Marty's Drift December 2006

Deschutes River Company Meeting – Trinity River Steelhead

Our Company Meeting

Last spring Bruce Belles, owner and president of ClackaCraft Drift Boats, bought a house in Maupin, Oregon. Maupin is the center of Deschutes River trout and steelhead fishing. When we scheduled our annual company meeting, we planned to meet in Maupin and take care of business and have some fun.

Early Thursday morning we finished breakfast and headed upriver for a float. There were four of us; John Lent, John Stenersen, Bruce, me and my trusty fishing dog, Buster. We took two of our 18’ ClackaMax boats. By November the fishing pressure on the Deschutes slacks off pretty well. There were two guide boats on the same drift. They were both ClackaCraft owners; Jack Hagan and John Hazel.

We fished a stretch of water that I have fished since about 1976. It’s called Don and Lola’s run because it was fished in the 1960s and 70s by Don and Lola McClain. Don and Lola used eight-foot, six-weight fiberglass fly rods and floating lines. The fly patterns they used were basically just four: Deschutes Skunk, Deschutes Demon, Dr. Gillis and McClain’s Fancy. You can find dressings for the Deschutes Skunk, Deschutes Demon and McClain’s Fancy in the book Steelhead Fly Fishing and Flies by Trey Combs. Of the four patterns my favorite was the Dr. Gillis. I still have few patterns tied by Lola, but it is hard to find the polar bear used to tie the wing. Her dye jobs were pretty unique.

Fishing was pretty slow on Thursday. Bruce had a fish take his bobber down and let go and John Stenersen had one good bump swinging a wet fly on a sink-tip line.

Friday morning we got up earlier. There were no other boats at the put-in so we decided that John Stenersen and I would fish Nena, and Bruce, John Lent, and Chris Shaw would go down to Don and Lola’s again. I went through the upper water at Nena above the campsite while John went to fish the water below the campsite. I went through the water once, then got out to throw sticks for Buster.

John had been busy while I was playing with the dog. He caught two steelhead. The morning was wearing on so we decided to move down closer to the rest of the group. On the way there was a short run above Long Canyon where I’ve caught a few fish. We beached the boat, and I told John that nearly all the fish I’d caught at this spot were in the upper part. John asked, “How about below that big rock?”

“I’ve never hooked one there,” I replied.

I think John had just made one or two casts when he was hooked up for the third time.

Forty minutes later we caught up with the rest of the crew. Before we quit for the day, Bruce had landed a steelhead on his bobber/jig outfit.

That’s a pretty good way to have a company meeting.

Northern California Trout and Steelhead

On November 6 I left for Redding, California. I was taking a boat to Greg Dean. Greg guides for The Fly Shop in Redding ( web address & phone # ). He does trips on the Lower Sacramento, Trinity and other local waters.

While I was in the Redding area I also arranged a couple of fishing trips. Chris Drummond and his father, Bud, had bought a ClackaCraft the previous year and Chris invited me to fish the Lower Sac with him. We met late in the morning at the boat launch near the fairgrounds.

We didn’t float far when Chris hooked a nice Sacramento rainbow. It was only the first of many that he hooked that afternoon.

This was the first time I had fished the Lower Sacramento, and, from what I saw, this is a remarkable trout fishery. I would put this river on a par with my experiences on the Bow and the Kenai. While it is true that you could hook a 10-pound brown on the Bow or a 12-pound rainbow on the Kenai, the average Sacramento rainbow is right in there with the average fish on both of these other rivers, and there seem to be lots of them.

Bob Norman is another northern California guide (530-604-3058) who uses ClackaCraft boats, and I have fished with him for steelhead twice in the past. Bob was doing a multi-day steelhead trip on the Trinity while I was there last month, but he invited me to float along while he guided. Bob was working with Bill Dickens, and they had four clients.

We started out on a chilly morning, but that was all to change in more ways than one. Bob and Bill got their boats launched and on the way before I launched. I told them I would catch up somewhere downriver.

There was a chilly fog hanging over the river and rowing felt good and kept me warm. As I came around a corner I was surprised to see a mature black bear burst out of the brush, run into the river and swim across. It’s not uncommon to see deer, mink or otters, but black bear are normally pretty shy. The bear didn’t hang around, disappearing up a steep slope.

Within an hour or two the fog burned off and the day became clear, sunny and warm. I caught up with Bob and Bill and I settled in to watch as their clients fished.

Bob and Bill had their anglers fishing with nymphs and strike indicators. I must say, if I had not seen what transpired over the next several hours, I never would have believed it. These four anglers landed at least 40 steelhead, maybe more. Various nymphs were used, but the hot one was a size 14 Red Copper John. It seemed that not five minutes would elapse and someone was playing a fish. Several times two of the four anglers were hooked up.

I don’t know what can be said about a day like this one, except that they happen too seldom and go by too fast. I didn’t even fish this day, and it was still one of the most exciting and enjoyable days I’ve ever spent on a steelhead river.

The Coming Show Season

It’s only a few weeks until our show season begins. For a complete list of the shows we will be attending, please click the button 'Show Schedule' on the left. I have eight or nine shows that I will work this year:

• January 6-14 The Portland Boat Show. Portland, OR (I’ll probably be there on the week-ends.)
• January 18-21 I.S.E., Sacramento, CA
• January 24-28 Western Washington Sportsmen’s Show, Puyallup, WA
• February 2-4 Eugene Boat & Sports Show, Lane County Fairgrounds Eugene, OR
• February 9-11 Fly Fishing Show, Bellevue, WA
• February 16-18 Douglas County Sports Show, Roseburg, OR fairgrounds
• February 23-25 Jackson County Sports Show, Medford, OR fairgrounds
• March 2-4 Nor-Cal Boat, Sports & RV Show, Anderson, CA Shasta Dist. Fairgrounds
• March 9-10 Oregon Conclave FFF Fly Fishing, Fly Tying Expo, Albany, OR
• March 29-April 1 Great Alaska Sportsman’s Show Anchorage, AK

Stop by and say hello if you go to any of these shows.