Current Fishing Report

The Applegate is open and producing fish, but not for long! We have just two weeks left to fish most of our smaller rivers as they close March 31. I will be on the upper Rogue through April, our last opportunity to target winter steelhead. Some years we have good fishing for late winter fish into May. If you need to get your steelhead fix, gives us a call or I'll sick this guy on you!

Don't make me!

I'm sticking it out on the Oregon Coast for the remainder of the month...this coastal winter steelhead Game is just too addicting to leave.   We got slammed with a bad storm yesterday that blew everything out for the next day or two.  When things drop back into shape, we will be in a good position to catch a fish similar to the epic one we got yesterday which is pictured below...insane. Check out my new article slamming lame ass bead fishing for steelhead in Bloodknot Magazine, one of the most widely read online magazines in the industry.  The piece is in the newest Black Issue, and I look forward to getting lots of angry feedback from bead kooks who reside outside of California.  I also have an article out in the new issue of Sierra Fisherman about a recent bonefish trip to the Bahamas.

This, is a player

they don't come more chrome than this

Token hero shot

Yesterday we caught about 50 pounds worth of fish at Eagle Canyon.  Today we caught about as much at Lewiston Lake, but we did it in twelve-inch installments!  Bob and Dave hooked a comical number of feisty, jumping rainbows today.  We were the only boat on the whole lake.  We fished about five different spots and found fish everywhere we went.  The highlight was sight-fishing to cruising rainbows with a dry-dropper rig.  Bob even hooked a few fish on a dry fly today.  The Lewiston fish like most any kind of nymph so long as it's small (size 16-20), black, and doesn't have a shiny bead or a lot of flash.  As for dries, a parachute adams size 16 works just fine.

We got blown off the river today, so I took my clients Bob and Dave up to Eagle Canyon for the day.  Fishing wasn't easy, especially in the morning.  We tried a variety of techniques and Bob finally found a winner with a size 6 Deceiver streamer on a fast retrieve.  Fishing improved quite a bit after lunch.  Fish were actively feeding on the march browns that were hatching and getting rapidly blown across the surface of the lake.  We had our best luck on beadhead pheasant tails size 12-16, Mercer's poxyback PMD nymphs size 18, and Sloan's Mighty Mite's brown size 14.  Our best fishing was from 2 to 4pm, then it got really tough again.  Dave, a beginner fly fisher, landed two 10 pound plus fish and hooked several others.

Dave with a hawg

Bob landed a bunch like this

John and John hooked 6 dime bright winter steelhead today fishing one of our small coastal rivers. It was their first day fishing the Oregon coast...I think they will be back. Unsettled weather looms...a big rain event is on the horizon, but will set things up for potential epic days like this one for the next few weeks on the coast.

I just spent two days on Lewiston Lake with Al and Emil from Sacramento.  They both caught a lot of fish.  The fish are fairly dispersed right now, but we were able to find some really concentrated pods as well.  Today was pretty incredible with plenty of sight-fishing.  We used indicator nymph and dry/dropper techniques all day.  Al hooked about five fish on dries and most of our grabs came on small black midge patterns.  We didn't find a lot of really big fish, but we more than made up for it with incredible numbers of hookups.

I'm still fishing on the Southern Oregon Coast, and finding some players here and there.  Gino and I had a day off yesterday and hooked some great fish.  The weather is almost too nice for steelhead fishing, but we got into 3 yesterday anyway!  All you can do is fish well, have fun doing it and the opportunities will come.  Winter steelhead is a beautiful thing. I am booked here on the Coast until next Sunday, and would stick around if anyone wanted to come up and have a shot at some coastal chrome before heading up the hill.  I will be focusing on speycasting on the Chetco for their famous run of March fish, and hitting the smaller streams with both swing and tightline techniques.    

careful..this chrome fish will blind you

Epic specimen

True steelheaders know how amazing this photo is

I guided Burt and John Saturday on the upper Trinity, there's a fresh push of dime bright 2-3lb. Steelhead in the upper river right now. What these fish lack in size they make up for in there willingness to take a well presented dry fly. Late February into early March is an ideal time to take both Brown's and Steelhead on the dry fly on the Trinity. There is also a push of larger Steelhead into the Lower river, most of these fish will not run very high into the system, spawning in the main stem or lower tributaries. This is big water even with low flows i.e. Spey water, there will be opportunities to hook Steelhead in the lower Trinity well into April as long as the flows remain low. This is a LOW numbers game with high rewards!Fresh Steelhead continue to enter in to the North Coast streams and will do so into the closure at the end of March.   I fished with Ted and Tyler on the Lower Sac on Sunday, the nymph grab was solid thru-out the day. Most of the rainbows were in the 16 - 18 range with one that broke Tyler off Freight Train style, making 8lb. test flouro look like 6X tippet.There's still time to chase Steelhead, Lewiston lake is coming on with warmer temps and the Lower Sac is fishing very well with solid nymphing and dry fly action on many afternoons.Check my schedule and book at day or two, the best reports are the ones you make yourself!  

