Odds and Ends

We have had beautiful fall weather of late, with blue skies and sunshine. I’ve enjoyed my time on the water, but have only seen a few fish rising in specific spots. Several fish have risen to flies, but haven’t hooked up. So out comes my trusty Nikon Z 6iii with the 24 – 120 mm lens to capture a few insect images. And be sure to check the bottom of today’s post for details where you can watch me tie flies in the next few weeks.

An occasional Green Drake floats on the surface, but I haven’t seen any fish rise to them. I was able to catch this one and place it on some grass for a few quick pictures before it flew off.

This is another…

As I mentioned, the weather has been outstanding and I love driving over the bridge at Wizard Falls Hatchery.

Here are a series of PMDs I found floating in an eddy the other day. The first one has its head in the water.

And three caught together.

This is an interesting color.

How about an October Caddis flitting on the water. Look closely at the fat orange body.

I wasn’t sure what this was when I took the picture, but after loading it on my laptop and cropping, it appears to be an empty pupal shuck from an October Caddis.

I found this Rainbow rising and eating quite a few Mayflies.

Notice the Mayfly in the mouth?

I used the pre-release capture feature on my Nikon Z 6iii with the 100-400mm lens. The camera is set to push a button and continuously buffers a short window of images for 1.0 second to temporary memory. It saves those pre-triggered frames along with the post-release burst for as long as the shutter is pressed. I was quite surprised when I returned home and loaded more than 1,300 pictures to the laptop! Most were out-of-focus and only about 30 frames were worth saving. These two images were the best.

We’ve seen quite a few Kokanee Salmon getting ready to spawn. I took my Olympus TG-6 and captured a few underwater pics. I’m not sure exactly what this Bull Trout is trying to do.

I hope you enjoyed the images. I really enjoy capturing these insects as it allows me to see them up close. I’ll share a fly I tied soon which was the result of studying these images.

As promised, you can watch me tie a few flies at the following events:

• October 22 (Thursday – 5 pm Pacific) – I’ll be sharing a couple of Mayfly cripple fly patterns on the Central Oregon Fly Tier’s Guild Zoom session.
• October 24 (Saturday – 9 am to 5 pm) – Watch me demonstrate a few flies at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Roseburg during the Southern Oregon Fly Tying & Fishing Expo from 9 – 5.
• November 13 (Friday – 5 pm Pacific) – BT’s Fly Tying Friday Zoom session.

For the Zoom sessions, leave a Comment below about your interest and I’ll provide more details.

Lastly, an image of a simple leaf floating down the river.

Enjoy…go fish!