Steelhead fishing on the John Day River

A fishing report from Dale - 10 November

Today was a great day for the chasing of steelhead on the John Day River (JDR). 

 Early on the John Day River - Kris and Erik - started downriver where Kris had caught steelies previously

Three Walla² Fly Fishers left the Grove Elementary School parking lot at about 6:00 a.m. this morning, heading for the JDR - River mile 20 - in the area of Segment 1. We got to the river around 8:30 a.m. which is a 125 mile run out of Milton-Freewater.
Leaving Milton-Freewater this morning the vehicles were covered with a layer of ice and frost from the overnight rains and freezing temperatures. Arriving at the JDR, the temperature was cool, but not freezing or frosty. The sky was clear and the air very fresh.
Kris, Erik, and Dale moved as fast as we could to wader-up, put our rods together, grab our fishing gear and food needs for the day, and move out. Today we would cover about 5.5 miles of water in our 7+ hours on the "job" at the JDR.
 

Kris and Erik - Early on the John Day River

 

Section 1 of the John Day River, starting at the river 20-mile mark

 

Eventhough we did not have the most optimum river flow at 367cfs this day, the water flow was enough to swing our flies. 

Having geared up for the day, Kris and Erik hit the trail and went downriver, Dale hit the trail and went upriver. On his way to the water Dale ran into Maria, asking him "aren't you a Walla² Fly Fishers... aren't you Dale?" This writer's reply to both questions was "Yes", and then Maria introduced herself. It was just a couple of years ago that this writer ran into Grant Richie, and they were familiarized in much the same manner on the JDR. Dale invited Grant to take a look at our club, and now he is a very supportive member. This is a great place to meet people.

Getting to the Wheel-Line Hole, Dale started his search for steelhead this day.

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Knee deep water visibility 11-7-14

This writer would like to digress from this day's report... having spent the previous Friday steelhead fishing the JDR, I found the water conditions had gotten a bit worst over the weekend. The past Friday like this day, the JDR water color was quite green and rather dingy with only 2'-3' visibility most of the day. Usually the JDR in November is flowing at 425-450 cfs and is gin clear. 
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It wasn't very long before Erik and Kris came upriver to join Dale to fish in the Wheel-Line Hole. The JDR is Oregon's longest non-damed river. This lower stretch of the river has lots of long pools, (50 to 100+ yards long) of easy fishing waters which 2-3-4 people can fish at the same time. It just take quite a bit of hiking and wading to get to where you want to go.

While at the Wheel-Line Hole, we ran into Dick and Maria from Walla Walla - also Walla² Fly Fishers. We talked for awhile, fished for awhile, with no one getting or seeing any sign of a fish. 

Dale moved upriver to the Morris Hole, which had almost always given him a steelhead jerk. Having fished this hole for awhile, Kris and Erik came upriver and joined Dale. Dale reported that he had seen a couple of snouts breaking the surface of the pool, but no hookup action, and so stepped out of the river and gave the hole to Erik and Kris to fish. They too having fished the hole with no luck, were stepping out when Maria and Dick showed up. Dale shared his past experience of catching steelhead in this pool, and told Dick where he had made steelie hookups in times past.

Dick at "work" while Maria looks on

From the Morris Hole, Erik and Kris moved upriver, and as Dale moved upriver he found Erik working his nymphing combo in a run at the head of the Morris Hole.

Erik nymphing

After fishing this run, Erik moved upriver and worked the Frog Water Hole and up to the run at the head of that pool. All of these spots have held steelhead in the past, but this morning the fish hookup action was nil.

The Powerline Hole tailout - we find Kris eating lunch

At this point we caught up with Kris, eating his lunch; and proceeded to work the Powerline Hole up to the head of this very long pool. Again we were touching no fish.

a view from the Powerline Hole

The three of us surrounded the head run (3 or 4 chutes) pouring into the Powerline Hole, where steelhead -B-run steelhead- has been caught in the past. With much anticipation we each hoped to have several hookups in the spot. Again nothing touched our flies.

