Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing John Day River, Oregon - Steelhead.....

Just returned from a day of steelheading. Two of us fished about 7 different runs yesterday near Condon putting in a Cottonwood bridge. Water temps were around 35 or so, as slush was forming on the surface in deadwater areas. We had heavy clouds with snow falling early and gentle rain from about 09:00 to 16:30. Icing guides early AM and late PM, and ice forming on our rain coats. One does not have to be crazy, but it helps. I personally had little hope, but had agreed to go several weeks ago.

Somehow each of us landed a fish and missed a couple of other obvious takes. One about a 7 pounder and the second about 11 or 12 lbs. Both were native fish, and had to go back in. One was not getting anything like an arm breaking strike at all, so we were probably unaware of several other takes on our sink tip gear.

MacRabbit's black Aztec scored again. Sorry, no pics, as neither of us wanted to bring the cameras out given the conditions.

A fanatic might call that "dedication". I have other possible terms...

But I'm glad the Aztec did the job. One of mine, or yours?

Were you swinging flies? I'm thinking about heading to the salmon river in ID this weekend, weather sounds like it will be about the same as your trip. Still beats watching the Tv.

MacRabbit: One of the flies you sent that was actually on a larger trout weight hook (maybe a #6 about 3x long). Black with a rusty colored body. I had the fish landed and was releasing it midriver, when one of the party (our oarsman had leaking waders and opted out of fishing) asked to take a photo. As I was leading it ashore, it put in one of those good power flops on a hand wrapped 12 lb leader, the hook bend flexed about 30 degrees, and the fish slipped off. I had crushed down the barb. Since I'd had her in hand earlier, I counted it as a landed fish.

After summer fishing (Jul, Aug, Sept, and Oct) for the same critters, I have a tough time pushing myself out the door in Dec with snow and ice about. I think it's time to tie some more flies and just reflect. Thinking of adding some jungle cock cheeks to an Aztec just to color it up and salmonize it a bit. I'll post an image after I run one off. Take care, and the best of holidays to you,

Elkchsr: Swinging flies (Aztec's and bunny type leeches) on moderate rate sink tips at the end of Spey rods. Wish I could join you, as I've not done the Salmon or Clearwater. I need to get more serious about this retirement thing

I don't recall tying a black/rust, and I don't seem to have kept my usual pics of what I've given away. But, good anyhoo.

Here's an Aztec Alaska Mary Ann I tied for the club of our buddies up north (it's their mascot).



(I've not yet gotten perfect at keeping a rib evenly spaced while fitting correctly between Crests. Forgive me.)

My wife and I had our first kid this fall, so I didn't make it down to the clearwater as much as I usually do, but a friend of mine had a really good year. I'm hoping I can still remember how to work a spey rod this weekend.

Neat! Perfection in the rib spacing would demand an unreasonable amount of time and effort to accomplish. Might be a little easier with some slightly smaller oval tinsel that gets a bit of bite on the body yarn, but then it would not have as much flash as flat material.

My thoughts were to use some slightly smaller jungle cock feathers as cheeks rather than wings. Probably half that size and keep them in the same plain as the hook shank. Happy holidays,

I bet the other side of the fly, the one that faced me at the vise, is more even. Why I took the pic from the 'back', I don't know. (Probably some other defect I didn't want in the pic-- I'm good at making defects (but don't mention that around my son).)

"Unreasonable amount of time and effort"-- this from a guy who knaps arrowheads and stuff!!!!

Macrabbit: It's pretty easy to put nice ribs on hard bodies like the Atlantic salmon patterns, but when one gets into fur and yarn there are a lot of lumps in the road.

Thanks again for leading me into the Aztec light. You have been way more than generous. I've shown them off every chance I get, and nearly all are impressed with their action. I did put them to a lot of use this past fall, but had less than average success, mostly due to some crappy water condtions that had everyone buffaloed.

Take care

You're welcome to make copies of the instructions for folks. And I'm a source for [free] yarn.
Many happy releases...

Got a couple of pics that were e-mailed to me today, so I thought I'd add them.


Fish on! And if one really looks closely, he can see the Azetc at work out on the end of the line.


Coming into the landing. I may have to invest in a new set of neoprene waders. The fabric deals have the insulation characteristis of saran wrap. And these are called "summer steelhead?"

Ooohh! I see it! I see it!

And I can feel the lower pic.