B
Saturday, June 12, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Visions of rushing
streams, wild trout
S
tream trout snuck
up on me this year. It
hasn’t always been
so. There was a time when a
frantic feeling of anticipation
accompanied opening day of
trout fi shing. When I’d wake up
in the dark before the alarm went
off with butterfl ies in my stomach.
My high school buddies and I
hit a river trail before the morn-
ing sun lit up canyon walls, with
a goal to be fi rst on the water.
When rivers ran high and roily,
we’d hop barbwire fences and
drop a worm in feeder creeks that
ran through pastures surrounded
by “No Trespassing” signs. Back
when catching the biggest and
most trout was the closest most of
us got to sex.
Nowadays I’m more apt to
start the season on the Umatilla
River near our family cabin. The
river runs bankfull, still charged
with high-elevation snowmelt.
Evidence of the February 2020
“100-year fl ood” is everywhere:
brush pinned shoulder high in the
crooks of streamside alder, me-
anders straightened, deep pools
gouged out, log jams that stem
Renegade lead fl y (its white hackle
allows me to track my offering) and
Prince Nymph dropper.
Light rain sprinkles the water’s
surface. A waterproof jacket would
DENNIS DAUBLE
have been a better choice than a
hooded sweatshirt. My favorite
the fl ow, and long, wide stretches stream bird, the American dipper,
of exposed cobble.
chatters past. Cottonwood and wil-
Dennis Dauble/Contributed Photo
It’s 6 a.m. Opening day of trout
low shoots poke out from crevices
Native rainbow trout of the Blue Mountains are of the “redband” strain.
season, 2021. No longer able to
of bare cobble as if to promise a
Most exhibit dark oval parr marks and a narrow red stripe along their
ignore light creeping under the
riparian corridor will once again
window shade, I roll out of bed and provide cooling shade for trout dur- lateral line.
start a pot of coffee. The cabin’s
ing the heat of summer.
porch thermometer reads 38 F and
The next hour is spent working
rain drips lightly from the metal
current margins, pocket pools, and
roof. Three hours later, after a
shallow runs. There is no fl ash of
hearty breakfast of sausage, scram- trout on my best casts. I refl ect
bled eggs, and day-old doughnut,
back to Boy Scout days when I
I shove a fat log in the woodstove
held “Atlas” salmon eggs in my
and head upriver. Air temperature mouth to speed up the process of
has warmed to 42. The tops of fi r
re-baiting.
trees toss in an upriver breeze.
See Trout/Page 6B
The fi rst stop is a braided section
formed where rushing fl ow meets
Dennis Dauble/Contributed Photo
an immovable basalt formation
Dabbing a fl y or using a bow-
and splits in two. To get to the best
and-arrow cast to put a fl y into
hole requires fording knee-deep
water so cold my teeth chatter. The small pools can lead to catching
rainbow trout from rivers
next challenge is tying a clinch
running high and roily
knot against muted light when
in the spring.
I put together a two fl y tandem:
THE
NATURAL
WORLD
7 steps to fly-fishing freedom
ON THE
TRAIL
GARY LEWIS
Stroll into any fl y shop in Eastern
Oregon and chances are the person who
walks in behind you has never fl y-fi shed
before. They’re looking to get into the
sport and don’t know how to start.
Here’s what happens. Somebody has
invited them on a trip. Perhaps it’s a
“bucket list” thing — they need to check
it off as something they’ve done. Maybe
they just moved here from California and
have always wanted to fl y-fi sh. Maybe
they saw a movie with the young Brad
Pitt casting a fl y on a rollicking cutthroat
stream.
For whatever reason, they are here
and ready to fl y-fi sh. They’re a bit scared,
afraid what other people might think
when they see them hang a fl y in a tree.
Here’s the thing. We all start at zero,
ground level. No one is born knowing
how to tie a knot or execute a roll cast
or dead-drift a dry. We have to learn it.
Sometimes at an early age. Sometimes
later. Fly-fi shermen, despite our self-
righteous tendencies, are welcoming. We
like to see people learn to cast, select a fl y
and take it to water.
Yet the fi rst-timer’s fear, it lingers.
Picture the president of a successful
company. He does everything well, he is
Gary Lewis/Contributed Photo
admired, successful and now he wants
to fl y-fi sh. He knows he has no skills, he Mikayla Lewis with a fl y rod rainbow, one of 9 caught and released in an
evening’s fi shing. Mikayla was casting and retrieving a CJ Rufus streamer.
knows he has to start at ground level
and work his way into a sport in which
he is a latecomer. Some people never get
past this point. It is time to face the fear,
pick up a rod and learn a new way of life.
That’s what it is.
Let’s say you are fi shing next week.
This might be the fi rst time, it might be
the fi rst time in a long time. If you want
to hide the fact you are a rank amateur,
here is how to get ready for the fi rst trip.
Take a casting lesson
You’re going to have to admit to some-
one that you don’t know how to cast. Go
into a fl y shop. Schedule a lesson. Learn
the simple pick-up and lay-down, the
basic overhead and the roll cast. It can all
be taught and absorbed in an hour.
Learn a knot
Go online and learn to tie the improved
Gary Lewis/Contributed Photo
clinch knot. That’s the only one you really This Eastern Oregon rainbow fell for a CJ Rufus, a streamer with a marabou
need to know right now. Later on you
underwing and lots of fl ash.
will want to learn the blood knot and the
surgeon’s knot, but that can wait.
your own. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of
videos and practice simple casts in the
money. There are combo outfi ts on the
backyard.
Get a fl y rod
shelves at sporting goods stores.
Don’t borrow someone else’s gear. Get
See Fishing/Page 6B
Put it together, watch some YouTube
Tom Claycomb/Contributed Photo
Spending time with your daddy is the best gift that
you could ever give him.
Gift ideas for an
outdoors dad
It’s almost Father’s Day. I don’t know about you but
my father was always hard to buy a gift for, not that
he was picky, he just didn’t really need anything. So, I
always ended up buying him a pair of leather gloves
to use for building
fence and working
BASE CAMP
our cattle. Look-
ing back, maybe I
TOM CLAYCOMB
should have been
a more creative
shopper because him and mom bought a trailer in their
later years and traveled around a bit. So I guess I could
of bought him some camping gear.
But before you jump off the cliff, if your dad is an
outdoorsman there are a million gifts that you can buy
him. And if you shop wisely you don’t have to spend that
much. So, let’s go over some of the items you might want
to consider for dad.
CAMPING
• Tents. Check out Alps Mountaineering tents.
• Propane camp stove
• Cooking gear. Cast iron skillets, utensils, plates etc.
• Camp tables. We always are short of tables.
• Cooking setups. They make cool multi-level tables
to cook on and hold your cooking supplies.
• Lantern, fl ashlights. I’ve been testing some Black-
fi re lights this year that are awesome.
• Tarp(s)
HUNTING
• Knives of Alaska Professional Boning Knife.
• Ammo. Ha ... if you can fi nd any.
• UMAREX Synergis .22 cal. air gun.
• UMAREX .25 cal. Gauntlet.
• Knives. Outdoorsmen love knives. Smith’s Consum-
er Products offers some economical folders.
• Knives of Alaska has some well-designed, high
quality hunting/fi shing knives.
• Knife sharpening stones. Smith’s Consumer Prod-
ucts owns the market. Get him a fi ne diamond stone.
• Calls Turkey (4-Play), varmint (FOXPRO), crow, elk
and duck calls.
• GRIPSHIELD Keeps your hands dry for competi-
tion shooting.
See Gifts/Page 6B