Book or website for picking right fly depending on fish/river?

[spark]

Hello,

I'm looking for a book or website which tells what fly I have to use for depending on time/temperature/season, fish species.

I've been Clackamas river (right below dam(Faraday) - forgot the name which is above Mil Dam) last Sunday, saw some fished on corky & yarn, but not on my fly rod.
Wish I caught one on my fly rod. :-(

Thank you,
Spark.

 

[Trout-tacular!]

That's a decent book. Another to have in pocket might be Hatch Guide for Western Streams by Jim Schollmeyer. As for websites Westfly.com is a good place to check out. I could suggest a ton more but wouldn't want to bog you down...right now.

 

[OnTheFly]

That's a decent book. Another to have in pocket might be Hatch Guide for Western Streams by Jim Schollmeyer. As for websites Westfly.com is a good place to check out. I could suggest a ton more but wouldn't want to bog you down...right now.

That is a must have book. I fully recommend that one.

 

[troutdude]

I'd recommend "Flyfisher's Guide to Oregon", by John Huber. Wilderness Adventures Press, Inc. , 2nd Edition, 2008.

Here's some excerpts (you should be able to click on each pic, to enlarge them):

 

[MattZ]

I understand when you are relatively new a book about flies may seem useful, but they aren't really. Rather spend some time with Gary Borgers Presentation. He helps you understand why you are doing these things with these flies. thats much more important than picking a fly. I walk up to every single fly stream with the same flies. I have confidence in these flies, and trout are all the same all across the world. So are river bugs. size and color change bit regionally, but not much. and fish are not that smart anyway. which is why i suggest instead read about presentation.

If you are speaking about steelhead, I know its much the same. you want a strong profile in your fly, but its more about your presentation when fly fishing.

I recommend picking 3 nymphs, 3 dries and 3 emergers and fishing them all well. Get confidence in what you fish.

lets take the upper clackamas for trout. you need to cover mayflies and caddis. size 16 is a standard if you only had to pick one size, but 14s and 18s have their place. same for dries and nymphs. make sure you have some dark, some light in color. make sure some are heavy, and some not so heavy.

Otherwise, tie on a size 16 CDC and Elk with 2 to 3 ft of 5x tippet and a size 16 beaded pheasant tail nymph tied sparse. you will catch trout in any trout stream eventually with this setup.

if this question had steelhead in mind, well, sorry for my lack of advice, haha.

 

[FlyBum]

WOW! It's great to have a new person here that can contribute some useful info.

In my case I'd choose a sz 14 Stimulator with that PT as a drop for trout. If steelhead whatever in black and purple. As stated, "They aren't that smart," it's true.

 

[spark]

Thank you for the brilliant idea! Mattz. In the meantime, PT looks meaning Pheasant Tail, but i don't know what the CDC means? Furthermore, when I present the Stimulator with a PT, how do I do?

 

[FlyBum]

You'll want to trail the Pheasant Tail (PT) nymph about 18 inches off of the Stimmy. You want to make sure there is plenty of floatant on the stimmy or it will sink, but a sz 16 PT should be somewhat ok as long as the bug stays up.

CDC is a type of feather that provides natural flotation, it comes from the duck's preen gland area (butt) and has natural water shedding capabilities. No floatant needed!! It just gums up the feather not allowing it to float, but there are specific CDC floatants available.

 

[MattZ]

Sorry guys, CDC and Elk is really an elk hair caddis variation. CDC is a magic feather that imparts very nice movement to a fly. I use it on almost every fly i tie somewhere.

We call this a dry and dropper rig. What i am looking for again, regardless of fly, is something buggy that floats reasonably well on the top. this acts as my bobber or strike indicator. Stimulator is a great choice, especially for faster water, as they float very well. Other good choices would be a foam beetle, or daves hopper, or royal wulff, or any dry fly you can see well and floats well. depending on how deep the river is, 18 to 36 inches of tippet material ties to the bend of the dry fly, or even to the eye of the dry fly. then attach to this tippet material your nymph. any small bead head nymph will work. check this image for clarity.


you are fishing the nymph really, and the dry fly is simply bonus. Often more fish will take the dry, in which case put on a second dry or snip the dropper off altogether.

Have fun!

 

[ChezJfrey]

... but its more about your presentation when fly fishing.

I recommend picking 3 nymphs, 3 dries and 3 emergers and fishing them all well. Get confidence in what you fish.

lets take the upper clackamas for trout. you need to cover mayflies and caddis. size 16 is a standard if you only had to pick one size, but 14s and 18s have their place. same for dries and nymphs. make sure you have some dark, some light in color. make sure some are heavy, and some not so heavy.

