Category Archives: EuroNymphing Techniques

The Crooked River and the Tellico Nymph

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I was looking through my fly box recently and realized that I was out of (and hadn’t even fished) a Tellico Nymph in a very long time.  It used to be a favorite pattern of mine but for some reason I had gotten away from fishing it.  Most of us on the west coast haven’t heard of this fly as it was originated years ago in the Southeastern United States.  A well known fly back east, it does a great job at imitating a golden stonefly nymph.  And, you can be guaranteed that the fish in our local waters haven’t seen this fly before.  So, I tied up several a few up a nights ago and Mary Ann and I hit the Crooked River yesterday for a few hours of fishing.

We got the river about noon.  The recent snows were mostly gone and it was a nice overcast day with temperatures in the mid 40’s.  Small fish were already rising for BWOs on the surface.  Mary Ann picked up several fish on dries but I decided to stay with nymphs.  The Tellico Nymph didn’t disappointment me and I picked up a handful of decent fish drifting this fly towards the bottom through the deeper runs.  Since I’ve now “rediscovered” this great fly pattern, it will again be a standard in my fly box.  Here are a couple of shots from the day, as well as my fly recipe for the Tellico Nymph.

The Crooked River

The Crooked River

A nice fall rainbow that took a Tellico Nymph.

A nice fall rainbow that took a Tellico Nymph.

The Tellico Nymph

The Tellico Nymph

The Tellico Nymph

Hook:  #8 to #12 – 1X Long (Daiichi 1560)

Lead:  15 turns of .015 Lead Wire Underbody

Thread:  Brown

Tail:  Grizzly Hackle Fibers

Body:  Yellow Floss

Rib:  2 Strands of Peacock Hearl with Fine Copper Wire Counter Wrapped

Back:  Turkey Tail Fibers

Hackle:  English Grouse

FIshing on Hat Creek, California

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I got to spend a few days with my “California fishing buddies” this past Memorial Day weekend…an annual trip that we’ve been taking for the past 30 years.  The lower section of Hat Creek is a mostly broken riffles, and doesn’t get much fishing pressure.

A sunny afternoon with a 8' 0" 5 wt bamboo rod on Hat Creek.

A sunny afternoon with a 8′ 0″ 5 wt bamboo rod on Hat Creek.

Fishing was a little slow as we were just coming out of some cold weather.  But the stoneflies were just starting to move around and I picked up a few nice fish on Kauffmans Stonefly Nymphs, using a EuroNymphing technique.  Here is a nice 16″ fish:

A Beautiful 16" Hat Creek Rainbow.

A Beautiful 16″ Hat Creek Rainbow.

 

French Nymphing on the Crooked River with Bamboo Rods

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After way too long, Mary Ann and I finally got out for a couple of days of fishing on the Crooked River in Central Oregon last week.  The water level was nice but we found fishing success was a little slow.  Some bugs were flying in the afternoon (caddis, BWO, and midges) but very few fish were coming up.  Mary Ann tried swinging streamers with one of my 10′  6″  5 wt bamboo switch rods but the fish didn’t seem to want the larger flies.   I tried an 8′  0″ slow action 5 wt bamboo rod from my Spring Creek Series and had decent success with French nymphing techniques and indicators.  The slow action of this rod cast the lightly weighted nymphs well and the soft tip helped with detecting light strikes.   We both managed to pick up some decent rainbows and whitefish in the 10″ to 12″ range, typical sizes for the Crooked River.  A small #18 black AP nymph or a #8 stonefly nymph fished on the bottom with French style indicators proved to be the most successful. Here are a few photos from our time on the Crooked River last week:

French Nymphing on the Crooked River

French Nymphing on the Crooked River

A nice rainbow from the Crooked River

A nice rainbow from the Crooked River

Mary Ann and some two-handed casting with a bamboo switch rod.

Mary Ann and some two-handed casting with a bamboo switch rod.

 

 

 

 

Bamboo Rods on Hat Creek

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I spent a few days in Northern California last weekend fishing Hat Creek.  My buddy, Bill, had recently picked up a Montegue Rapadan that was in beautiful condition, and he was dying to get it on the water.  I took out my 9′  0″  5 wt Euronymphing rod.  The weatther had taken a turn for the worse so we had cold temperatures and off-and-on rain showers.  But, there were still some nice mid-day mayfly hatches.  Stonefly nynphs and small soft-hackles produced the most fish for us over our three days of fishing.  We didn’t land any large fish but still caught plenty to make if a fun time. 


Fishing Bamboo Fly Rods on the Owyhee River

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Mary Ann and I got to spend a few days on the Owyhee River in Eastern Oregon last weekend fishing for big browns. The water levels were down to winter lows, which opened up just about the entire river for great fishing opportunities. We tried French Nymphing techniques our first afternoon and each managed to land a nice +20″ Brown in small pheasant tail nymphs. Here is Mary Ann’s nice fish (too bad it was on graphite):

Nice Brown!


The next two days we fished mostly dry flies with small nymph droppers, and were successful with several combinations. Small mahogany duns were hatching early mornings, with blue winged olives also hatching through the daylight hours. I was lucky enough to pick up this 25″ Brown on a #20 Blue Winged Olive dry fly one afternoon:

Big 25" Brown


Finally, here is a fun little video of a couple of fish: