"So you live where now?"

It seems like I can never set up roots these days, I move a lot and constantly.  But I at least have found the region I think I might set up roots.  I now live in Oregon on the amazing coast.  I have never slept so good as going to bed with the sound of surf in the distance.
Fly fishing here is very different though, or so I thought.  Most guys throw traditional steel head, salmon and trout flies at those species.  While some nuts, soon to included me, chase the Lingcod and Rockfish on the rocky surf beaten coast.  The bays and estuaries seemed to be homes to sculpin and crabs.  but I tried to paddle out and throw some small ep minnow flies.  I started catching trout... in the salt water bays.
Sea run Cutthroat trout, or Coastal Cutthroat dominate this region.  They are in the river year round, but a heavy crop comes out to feed in the massive ocean.  Others stay in the bays and estuaries.  But starting in August they can all be found in the bays and rivers.  What do these small trout eat?  Are they good for nymphing?  Well yeah they will eat that but....

I would call them predators, in fact I have never seen a more aggressive trout.  In the bays they feed on sand lance and fight more like a baby tarpon then a trout.  They even will leap out of the water when crushing a top water fly.  I catch them on flies between one and six inches long.

Spring Time pike

Got out for some post spawn pike at a local river, one fish caught then I went home.  A single 30 inch northern came to hand.  In this river that is a one in a thousand fish.  Also one of the biggest I've caught on my TFO TiCr x five weight.  Nail a new concept fly I design that worked better great.

Last Fall's Pike

Last September, one year before I am to be wed to one of the most aggressive predator fishing women ever born, we decided to head out to a local river that has become a Pike hot spot in recent years.  Emm loves pike, more than gar and I am the same.   Best part about small river pike is the top water fishing.  Since this river is so jammed packed with pike, a thirty incher is the giant in this place.  But the first thing I noticed when throwing four inch streamers in a ten foot wide river was how much It felt like I was fishing for baby tarpon.  You stop worrying about size and just throw.  We used four through six weight rods, with flies as small as a size 2 wolly bugger and as large as my forearm.  Most fish where about twenty two inches long, one thirty incher made its way in.  I can wait for spring, an article about how I did it to follow.

Natural Magic

Natural magic!

When the game changer fly came out I was happy to see that fly fishing had caught on to the fact that rear weighted lures, even jointed ones, have a great random sideways running action.  I rely on this action most of the time when I fish for predators.  Even trout go nuts over this action, but when you have a special place in your heart for esoxs, you find love for a lazy sideways moving fly.  The Game Changer has this action, it also works well when speed up.  So I fished it and found one major issue, the synthetic material was limited in its action.  The action of the fly is based solely on the joints.  This is fine most of the time, but, you get limited flash, and limited sound.  How a fly sounds, as in how it vibrates in the water, is the most important part is fishing streamers.  So I decided to mess with the recipe.

What I came up with was a basic fly with three materials, plus eyes, hooks, and articulated fish spin shanks.  It looks like the magic swimmer from sebile lures in the water.  I call it, Natural magic.

The fly will turn hard to the right on the stop and the materials on it will expand, and then constrict on the strip.

Natural magic

Front hook:  B10s Gamakatsu size 2

Rear hook: Gamakatsu egg hook size 2

Spin:  Fish skull fish spin

Wire Connection:  Beadalon 0.18 wire

Body: Schlappen hackled with Hairline polar chenille

Tail:  Laser dub white with clear cure goo

Colors:  Waterproof markers

Eyes:  5/16 3d eyes.

Spring pike flies

Some flies for the next pike fishing season.

Gearing for the spring.

Year of The Water Wolf

2013 as seen by my phone.

What a year, a few dozen trout, a few dozen bass and chain pickerel, and 125 northern pike all on flies.  And I don't know how many others.  Good buy 2013.