point when the river blows out and we think, “meh.”  Didn’t really want to try again anyway.  As trying for fun is not the sole option for our dear guide friend, he continues to give us the play by play as he guides on.  Last week came the inevitable, “Dude!  I can’t believe that you guys haven’t been fishing, it’s epic!”  Again my thoughts are, “meh.”  Of course you could say this is my own problem for wasting time in the fall fishing hard for few fish, but at that time when we are just back from Alaska, the thought that steelhead fishing is just around the corner gears us up.  This time of year, when we should be fishing for steelhead, we’re starting to think about bass, and lately, anything else we can catch anywhere.  Because of yesterday’s trip for flounder and the unexpected black seabass hookup, I now want to catch every strange fish available.  I even found myself looking for places in Oregon to fly fish for catfish.  I guess in my mind logically I don’t know how you could get bored with steelhead, but for right now I am.  The funny thing is, it’s not over yet for us.  There is at least one more trip in store. The next one will be the “Holy shit, we’re missing out” trip.  No matter how well we do on this trip, it will likely be the “At least we went out for one more trip” trip.  After discussing these thoughts right now with my husband, the consensus is that we will wait for steelhead to get good next year before we start fishing for them.  Right.  We’ll see how that goes.