'Mt Hood Country' - guide to fishing around Mt. Hood

We often get out-of-towners wanting to fish but not knowing what is around and what to go for. 'Fishing Mount Hood Country' is invariably the first thing we bring out from behind and open up on the counter. Almost 95% of customers purchase this book without any hesitation. We have sold every batch we have gotten from the publisher even though this is a newly published book for 2015.

Now here is the more interesting part. We are starting to see customers from the local Portland area also keying on this book as a way to broaden their fishing horizons. There are 40 fisheries covered here, a mix of lakes and rivers.

Fishing Mount Hood Country by Gary Lewis and Robert H. Campbell, Gary Lewis Outdoors, copyright 2015, $24.95, 128 pages, ISBN: 978-0-9761244-6-7. Available on the web at http://www.flyfishinginsidernewsletter.com/020915/

Trillium Lake- a nearby gem

I was having lunch with a friend, a native to Portland, and he shared with me the Trillium flower is the Lotus flower of the State of Oregon. It starts out White when first bloomed, turning into Purple later.

Trillium is a majestic lake, as evidenced in the picture above. In the words of a yelp reviewer, 'Trillium Lake feeds the fish and your humanity'.

Huh.

Perhaps we cast -so as to hook- not only for fish but for our humanity as well. And there is no better place to ponder what our offering would bring than in the environs such as above. A Sonar Echo of ourselves with Nature becoming our reflection. And perhaps that is why a tight line is an animated stirring of a fish on one end, and on the other end, a stirring of our vitality pushing through the defensive layers we need to negotiate the trappings of living.

Get out there, for Nature has a soul calling that shakes us up in a lasting, and always good way. Here is another pic from the yelp website to help this pondering:

Game Changer

The articulation behind this fly is so natural it cannot help but look exactly like a fleeing bait fish when viewed from both the angler and the predator fish.  You simply have to see it for yourself. The tail action is unbelievable.

Not only does it swim naturally, but it has the volume and the fast-water-shedding properties for easy casting something this bulky.

For more on fish skull fly tying components, click here: Fish Skull

White Bubble drift

White Bubble Nymphing Technique with Pete Erickson from Rajeff Sports on Vimeo.

It has been said that Trout obtain 90% of their bio mass subsurface. And there is no more effective method than Czech nymphing.

Here is a video of Pete Erickson who was instrumental in designing the Echo Shadow rods. I got to play with the 10'6" 4 weight, and it is pliant enough in the right section of the rod to throw shooting mends with ease while keeping the fly drift in the slot.

Czech nymphing is more of a high stick approach, and in this video, a leading of the tip slightly faster than the foam line.  Pete does a great job explaining in this video.

Trout season in upon us with the early warming.

Tight lines, Czech nymphing style.

For more on Echo's Shadow rods, click here: Echo Shadow