Deschutes Round 2

Heading out this week to float the Deschutes.  I've been too distracted with the other responsibilities and projects to give the preparations their due.  Luckily I tied enough flies for the last trip to cover me for at least another 5 days (or years) on the river.  The decree came down from the captains of our boats...Skagit lines and heavy tips will be outlawed with the exception of the bright sun hours of high afternoon.  Scandies it is...swing'em up. 

I started a checklist last night and put together a few piles of carefully sorted gear.  When space and weight are important considerations, the idea is to bring just enough.  From there, it's necessary to fit the "just enough" into dry bags.  Between rain and river running, you can't afford to allow anything to get wet.  "Just enough" when wet, quickly becomes "not enough". 

Stay dry, stay happy.

Speaking of staying dry, part of my trip prep was to drop some new sheetmetal screws into the soles of my wading boots.  I was going to spring for the manufacturer's labeled carbide tipped versions for $30 but the $1.25 box of steel screws I bought 4 years ago isn't empty and they worked well enough in the past.  I'm usually all in on gear and gadgets but I have seemingly decided to draw the line on an extra $28.75 for riverbed grippage.

I started this post this morning and let it marinate on my desktop all afternoon.  Since my original typing I've received a few updates from out west suggesting that the lower stretches of the D may be unfishable due to high water.  There was a mention of a few other rivers as a fallback plan in case things don't clear in time.  As I read the options for plan B, C and D I chuckled thinking that ANY one of them was worth the price of admission and it was almost embarrassing to think of any of these places as a "back-up plan".

The Moon is flooded, we may have to settle for Saturn, Jupiter or Mars. 
Fire the thrusters...Giddyup.

3 more Intruders and 38 some odd hours before scheduled flight...

I spent the evening knotting some maxima leaders in case the floating poly don't handle to my liking.  According to a "secret formula" I now have 4 - 18' leaders knotted, coiled and bagged.  I wrapped a few more Intruders and decided to lighten the last two up since I was starting to see black and purple in my dreams...

Intruders

Intruders, waiting patiently to be eaten...

More PURRRRRPLE

More purple.  I like the Ska-Opper well enough to add another 1/2 doz in Purple with hot orange legs...
This fly is going to piss them off or freak them out...

Tonight's 1/2 dozen

I tied  1/2 dozen of these the other night but they didn't feel right until I got to the 6th one...I started over where I left off and cranked these six out...I thought the addition of a krystal flash wing was cool.  If it turns out to be un-cool I can scissor it off...On-site Reductive Fly Tying. 

Calling my own bluff

I thought I was done tying for the "D"...but I guess I'm not.

One step closer.

Casting practice and a few more flies

I took the two hander to the big W for a day of practicing my form.  I'm pretty happy with the results... as long as I am always casting to river right with an upstream breeze I should be fine!  I did encounter a SMB and a Crappie.  I also encountered two jackasses in a jon boat who thought that it would be fine to fish through (not just drift through) the front and backside of a sweeper I was swinging flies through.  Words were exchanged...hopefully they learned something about river/boat/fishing decorum.
I also wrapped a few more flies.  One, which I took out to the river to test, was a spun deer hair variation of the Ska-opper.  I tied it with Haig-Brown's Steelhead bee in mind.  It floated and popped and stayed on top with no problem.  I think I may tie some in different colors and maybe size them down a little.  The other fly was such a thing of beauty that I named it after my wife.  Finally, the big box is full! This in addition to the  boxes of leeches and intruders and I think I am set. 

Down to the River

As I went down in the river to spey
Studying about that good old way
And who shall swing thy muddler round
Good Lord, show me the way ! 

O brothers let's go down,
Let's go down, come on down,
Come on brothers let's go down,
Down in the river to spey. 

(my apologies to Allison Krauss)

So Shox McSteel and I went down to the river to practice heaving line with our two handers as a salve for the confounding itch that comes in the weeks prior to a pending fishing trip.  I loaded my 13'6" Croix with a 480 grain compact scandi and started flailing.  Every once in a while I'd feel a decent load and I'd get 20' or 30' of backing to the water. My loops were always open and poorly formed and no matter what I did I couldn't get the loop on point.  As our two hour session ended I asked if I might try his Sage 7126.  Being the guy that he is, he obliged.  I transferred my Nautilus to the Sage, stripped in the running line, dropped my anchor, formed as good a "D" loop as I could and let it go... and it went.  The running line bucked against the reel and the loop was waaay tighter than I'd managed (ever) before.  I peeled some more line off the reel and soaked that on the next cast.  I've always said that the rod doesn't make the caster...I need to rethink that.  I played around and was impressed by the light and even swing weight as well as the ability to really feel the load.  I may be a two hand neophyte but I know what I like and it's tough to argue with a tight loop and an extra 20'.

sixteen

Playing around at the vice.  Feeling like the boxes are looking good for the "D" trip.  I messed around with a few string leeches and even tied a few with the 7-strand as the hook eye.  Hopefully the plastic coating on the wire won't wear through and cut the line...  I also dug up a General Practitioner that a buddy of mine gave me a number of years back when he sent me a few intruders and some other schwag.  I decided to try a few with a dropper hook on 7-strand.  They look pretty neat on dry land.

