Stonefly time…

May is an optimum time for Stoneflies in Central Oregon rivers and elsewhere as the rivers warm. This is a simple pattern…like an enlarged nymph pattern.

A size 8-10, 3xlong hook, goose biot tail, copper wire ribbing, black fur/synthetic dubbed abdomen/thorax. The ‘backstop’ from tail, up over the abdomen and thorax is turkey feather. The legs in front is a few wraps of black hackle fiber. A simple, yet productive tie. This pattern can be weighted with wraps of ‘lead’ wire or left unweighted and weight attached to the tippet. Blacks, brown, dark yellow/rust colors for the stonefly contingent that emerges/crawls out starting now into Summer.

I’m Lichen (no fungi) this…

along an Oregon coastal river…attached to an old stump. Actually a fungus, not lichen…but I like the play on words…so you science types…all good

Peaceful days…

“Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.” Aldous Huxley

Fly fishing an Oregon coastal river for Cutthroat Trout…

River meets the ocean…

“The coast is an edgy place. Living on the coast presents certain stark realities and a wild, rare beauty. Continent confronts ocean. Weather intensifies. It’s a place of tide and tantrum; of flirtations among fresh- and saltwaters, forests and shores….”   Carl Safina, The View From Lazy Point

free flowing….

“…..Do I change like a river, widening and deepening, eddying back on myself sometimes, bursting my banks sometimes when there’s too much water, too much life in me, and sometimes dried up from lack of rain?…..”  Aidan Chambers

Quickly & eagerly…

“By the time it came to the edge of the Forest the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, “There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” But all the little streams higher up in the Forest went this way and that, quickly, eagerly, having so much to find out before it was too late.” A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

off to the side…

Rivers and streams sometimes, if flows allow, have little back channels of flowing water. Often these seem to be miniature variations of the main stem…little vignettes of currents, rocks & vegetation. We are often in a hurry to get to the bigger water to fish, swim, explore and step right on by these small worlds.