July 2005 Short Reports
compiled by
Is anyone out there fishing with a camera these days? For a club of over 100 anglers, I've been getting maybe one or two submissions a month (for which I'm grateful). Don't make me resort to stock photography and clip art! Please send your pictures or stories to . If you send a picture, a sentence or two about your trip or adventure would round things out nicely.
JC's Adds a New Fishing Partner
Deschutes River, Oregon,
24 June JC reports that there are some nice fish in the Deschutes
River. Dick, my son-in-law, caught this fish on Thursday and I caught a 19 and 1/2 inch
redband rainbow on Wednesday last. I will not say they will be there on every cast,
but there are a few big fish. It was a beautiful day and my son-in-law, a first time fly fisher,
out fished us all. Those first timers have no sins as they are just starting
out and he had a good trainer/guide.
– JCP
Kelly on the Feather River, Again
North Fork Feather, 11 June The fishing was so much fun in May that we went back in June. Kelly's favorite hole was producing well again (but only in the shade) as you can see from this shot. That evening we had a pile of fun throwing dries to 15 inch fish. As usual, Mike was there with his clipboard. At dusk he strung up his rod and joined the fun.
We camped again at a beautiful rough campsite on the Caribou road stretch
and tried fishing the stream there with less success. I'm convinced that
the only way to fish this river successfully is to go with someone who knows
the water. Some runs look great but produce nothing (well, pike minnows).
Others run crazy with brawny rainbows.
– Rodney
Bob's Peregrinations Post-McCloud
Hat Creek, Manzanita Lake, McCumber Lake, Black Butte Lake, 19 June [This report draws from Bob's travels back from our McCloud trip. As you can see, he gets around. - Ed.]
Hat: They still have "authorized vehicles only, seasonal closure" signs on the road to the Carbonite bridge site. This was a favorite place for me. The bridge pool by 299 seems more silted in. I only saw fish on the downstream side of the bridge, and there was minimal weed growth in the main pool. I didn't fish the Hat this trip.
Manzanita:: I fished Manzanita from 5:30-8pm from the float tube on Sunday. I caught one fish 5 min from the Launch Ramp on a flashback PT. I met Michael H? from the Redding club who told me that 2 wks +/- from the 4th there is usually a "motorboat caddis hatch" on Manzanita and the trout are every bit as enthusiastic for it as Manzanita's hex hatch. There were not hatches on Sunday night. He gave me his favorite MotorBoat tie, which looks like a Henderson caddis. It's basically a Trude without a tail. No ribbing either. Light wing, peacock body, brown hackle. I have it, maybe we could take a photo of it.
McCumber: I stopped by McCumber Lake on the way back (off HWY 44). It has two nice campgrounds by the dam with pit toilets. There is an informal launch spot off Ritt Road on the west side of the lake. I estimate it at 100 acres, with nice weeds on the NE side and a few cabins. There were a couple of tubes on the lake and a drift boat. Looks interesting, but I did not fish it.
Black Butte Lake Near Orland. It has 3 recreation areas. Some guys my age were pulling out with 2 bass they said they caught before 6:30 AM. On their recommendation I went around to the SW side to Grizzly flat rec area. The main area was dirt roads and a bit trashed. However the road had fence breaks to walk through. I picked a spot where there was a dry wash/stream coming in (structure, and maybe fish food), and walked in with the fly rod.
The old guys said the bite was "dead". I stopped at a place where the weed beds transitioned into deeper water by the bank. I put on a black wooly bugger and cast out near a tree shadowing the water. The air temperatures were 85' (Manzanita was low 40's). On the first cast, the fly didn't sink. I paused, then stripped it to get it under. On the first strip, a 12" bass chugged it down. I got really excited, but that was the last fish for the next hour. For the rest of the time I just caught scrub oak trees. Finally I got one more where the shore transitioned to a cover, punctuated by a downed tree. It was maybe 10".
– Bob Schwehr
Keep those reports and photos coming!
Rodney