12037 on the 15th

I just checked and my hit counter is at 12037...I must re-read my own stuff a lot more than I thought.
Tonight I decided to take the steelhead tying full circle.  If these chromers are so hot to eat a caddis, perhaps they will take the best all around caddis emerger known to this author...a hare's ear soft hackle.  1/2 doz added on #7 Alec Jackson hooks.  In case they really want the adult, I added another 1/2 doz steelhead caddis of my own design on the same #7's.  My tying desk looks like Noah's Ark exploded.

Fourteen

If last night's dozen doesn't raise them, perhaps tonight's dozen steelhead caddis will...

Saturday the 13th

I tied a few articulated leeches today...50 lbs gel spun to connect the sections and then enough marabou to make my finger tips black.  I kept thinking about the water ski muddler I tied back on the eleventh night  and decide to add a few more.  By this time next month I will be back from the "D" and we will know which of the 9 dozen turned the trick (if any).

Twelfth Nite

Messed around with Q-tips...er ...I mean tubes.  Finishing nail in the vice and away we go.  I've got a long, long way to go before I feel comfortable tying on something other than a hook.
Special thanks to Shocks McSteel for sending the black bear hide.  Magical stuff.

the eleventh...

I screwed around at the vice today and tied a fly using pheasant, tinsel, marabou, and rubber legs.  I just needed to breakout...if it catches fish it will be called the "midwest farmer's daughter" if it doesn't catch fish it will require no such name.

 I was trying to figure out how a fly might really skate on a long down and across swing and decided that I'd tie a muddler that didn't so much skate as ski...i.e. single ski  (see pic below).  It may work or it may be a total flop but the end result was pretty much what I had in mind.

I also wrapped some more purple deer hair (more or less) in the shape of a muddler.  These should be a pretty safe fall back if Ol' One Ski doesn't pan out.

The boxes are starting to fill up...

My eldest daughter decided that she wanted to wrap today and given the bright and wild colors of many steelhead flies (and the material I had on the table) it seemed obvious that she'd be drawn to the process.
I stepped in and showed her how to get things started, but then undid all of my work so she could start over and do it all herself.  I think she did an excellent job.

She picked the colors and materials...

A close up of my daughter's handiwork...

 

Night 10...Tying for the "D"

The latest in the box filling saga...
I decided to try the "Green Butt Skunk" with a chartreuse ostrich hurl butt...it looked pretty cool so I continued.
1/2 doz in the box.  I moved on to the "Redwing Blackbird", the tying instructions weren't clear in all of my googling so I followed the sample pic that was sent by NK and embellished with some red dyed pheasant tail for the collar and tail.  Again, I liked, so I wrapped a half dozen.  Next I built a orange bodied muddler with tan and orange kip tail and the bottom cut flush (flat) I'm hoping this will wake across some steelhead's nose and cause it to erupt...I switched to a straight eye hook for the larger version and used a down eyed Mustad 3906 sz 6 on the smaller versions.  We'll just have to see....

...Night 9

I flew back from the bright lights of Los Angeles this evening and pulled up a chair at the dining room table (instead of my desk in the basement), clamped on my vice and caught up with my wife while I wrapped up 1/2 doz Max Canyons and 1/2 doz Purple Angels (Edge Brite Variant).  Good to be home.

Tying for the "D" Night 7 and 8

I flew to California on a business trip on Monday morning (alarm set at 3:30 am).  I set up the desk and went through the rigors of a day at work followed by dinner etc...I sat down to tie but couldn't decide what to wrap.  I thought hard for 30 minutes and then went to bed.

Tonight I decided it was to be the size 6 Prism...(see below) It's 2:30 am Central time and I've had enough....the road is tough.

Tying for the "D" - Night 5

Cheers, Mr. Pearson...

Tying for the "D" - Night 4

Night 4...this half dozen flies were supposed to be "Green Ants" but changed into something close but not exact.  I was short some critical ingredients and also found some fur that I was really interested in trying as a wing in place of squirrel.  The cool thing about this fur is that the diameter of the fiber gets thinner the closer you get to the skin of the pelt.  The downside to tying with most fur and hair is that you (I) inevitably end up with a bulky head.  This stuff worked like a champ...I hope the steelhead agree.

TP shot me a note on the last post and mentioned that I needed to add some purple muddlers.  I'm glad he did.I meant to tie a 1/2 doz and include them with this post  but I found that I am tragically out of good purple deer hair for muddlers.  I have a sweet purple bucktail for Clousers and Deceivers, but it's the long fine hair that doesn't spin or flare very well. I attempted one and included it as a "thanks for the note" fly.  I guess I'll be shopping for some more material in the morning. 

 
 

In other news, a permanent cradle for the newly acquired Mad River has been added to the garage wall...this canoe will likely NOT be sold anytime soon.