North Umpqua

[Rick J]

Had to work very late Thursday so could not take off untill around 5 AM Friday - that got me up to the NU around noon so missed the prime fishing - it rained most of the way up but was just overcast with some sun when I got there - stopped off and talked to Joe at the Blue Heron for around 30 minutes. He had said they had had a good deal of rain this year and the river had come up several times and water was around 47 - he did not recomend skating - he said the fish would come up and boil but not take - maybe 1 in 10 would actually grab and the fish counts are pretty low this year - so I opted for tips and or weighted flies.

Although Joe indicated that the low runs were keeping the fishermen away, there were still alot of cars in the turn outs of many of the runs. Fished all that afternoon without a grab - may favorite spot to camp was being reconstructed so I scrounged for a place to set up my truck and stuff for the night.

Next morning I got to one of my favorite spots early - here are a couple of photos:





Fall colors were really getting going:



Fished several runs with nothing happening and around noon headed up to Camp Water - here is a shot of the Mott Bridge:



Could not see much off the bridge as sun was not on the water but saw a few fish holding. As I was eating lunch a guy went by carrying 2 spey rods and headed down. Middle of the day the best option for camp water is to tumble bug the ugly bug so rigged up and set off maybe 20 minutes later. There was a guy in Boat so kept going down. The guy with the 2 rods was in Kitchen with a fish on - using the ugly bug:



So I asked if he minded me going below him and he said no problem - started at the Fighting Hole and a guy came in below me into Glory but this left me my favorite water - Upper, Middle and Lower Mott. Kept moving down and in lower Mott got hammered by around a 7# wild fish. Not able to get a photo.

That was it for the day. Fished out a number of runs wtih no other grabs. Had to get home early Sunday so did not fish but just got up and left in the early AM.

Still I consider it a successful trip with a fish in 1.5 days of fishing with low runs - still one place I don't mind getting skunked - it is such a beautiful spot!!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Great report and photos Rick.

That is a magical/mystical river.

I think if you could hook one nice wild Steelhead on a fly in your lifetime it would be considered 'wonderful'. Especially on a beautiful river.

[nrthcsteel]

Hey Rick. Very nice photos and report. Although the fishing was slow from the looks of your pics there was definatly some enjoyable scenery to be had. The North Umpqua is beautiful this time of year. Kevin

[PatrickM]

Nice report, Rick. Thanks for sharing.
Bye the way, I'm just getting into the spey thing and have never heard the term "tumble bug." Care to enlighten a spey newbie?
Thanks.

[sculpin]

Great report Rick. Boy, just reading about the distances your weekend fishing trips take you makes me tired. I live in Oregon and don't fish the Umpqua because it's so far away.

Mark

[Rick J]

pm- my good friend Brett Jensen came up with the term tumble bugging to describe nymphing without an indicator and more specifically to fish the ugly bug which is a very heavily weighted rubber legs. I fish it on a floating line with a long leader and cast upstream and stack mend to get it to drop quickly in the water column.

Many of the runs on the NU consist of fast water and deep runs or slots and fish will often not move far to take a fly in those conditions so you need to go down to them - this is a great technique though my last resort as I much prefer to swing for the fish- there are just some runs on that river not all that conducive to the swing and with the change in regs in October, you can again use weighted flies after October 1.

It is actually almost easier to tumble bug with a single hander than with a 2 hander - I find it easier to stack mend and control the fly with a single hander though the 2 hander does help cover more water farther away from you

[PatrickM]

Interesting. Would never have thought about fishing an ugly bug with the two-hander. Judging from your report, it seems to work pretty well.
Thanks, Rick.

[Adam Grace]

Rick, I like that term, "tumble bug," kinda catchy!

I was doing the same thing on the Trinity after the demonstration Mike was puting on. He had better control with his single-hander than I had, plus he has a lot of experience using that type of technique. If it weren't for Mike I would have not hooked as many as I did.

[sculpin]

As Adam pointed out Tumble Bugging is a neat description of nymphing. The way Rick described the method it sounds like what we call High Stick nymphing. Your right about a single hand rod being a better choice for this method of fishing. I think a 10' rod and a line with a long head works best for me. A light switch rod also works very well.

Mark

[jhaquett]

Adam,

Do you use shot with that setup or just a heavy nymph? Is it a double-nymph setup?