Swingin' Flies in the Pacific Northwest: North Umpqua

Sep 4, 2012

North Umpqua

My trip to the NU happened a few weeks ago. I'm just now getting around to talking about it. Seems my blogging has taken a back seat to everything else in life.

Left the house on a late evening to arrive at the NU early in the morning. Early as in, enough time to sleep for a few hours. The NU is a 4 hour drive from the house in Washington. While the NU isn't really that far, it is enough where I wanted to snooze.

Got up before the sun did. Put the waders on and wandered down to Camp Water. My first stop was Lower Boat. I figured that was a safer bet than trying to negotiate through the water to Station before the sun was up. Saw some fish jumping, but couldn't catch anything but smaller fish. The river was empty except for one other guy. I took his spot on Upper Boat while he moved to Station. I later went down to Kitchen, then went back up to Station. No fish anywhere. Bummer.

Access	North Umpqua
Air Temp	Low 50, High 85
Water Temp/Visibility	?F / 8-10 feet
Weather	Sunny and windy
River Stage	? feet
Time in/out	5am / 10pm
Leaders/Lines	Scandi
	floaters	All day
	8lb Maxima
Flies

unweighted summer
Notes
Windy with good water level and visibility. Typical magical Summer day on the NU

I made the walk downriver to several spots that I hit on previous trips to the NU. No go. Again, I saw some fish, but couldn't get them to my fly. I was fishing floating lines and un weighted flies. Often skaters.

Sometime in later morning I did what I do every trip to the NU. I slipped into the water. After a trip back to the car and a change of clothes, I was back again. This time up river of the bridge. Decided to walk further than I have before. Came to realize, once you get around the bend, there isn't a whole lot to fish unless you want to walk for a long time. Oh well, lesson learned.

Back to the car. This time I decided to drive down to mile marker 30 something and parked at every pullout available. Found some great spots that I marked on my map for future reference. Ended up catching some 18-22" fish. Nothing to write home about.

The day was windy. Casting that compact scandi wasn't easy. I concentrated on what was right in front of me and found some good water at my feet. Had a blast while being blasted by that wind.

I ended up day somewhere between mile marker 30 and Camp Water. Scurried home and had another fantastic magical Umpqua river trip in the books.

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About Me

My interest in fly fishing began as a teenager in my home state of Missouri. After years of fishing rivers in and around the Ozarks, I moved to California in the early 90's. Life continued on, I happily drove hours around to various streams hunting trout. Then it happened. One rainy fall morning, I landed my first steelhead.

Game over. Buh bye trout. Hello steelhead!

Fast forward to 2011. My obsession with steelhead was out of control. I convinced my wife and family, that we needed to leave California and head to the Pacific Northwest.

Now, I'm able to happily fish for steelhead almost year around in both Washington and Oregon. My now home-water is a quick 10 minutes away. Within two hours, I can reach the Deschutes, Klickitat, Wilson, Sandy, Clackamas, Hood, Lewis, Cowlitz, Kalama, and dozens of others. Many of those are within a half hour. Paradise.

Although I started out with single handed rods all those years ago, I switched almost exclusively to 2-handed rods around 2005. I find them to be more efficient and less tiring over those long days. Initially reluctant to give them a try, I've rarely looked back.

This blog is my little spot on the internet to keep record of my trips, fly tying, and thoughts on fishing. Originally conceived as a personal journal to help myself remember where I went and what flies were productive- for whatever reason, I decided to make it public. Hopefully you will get something from it.