From this point Kris quickly worked his way up to the tailout at the End of the Trail, while Erik and Dale worked through the Rock Garden. In the Rock Garden, when conditions are normal on the JDR, there seems to always be a steelhead holding behind these boulders, but not today.

Erik and Kris working below the End of the Trail

 Again Erik and Dale joined Kris at the End of the Trail, fished the tailout for awhile and then we all turned back downriver together. As the sun was setting behind the canyon west wall, Erik asked if he could "take the time to put 30 casts" into the Powerline Hole again. "Sure, catch a fish."

As the sun set, Erik stepped down to the river for 30-casts

After Erik placed his 30 casts, without a fish partaking, we hiked back downriver to the Morris Hole. While fishing the Morris Hole making our "last ditch effort" to take home a steelhead, we began talking about the day, the exercise, the times we had been hit by a fly, and decided this day was well done, even without the smell of fish on our hands. So from here we pulled out of the river and headed back for the truck.

But wait, there was still some daylight left, so Kris made a fast dash downriver and fished the same waters he and Erik had fished first thing this morning. Again with no smelly fish results. Talking with Dick later we found that he and Maria did not touch a steelhead all day. 

While fishing back downriver from the End of the Trail, we had about 10-12 fishers/ pheasant hunters float by us (coming from Cottonwood Bridge) and none of them had touched a fish in two days. This was really some tough information to hear during this, the prime steelhead fishing days of November on the JDR.

Most of the day Dale used his Marabou Flash

The flies we used this day... 

Erik anchored his nymphing with a Copper Swan, most of
the time using a second dropper fly

Dale's fly patch - wet Marabou Flash and Egg Sucking Leech

Kris' #1 fly of the day

Kris' #2 fly for taking steelies

 Today was a great day for the chasing of steelhead on the John Day River.

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P.S. Kris has discovered why the JDR is not it's usual November fishery / catchery with this linked report. The John Day has been colored up by what has been reported as a mudslide well above Cottonwood - a report by Joel La Follette - Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Tight lines and good fishing
Walla² Fly Fishers

Tom Craig – President

Dave Stemmer – Vice President
Doug Coe – Treasurer
Dale McKain – Secretary ~ Blogmaster 
Gerald Newell - PROJECT HEALING WATERS Coordinator

 

Steelhead and salmon fishing the lower Umatilla River

A fishing report from Tyson - 31 October

The Umatilla: We met in Walla Walla at 5:30 and headed down to the Chinaman's Hole. There were already a few locals there. We wandered out into the water with a beautiful sunrise behind us.

Looking upriver -towards 3 Mile Dam- from Chinaman's Hole

Tom immediately hooked up with a King salmon on a purple egg-sucking leech. He landed the fish, and as it was still fairly bright he decided to keep it. 

Tom with his early morning Fall Chinook hookup

Diane put on the same pattern and proceeded to hook and lose two fish in the next couple of hours.

Diane at the head of Chinaman's Hole

We wanted to find some other water, so drove down into town by the walking bridge.

We decided that wasn't going to work for us, so we headed back to the Chinaman's Hole and looked at some water towards the top of the falls. We tried a couple of holes but no luck.

Umatilla River flow of 31 October - 210 cfs

By then--probably close to noon, we headed back down to Chinaman's Hole and tried our luck there for another hour or so. No luck, and with the rain picking up, we called it a day. 

The Umatilla River's current and historical steelhead and salmon run recorded at Three Mile Dam.

Thank you Tyson for this report and pictures of the day. 

Tight lines and good fishing

Walla² Fly Fishers

Tom Craig – President

Dave Stemmer – Vice President
Doug Coe – Treasurer
Dale McKain – Secretary ~ Blogmaster 
Gerald Newell - PROJECT HEALING WATERS Coordinator

“Rambles of a Wandering Western Angler” an evening with John Shewey

This evening it was the pleasure of the Walla² Fly Fishers to have John Shewey and his best fishing buddy Tim Blount present at our 2014 Fly Fishers' Banquet. We had 35 fly fishers in attendance.

