Scott's Fly Fishing and Astronomy Site

Fly Fishing Page

Fly Tying

Fly Tying

  This is the fly tying bench/station that I made in November 2002.  I like it's functionality and style.  There are two divots in the rear of the bench to hold beads, hooks or other small material.  Three magnets and a cork strip are used to hold tied flies.  Brass rods can hold three spools of thread each.  

  View of fly tying station from right side.  

Flies  (Click thumbnail photos for larger view)

  January 2004 A Shane Stalcup Biot Nymph pattern for the Westfly nymph fly swap.  This fly is tied on a #16 hook using pheasant for the tail, olive turkey biot (wrapped with ridge to imitate gills on body, scud shell for wing case, Ron Lucus' olive sparkle dubbing, and a partridge feather for the legs.  This fly is scanned next to a standard sized paper clip.

  These are the flies from the Westfly, June 2004 Dry Fly Swap.  I tied number 2.  It's a caddis version of the Clark's Stonefly that was so successful for me during this year's Stonefly hatch on the Deschutes River.  

  These are the flies from the Westfly, March Alpine Fly Swap.  I'll try to fill in the gaps with the numbers and what the flies are.  I tied number 5 and it's a blood red mohair leach pattern with burnt orange marabou tail. 

  Small flies!  These are Pheasant Tail nymphs.  The larger one is size #18 and the smaller one is size #20.  I have purchased a light with a large magnifying lens for my tying station and it's made a difference in how small of a fly I can tie.

  These are Pupatator soft hackle nymphs I tied.  The black one is the original pattern.  The brown one is more like a hizzo pattern.  

  Caddis Emerger flies I tied up (patterns from the Vancouver BC Fly Fishing club).  

Pass It Forward Box #1 by Westfly tiers

These flies are from the Pass It Forward Box by guys from Westfly.  The deal is that one guy (Gus) started the box out with 20 flies in it.  There were twelve tiers in the swap.  Each had a turn taking flies and putting in at least how many they took.  Most put in quite a bit more!  The fly box near the end of two times around the tiers had over 170 flies in it!  At the end of the second round, the flies will be auctioned off on the Westfly website where the proceeds benefit trout and steelhead.  

  Here are all 170+ flies in the box with only 4 more stops to go before it goes to auction on Westfly.

  These are mostly steelhead flies.  

  Here are the big old streamers. 

  There were almost 100 nymphs in the PIFB when I got it.

  The dry flies in the PIFB were really nice to choose from.  

Drift Boats

  SBG's newly home-built drift boat.  Really a great job building this from a kit.

  The inside of SBG's new Woodie

Fly Fishing (Click thumbnail photos for larger view)

Deschutes Salmon Fly Hatch

I was finally able to hit a day on the famed Deschutes River Salmon Fly hatch.  The day was very windy and made casting difficult.  In addition, this trip was a backup to the initial river we fished this day and received a sound skunking (on the Metolius River).  So we were only armed with 4 wt. bamboo rods to toss a #6 salmon fly dry fly.  

The river was terribly crowded as it gets on June weekends during the Salmon Fly hatch.  But we grinned and mad the best of it. After a couple of hours of nymphing as the wind was blowing to hard to even consider tossing a large dry fly with these 4 wt. rods, we came to a nice section of the river and the wind died down.  The salmon flies began hitting the river and the fish started making large splashy rises.  

I tied on a dry fly to match the Salmon Fly and gave John one also.  

His first cast resulted in a 17" Deschutes Redside!  It was clearly fat from gorging on the large bugs over the past few weeks!   John has a couple of mating Salmon Flies on his shoulder.  These bugs are big!

I managed a 13" Redside a short while later close to the bank.  I observed a fish splashing the surface about 40' out from the bank several times.  So I tried a few long casts to see if I could get a take.  Sure enough, a large boil took my fly and the fight was on!  After this Redside's first jump, we knew he was large.  I was fortunate that the wind had caused enough wind knots in my leader that the Salmon Fly was tied on to 3x sized leader.  So this fish wasn't going to break me off (I normally fish 4x or 5x on the Deschutes). I was able to land this beautiful fish after a couple of long runs.

