* Western Montana, 3rd Week of July
Seven of us fished in the Bitteroot Range, just outside of Darby/Hamilton, MT. Unfortunately they were having the same heat wave that affected the entire West, which put the fish down for several days. The Bitteroot River was the worst, with only a few small fish caught per day, both drifting and wading. Water levels were low everywhere, particularly in Rock Creek, which again yielded small fish. Despite continued heat over 100 degrees, the fish eventually got hungry, and on our last two days each of us was catching 15-25 fish in the 8-15" range on the East Fork of the Bitteroot. The hot fly was a madame-X, size 10-12 tied with a red royal coachman body. The standard yellow pattern also worked well, matching the hoppers in the area. For droppers, small copper Johns with legs, or tunghead prince patterns worked the best. If you go, there is a great place to stay that sleeps seven comfortably in one house: Rainbow Point Lodge (906) 363-0346. Ask for Bill. We thought it was a real deal at less than a thousand for the week.
Note: Everyone we talked to said that July/August is not a good time to fish anywhere in Montana, except the lakes. Best times are late May and September/October. - David South
* Bend, Oregon August 12th
I fished with some folks from the Central Oregon Fly Fishers on their Little Lava Lake fishout. I thought I could get some good info on how to fish the lake as well as meet some people to fish with when I'm up there. They were great about sharing flies and technique tips, even with a Californian! I did pretty well, catching as many as any of them and more than most, the largest being a beautiful, acrobatic 16" Rainbow, taken with the trusty prince nymph. I was able to pass my fly choice on to a couple of COFF members which led to a few more hook-ups by them. Sometimes I think it has a lot more to do with luck than skill, but I'll take it however it comes! - Kathy O'Hara
* Kenai River, Alaska, June
Steve and I spent a week on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula with one very fun, productive day on the catch-and-release section of the Kenai River. We hooked into some great-fighting sockeye salmon (Alaskans call them silver bullets and they were true to that name) and big Kenai rainbows using 7 and 8-weight rigs and what they call "meat and eggs" pattern flies. - Kathy O'Hara
* Las Padres Reservoir Revisited, August 17th
Dave Jensen and I made the trek up to Los Padres Reservoir to give it another shot. I've never been up there this late in the year and didn't know what to expect. Given the poor options for local fresh water fishing I was ready to take a chance. The weather as quite cool at 5:30 AM. Reason for the obvious comment was that neither Dave nor I had brought along warm clothes. This caused me some concern as I didn't bring my waders either, thinking that the water would be very warm this time of summer. As it happened, the water was warmer than the air. When was the last time you jumped into the water (not your hot tub) to get warm? Back to the fishing...not two minutes on the water and BAM, my first big hit of the summer. Both Dave and I were using type VI sink tips and had on black woolly buggers with hare's ear nymphs as droppers. That first good hit let me know that there were still big fish to account for. We made for the bottleneck at the far end. Dave did well fishing along Tom Bradley's Wall and managed the largest fish of the day - a solid 16", beautiful dark green-bodied rainbow with watermelon streaks running the length of its flanks. I had numerous smashing hits but only managed to bring to hand two rather diminutive rainbows. As the winds picked up around 11 AM we decided to start our kick back and promised each other to revisit this local gem later on in the early Fall to try our skill at catching some of the browns during their spawning runs back into the Carmel River. - Tim Loomis
* Lake Buchanan, Texas
Hello to all of the Santa Cruz Fly Fishermen Members! It has been just over a year since I moved to Texas and from all of my wonderful mentors and friends in the Club. I live on the lake, near Burnet, Texas. I moved back to my state of birth to be close by and to help my Mother, and to live a more simple life. I am putting my hours of SCFF fly tying classes to good use here, as I'm actually selling many shad pattern flies at three local bait shops . . . hurray! This is a very enjoyable hobby for me and I love the feedback and discussing fishing out on the lake with everyone. Now these aren't exactly little flies I tie, actually I call them lures, and use from 1/0 to 4/0 hooks in hopes that more spin casters will not be intimidated by the term fly. On some, I use only synthetic flash materials, such as holographic, glow-in-the-dark and twisted flash. On others, I use bright feathers and bucktail for a larger profile, for those lunker striped bass! From my trusty source I've heard of black bass taking my red shad lures, and some days the only thing stripers strike on are the white shad imitations! Now the chartreuse lures are becoming the hot item. There are a few fly fishermen and guides around, and I'm happy that I've found them. More often I talk with live bait and tournament fishermen in the several lakes that are dammed from the Colorado River in the Hill Country here. I took my boat out recently and had a great time despite low water levels. I'm planning to test a few new patterns soon at very deep levels where the bass are staying cool. I'll let you know what I catch. I hope you all are enjoying your summer and getting out to fish or tie flies as often as possible. You know you have all been a great inspiration to me, and still are! I think about you often!- Carrie Kojak
200 Loma Vista Drive, Burnet, Texas 78611
512-756-7556 bigsurwego@aol.com