 




The P.M. activities started with John sitting up a fly tying station, and first fly of the day was his most famous summer steelhead catching fly, the Spawning Purple.

As John was tying this Spawning Purple we reminisced of the time at the Northwest Fly Tyers' Expo, he got in a match against the clock to see how fast he could tye a Spawning Purple. He said he had his tying time down to about 6½ minutes per fly, when on the stopwatch.



Through this afternoon, John greeted our members and guest and discussed flies, fishing, and other important things concerning the pursuit of happiness.

Watching John tye his flies

While visiting with us this evening John tied a couple more of his favorite steelhead flies which included a Max Canyon and the Parmachene Belle. 

John tying the Max Canyon

Jerry thinking about fishing the Max Canyon

The next hook in the vise holds the Classic fly - Parmachene Belle

John tying the Parmachene Belle

Diane, also a fly tyer, checks out this Parmachene Belle

John's picture - Parmachene Belle and his steelie hookup

John is probably the first angler in 70 years to take a steelhead on a Parmachene Belle...namely because he is probably the first guy in 70 years to actually use what was, from 1890 through the 1920s, a very popular steelhead fly!

Two of John's tyes for the afternoon - the Spawning Purple he gave to a club member
these two will become door prizes.

Our club's lead fly tyers... John, Herb, and Diane

This writer was able to sneak a look at John's steelhead fishing fly box - a look at what catches fish for John.
Thank You Judith O'Keefe for this private snapshot of a "working man's" tools of the trade.
 
John made the statement that the most successful fly one can fish with, is the fly that an angler has the most confidence in and uses most of the time. That is a fact.

As John was "working" at his tying table, the club membership was just milling around, socializing, and checking out the Silent Auction Table for our club's funds raiser.

Our No Host Bartender served us well, with lots of Waterbrook wines
 

 

Around John's tying table and the Silent Auction table

Our Silent Auction table held a lot of nice donated items.Funds made from our Banquet will go to help our club's chapter of Project Healing Water Fly Fishing, Inc.

 We wish to Thank the individuals and businesses that made donations to our Silent Auction Table. With funds raised we will help Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. and the veterans we serve at the Walla Walla Veterans Hospital.

 

This evening John brought with him his #1, and long time fishing buddy Tim from Burns, Oregon. These guys met while working the same fly shop together, many years ago and have stuck it out through rain, sleet, and warm sunshine to fish the western US together. Tim we are glad to have met you this evening, and hope you and John will have many more stream miles to share together. You are two lucky fellas to have the opportunity to travel and fish the places you do, catch the fish you catch, and met the people looking for you. Tight lines and good fishing.

After John's fly tying expo, and the rest of us socializing, we bellied up to a wonderful buffet dinner, prepared by the Walla Walla Country Club kitchen.

Our dinner this evening was an assortment of salads - green leaf salad, fruit salad, potato salad, pasta salads, dinner rolls, mashed potatoes, various cooked vegetables, grilled beef steak, baked salmon, with a dessert of apple crisp and ice cream. And there was plenty of food for a second round for those that wanted a little more.


Our Walla Walla Country Club dinning room scene looked a bit like this for the evening.

After dinner President Tom and VP Dave, made presentation of our Door Prizes:

President Tom - VP Dave

1) a 2015 Out-of-State Fishing License (Oregon or Washington) - Jerry Newell won this prize
2) two dinner tickets to the Northwest Steelheaders' -annual Crab Feed Banquet- in May 2015 - Patty Newell won this prize

3) the two flies hand tied by John Shewey this evening

4) four subscriptions to Northwest Fly Fishing magazine, given us by editor John Shewey

5) a book of  John's - Steelhead Flies

After the door prized handouts we closed the Silent Auction Table and everyone making the highest bids on a lot of nice thing, got to claim their goodies.


With all of this said and done, Secretary Dale gave an introduction for John and his presentation. 