I guided a really nice group of anglers today along with Randy Hamann and Scott Saiki.  We had a blue-bird day with temps around 80 degrees.  The nymphing wasn't red hot today.  We had to work for the fish we got.  There was a really good hatch of PKDs and caddis all morning, but the fish didn't really get on them until about 2pm.  That's when we had the highlight of our day, a great riffle that had five or so really nice fish rising.  John landed a fat 18 rainbow and then Burt followed suit with a nice 16 rainbow, also on a dry.  We had a few other grabs, too.  I've had good dry fly fishing almost every day the last two weeks.  Come up and check it out for yourself!

Burt nymphed this one up

Nice dry fly fish

Burt got this one on a dry

I guided brothers Jim & Ted on the Trinity today.  Our morning was pretty good.  Jim was the hot hand with a nice brown and two adult steelhead in the net on small nymphs.  We had a few dry fly opportunities throughout the afternoon and Ted landed a half-pounder.  A lot of steelhead are spawning now.  The river is a total ghost town.  Today was Saturday and Randy and I had the place to ourselves.  There is a great hatch of assorted mayflies.  Look for browns rising in the shady runs.  The big browns don't like the bright sun too much.

I had a great day on the Lower Sac today with George and Tony from the Bay Area.  We did a little bit of everything.  The indicator nymphing was really good.  The dry fly fishing was really good.  The wading was good.  We even did some spey casting but the north wind wasn't helping.  Great hatch of caddis and PMDs today.  When this wind dies down fishing should be off the hook.

George with the fish of the day

Follow this link to see our latest Eagle Canyon video.  All of this footage was taken on February 22nd. Eagle Canyon February 2012http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MAIbbxXMJQ

We got blown around a lot on the river today, but I had a good time with George and Judd from the Bay Area.  The nymph grab was pretty decent in the spots where we could actually get a good drift.  The prince nymph was the fly of the day.  The wind didn't get really bad until 3:30pm.  The highlight of the day was finding a flat with about 200 rising fish.  Both George and Judd landed a nice 16 rainbow on a dry before the wind put the fish down.

Here's a great lower Rogue winter steelhead caught by John Putnam last week. This big native buck clobbered a swung fly presented in some pretty heavy water. When they want to eat it, they just eat it!John's fishing buddy Francis got his clock cleaned by two fish in two casts swinging the Chetco the day before with Dax. Yes, two swung up just out of the ocean sea liced chrome perfect into the backing instantly winter steelhead. Nice job you guys. If you put the time in, you get rewarded for your hard work.

side pressure works

paydirt

No one works harder at Confluence Outfitters than Andrew Harris at finding new guide destinations for our Clients!

I spent the last week guiding and scouting North Coast Steelhead waters. I guided Jeff from Smith Valley NV on a couple of classic NorCal steelhead venues, Jeff has picked up the Spey rod and is paying his dues. His hard work on casting and presentation was justly rewarded. There are still fresh fish moving into the North Coast rivers and will continue to do so with the right conditions till the end of March.If you can't find the time this year, make the time next year. I am currently taking bookings for the NorCal coast for January through March of  2013.

Fresh Chrome

cant get much fresher than this!!

12lbs. of cartwheeling excitement!

Today it was sunny and warm until about 4pm, then it got very cold, and the rain hit, now it stopped...no wait, it's raining again.  The fish didn't want to grab during any of the forementioned conditions, but Wolf and Daniel had a great time fishing some prime coastal water and working on their speycasting.  Tomorrow is another day with another opportunity at hooking into an insane chrome winter steelhead on one of the many epic rivers we have up here.

Somone will have a shot at one of these tomorrow

Katie and Andrew will have their Eagle Canyon booth at the Pleasanton Fly Fishing Show this Friday-Sunday.  Show hours are 10-6 on Friday, 9-5:30 on Saturday and 9-4:30 on Sunday.  Be sure to ask about our Show Special!

Here are some of the fish food items we say at Eagle Canyon today.

Polly wog

Damsel Nymph

March brown spinner

I guided Dave and Jeremy today at Eagle Canyon.  The fishing was really good.  Dave landed about a dozen and Jeremy did well, too.  I don't think we landed a fish under 6 lbs, and our biggest was about 12lbs.  Our best fly by far was a size 8 jimmy legs in brown or brown and black.

Dave with a hawg

Great backdrop

Double on the lower lake