Umpqua smallies

[Scott V]

Got back on Saturday from an awesome trip to Winchester Bay, Oregon for a week. The wife let me get away and spend a day on the Umpqua fly fishing for smallies with a local guide "Gary's Fishing Guide Service". Let me start by saying what a beautiful state, trees everywhere and some unbelievable views. As for the fishing, I only caught around 50 or 60 smallies ranging from dinkers up to a nice 2 pounder with all of them being caught on a 3 weight. A 2 pounder on a 3 weight is awesome, especially when there is an Osprey trying to get your catch. The osprey did get a couple fish, we actually feed her, my guide would take a small smallie and break its neck and then throw it out for her to get, as you can see in one of my pics. After spending the day playing with smallies we did some quad riding on the dunes, vistied the Umpqua lighthouse, and even picked some wild berries which were deliciuous. I can not wait to go back and I will be back withing a year. Oh yeah I also got to see a bald eagle, and boy was it big, I was too much in awe to take a pic, so maybe next time I will get one.











And my favorite pic of all

[Adam Grace]

Nice report and pictures.

What camera were you using?

[Scott V]

Nice report and pictures.

What camera were you using?

Optio W30 "as recommended by you" on automatic mode, once I learn more about cameras and settings I hope to take better pictures, but so far I am very happy with the pictures so far.

[Adam Grace]

I thought that it was you who just bought that camera! Great pictures, those Pentax rock when taking pictures outside.

Here's a tip, when in bright sun when shadows are on your face select the fill flash setting (the single lightning bolt) so the flash lightens up your face and decreases the severity of the shadows.

Have fun with your camera.

[Scott V]

I thought that it was you who just bought that camera! Great pictures, those Pentax rock when taking pictures outside.

Here's a tip, when in bright sun when shadows are on your face select the fill flash setting (the single lightning bolt) so the flash lightens up your face and decreases the severity of the shadows.

Have fun with your camera.

Let me know if you ever want to take me fishing to show me how to better use my camera. I am available on weekends.

[Adam Grace]

That sounds good, maybe you can join me on the Feather when the Steelhead fishing warms up.

[Hairstacker]

Scott, sounds like you had a great trip, even if you "only" caught 50 or 60 smallies in a day. Love the pictures, looks like a beautiful float.

[dtp916]

Hey Scott,

Sounds like you had a nice trip!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

The best Smallmouth Bass rivers in the West are the Umpqua, John Day and Grand Ronde.

Why don't they have Smallies in the Rogue, Eel and Klamath?

The timing on the John Day and Grand Ronde are critical. I think July is a good time for them.

I think the Umpqua has a little more leeway.

You need to float all these river to fish them for the most part.

[L Kenney]

Hey Bill. I lived on some of the main Umpqua's best smallmouth water for 10 years, fished them a lot for the first 5, but came to consider them more a problem than a resource. It gets me nervous hearing someone wonder why they aren't present in the Rogue or Klamath because alll we need is some yahoo doing a garbage bucket plant job and we've got another invasive species screwing up our declining steelhead rivers. Smallmouth are already implicated in the catastrophic decline of the river's Pacific lamprey populations. They do provide a lot of action if you're interested in large numbers of 6" to 10" fish, but bigger fish are, in my experience, and on the fly at least, very rare. ODFW will tell you smallmouth pose no threat to salmonid populations but I'm not buying it. Fish a smolt pattern when salmon and steelhead smolts are moving downstream in March and April (not always easy given high water, I know) and see if you don't agree. Or fish one in August, for that matter. Smallmouth got into the Umpqua system by accident in the 1960s and are now so widespread and entrenched in the main and south Umpqua systems that we'll never be rid of them. That noted, the sport fishing opportunity they present doesn't make having them around so great a virtue that we need their populations expanding into other streams where they can eat and compete with at-risk native species. And we should all be extremely grateful that they can't get above the damn on the N Fork at Winchester.