  This Redside was caught on a dry fly (Salmon Fly) 40' from the bank.  The fish rough measured out to well over 18" and probably went over 19".  It is a beauty.  Not the LARGE Salmon Fly on my left shoulder of my vest.

Crooked River (near Prineville, OR) with Jason (JFWells) and Phil (PTS)

  The Crooked River is a low flowing, but very rich river.  The low flows are only saved by the coolness of the water (released from Bowman Dam).  The water is always off-color from the silt in the reservoir's water (upstream management issues), but this doesn't put the trout off.

  Behind every rock, or slot in the current, expect a native trout to take a properly drifted nymph.  Midges were effective on this cold November day.

  Phil working a small riffle with a 3 wt. Sage.  He's catching fish within 3 feet of where he's standing in water that's not two feet deep.

  Jason working a boulder field.  He had a hookup on his second or third cast here and landed a couple within a couple of minutes.

  Jason showing off his (small) native trout.  This fish was leading the smallest fish award for the day.  Phil beat him out right at the end of the day!  Any fish is fun to catch here.  

  Self-portrait with a timer.  Sometimes these things just work out well.  

Crooked River for the Westfly Rondi January 24-26, 2003

  How's this for a Welcome?  Crooked River Rondi at the Stafford Inn in Prineville, Oregon.

  Steve with a nice Rainbow on the Crooked during our January 2003 Rondi.

Trillium Lake (near Mt. Hood) with John and Harlan

  John with me at Trillium Lake.  One of the best views of Mt. Hood (13 K feet) in Oregon.  Plus some pretty good fishing.

  Me with Mt. Hood at Trillium Lake (early September, note low snow pack on Hood).

  With enough coaching from John and Harlan, I finally hooked a nice rainbow.  This guy was turning me in circles.  Good fighting fish!

  Getting some splash from a rainbow that doesn't want to be caught.

  Always a grin on the face of a fisherman with a fish landed.  Released (practice catch and release - you'll be glad you did).

Deschutes River November 19, 2002

  The Deschutes River is a beautiful river filled with magic and mystery.  After a rare desert rain, the canyons are filled with the smell of sage.

  Large riffles are perfect places to hunt Native Redsides.

  The famed Whitefish.  This was a particularly large one that fought harder than usual.  Noble, but stinky (and ugly) fish!

  Closer view.  Rod end to the end of the cork handle is 12".  This guy went 15"+.

  Eating flies?  No, a fighting jump caught in mid-act.

  The Resides fight as hard as any trout I've ever caught (or not!).

  The prize.  A very nice fight ends with a catch and a release.

  Another beautiful native Deschutes River Redside trout.

Clackamas River Fishing with Mike and John Sunday September 22, 2002

John with a small rainbow

Mike catching a 7.5 lbs rock.  Very nice!

Mike watching me catch a fish.  I smell a Whitey!

Me and my "friend" the Whitey.  Don't ask me why I'm grinning!

Next few photo's are from a small feeder creek to the Clackamas (name protected to preserve the future).

Nice Steelhead running from Mike and John.  Wee!  See the fish swim!

Really a pretty site.  A pod of Steelhead making a late summer run up a small creek.

Red Hills Lake Westfly Outing October 11, 2003

Red Hills Lake is a beautiful 4 acre private lake located near Dundee.  The fish are large and the scenery is outstanding.  The following photos are from a Westfly get together in October 2003.  Normally the lake limit is 6 fisherman, we had ten, but being good friends, it wasn't a problem.

This is a view from towards the inlet of the lake late in the afternoon.

Here I am with a fair-sized rainbow trout.  They do get fat in this lake!

John and a beautiful red stripped rainbow.

Chris O. and a very nice fish.  This was well over 20" and gave his bamboo rod a real nice workout.

Phillip H. in his "game face" and a fish he landed in the early morning. Smile Phillip.

Tim laying out line at Red Hills Lake with his parabolic cane rod.