Tag Archives: nymph fishing

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.

 

 

 

 

Fishing Bamboo Fly Rods on the McKenzie River

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Mary Ann and I hit the McKenzie River a few days ago. It was really great to get the drift boat out on the river again. We had a wonderful sunny day…not always the best for trout fishing. We didn’t see a single adult bug all day so we drifted nymphs under indicators. I took out a 7 1/2′ 5 wt rod that worked well in the drift boat. We didn’t have a tremendous amount of action, but we did wake up a few fish. Here is a taste of our day: