Tag Archives: French Nymphing

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:

Bamboo on the Owyhee River

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I fished the Owyhee River last Sunday for a few hours.  The water was a little high for my preference and very off-colored but the fish were cooperative.  I fished my 9′ 0″  5 wt  EuroNymphing Rod.  Using a French Style technique with “slinky” indicators and 5X tippets, I landed 8 nice brown trout on size 20 black Zebra Midges and Size 18 Pheasant Tail Nymphs.  There were lots of hoppers out and I might have been one of the only anglers on the river who wasn’t fishing dries, but I had great success on my small dark nymphs fished in the riffles.  The fish I landed were between 12″ and 20″…very fat browns!  Too bad I didn’t have a camera with me, but here’s a photo from a previous trip of one of the big Owyhee Browns.