John started his tale with his early days of fly fishing as a kid in Eastern Idaho. His home was surrounded by BLM and US Forest Service lands with a lot of fly fishing opportunities easily accessible from his home. - Lucky kid.

John is a true dog lover, with his favorite breed being the Weimaraners.
His best Ole Dog was Jake, and John shared a number of tales of the adventures of he and Good Old Jake.

Good Old Jake

John's current pair of puppies are Josie and Java

In John's presentation this evening he made mention the number of times that he had taken his dogs fishing with him, and paid the "price" of having a dog along on a fishing trip. He told us of skunk encounters, dogs enjoying others' picnic tables, disturbing nice fishing holes he was about to slip into, etc., But after all, the dogs are man's best friends along with a fishing buddy like Tim.

John's sharing of his fly fishing experiences for this evening was a PPP of places he had been, people he had met, fish he had caught, friends he had made.

"I fish because... I love to; because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariable beautiful and, finally not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally important - and not nearly so much fun."
- Robert Traver

 












 Most of John's presentation was a history of his wanderings, and chasing of fish in the Great Basin and Pacific Northwest.

Redband trout

Cutthroat trout

Brown trout

Dolly Varden ~ Bull trout

Golden trout

Whitefish

Then there is John's favorite freshwater ~ saltwater ~ freshwater specie he loves to chase... the Pacific Northwest steelhead. By most state fish departments in the  Pacific Northwest a 20" -rainbow/redband- trout is classified as a steelhead, unless it is found in stillwater. John, explained to us the difference between a 8"- 20"  Redband trout found in Oregon and Washington waters and much the same 20"- 40" Pacific Northwest steelhead. There is no genetic difference between the two, but a resident Redband lives in it natal waters for life, while a steelhead runs to saltwater and grow much larger. Steelhead can and will make the trip to "salt" more than once, returning to their indigenous waters to spawn a number of times.

a resident Redband trout

a having gone to saltwater and returned "Redband" steelhead

 

John's favorite fishing range for trout

 

surf perch

John is also an avid saltwater fly fisher, who enjoys going into the surf to chase surf perch.

 

John has now authored 22 books. His 23rd and latest book Classic Steelhead Flies is currently due to come off the press in January 2015. Check out the link for a preview of what is coming our way.

If you are a fly tyer and enjoy books to enhance your art, one of John's finest works is his book Spey Flies & Dee Flies: Their History & Construction. It is the most thorough and up-to-date book on these traditional flies and methods and materials with which they are tied. Includes: in-depth historical information cited straight from the letters, books, and other writings of the first tier; step-by-step photos and instructions for flies and useful tying techniques; hackles and other materials; hackling, ribbing, and winging techniques; tying traditional Spey and Dee flies; Pacific Northwest Spey and Dee fly tiers; tying contemporary Spey and Dee flies; fishing these flies; beautiful color fly plates. This book is out-of-print and the first edition now goes for a premium price.

Want to learn more about fly fishing the
Pacific Northwest - look into John's repository
of 22 well written book on the subject.

The Walla² Fly Fishers wish to thank John and his friend Tim, for joining us this evening and sharing some of their fishing adventures and fly fishing knowledge. We also wish to thank the businesses and individuals that donated to our banquet's door prizes and silent auction items. We wish to thank the Walla Walla Country Club for opening their doors for this event and the very delicious dinner they served.
It was a very fine, and most enjoyable evening.
Again, Thank You one and all.

P.S. 23 October 2014 - Treasurer Doug's Banquet expense / income report...

33 paid dinners - 2 guest dinners
$677 received from auction/sale
Cost of meals @$30.45
Expenses for John Shewey:
Speaking fee $500
Hotel $75
Fuel $100
We spent about $70 more than we took in.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain

Club Secretary

 

 

Contact us if you are interested in our sport - email Walla² Fly Fishers

Tom Craig – President

Dave Stemmer – Vice President
Doug Coe – Treasurer
Dale McKain – Secretary ~ Blogmaster 
Gerald Newell - PROJECT HEALING WATERS Coordinator