Otherwise, tie on a size 16 CDC and Elk with 2 to 3 ft of 5x tippet and a size 16 beaded pheasant tail nymph tied sparse. you will catch trout in any trout stream eventually with this setup.

I admittedly do not have vast experience fly fishing, but when I've taken the time to specifically fly fish for trout, I would agree with what MattZ wrote.

I've pretty much just used an Elk Caddis and a small nymph of some sort...like copper john. If I cast out and get a good dead drift in a likely water type, I've never failed to catch a handful of trout on a river.

Just don't ask me to still water as I sorely lack ability to locate trout in that environment...LOL

 

[troutdude]

Thank you so much for the book. That's what I'm exactly looking for.

I'm glad that's helpful.

 

[Van]

Helpful or not, i enjoy buying and reading them. I like having a nice collection of fly fishing/tying books in my pc/tying room.

 

[troutdude]

Van, I cannot agree more. Thank you.

I've grown tired, of peeps who say that a good collection of well written books have no intrinsic value. I have learned a LOT more from reading about my favorite hobbies; than from people who profess that they know more...and the books aren't worth a damn.

 

[mezzfin]

A bad presentation with exactly the right fly will not catch fish, so I am onboard with the idea that learning a good dead-drift is probably job #1. You could start with a 2-nymph set-up, vary the looks of the nymphs (say, a prince followed by a midge), and get to work on a good cast, a great mend, and letting out line gracefully. Can catch all kinds of fish this way - just vary the size of things. My avatar is a #2 Deschutes stone that catches steelhead, and I fish it with a #6 red copper john that gets trout. You get them flowing in the right spot of water column at the same pace as the river, and you tight lines!

 

[Irishrover]

Thank you for the brilliant idea! Mattz. In the meantime, PT looks meaning Pheasant Tail, but i don't know what the CDC means? Furthermore, when I present the Stimulator with a PT, how do I do?

If you seriously want to get this fly fishing thing down, pick up a copy of The Curtis Creek Manifesto by Sheridian Anderson. It's a not so serious book that will answer a lot of your questions. It's writen in a humorous fashion with lots of drawing to aid in understand his point. It's a quick read, short and fun. You can pick it up at bi-mart for about 8 bucks or used on Amazon for less. The book cover just about all you will need to know and it will help you break the fly fishing short hand. Then you'll know CDC is nothing but short hand for Cul de Canard or duck butt feathers. CDC sound much better than duck butt feather especially if you are tying flies with them.

 

[spark]

A bad presentation with exactly the right fly will not catch fish, so I am onboard with the idea that learning a good dead-drift is probably job #1. You could start with a 2-nymph set-up, vary the looks of the nymphs (say, a prince followed by a midge), and get to work on a good cast, a great mend, and letting out line gracefully. Can catch all kinds of fish this way - just vary the size of things. My avatar is a #2 Deschutes stone that catches steelhead, and I fish it with a #6 red copper john that gets trout. You get them flowing in the right spot of water column at the same pace as the river, and you tight lines!

Thank you so much for your kind explanation. I think my first problem is good casting/mending in fast current(it's really hard for me to mend in fast current below Faraday Dam in Clackamas River), and selection of flies. So i will take a class soon. I will try your avatar this weekend at McIver Park. Unfortunately I cut my left middle finger last weekend, still can bend due to stitches :-( but try this weekend.

 

[spark]

If you seriously want to get this fly fishing thing down, pick up a copy of The Curtis Creek Manifesto by Sheridian Anderson. It's a not so serious book that will answer a lot of your questions. It's writen in a humorous fashion with lots of drawing to aid in understand his point. It's a quick read, short and fun. You can pick it up at bi-mart for about 8 bucks or used on Amazon for less. The book cover just about all you will need to know and it will help you break the fly fishing short hand. Then you'll know CDC is nothing but short hand for Cul de Canard or duck butt feathers. CDC sound much better than duck butt feather especially if you are tying flies with them.

Yes. I do have the book. bought at River City shop, it's nice book, but reading a books is not enough to increase my skill though. practice, practice, and practice. Thank you for comments.

 

[Irishrover]

I think you are onto something with the practice. If you get the chance, this weekend at Trillium lake there will be a few folks from the forum up there fishing and a lot of them are fly fishing guys and gals. So stop on by I'm sure if you want that you can get some hands on help. Trillium isn't far from where you fish and there will be folks to help you out.