Fall Colors

One of my favorite things about Fall is the change of colors. I love watching the leaves change on the trees and the fish put on their fall colors. For about 20 years, I have been driven to head to Central Oregon for the fall experience. It begins with crossing the mountains where all of the Vine Maples, Hawthorne, Alder and Aspens are turning the colors of a blazing fire in the fire place. But the thing that drives me the most are the autumn colors of the Brown Trout. This years trip was going to be special in that we had rented a big lakeside cabin and most of the kids and grand kids were going to join us. What a fun time had by all! Sending pictures of my previous journeys into the central Oregon wonderland, provided inspiration to make sure they all scheduled the time off. Regular updates on the weather forecast being group texted out, indicated we would have subfreezing weather each evening and a chance of snow the day we were arriving. As it got closer, the forecast changed dramatically and we encountered very nice, sunny and mild conditions. Great for hiking and boating, not as good for fishing. Even though the Brown Trout fishing was slow, the first morning, accompanied by my future son in law, I was able to entice the fish, pictured above, into taking my fly. Not the biggest I have hooked on my fly rod over the years, but it was the biggest I was able to land in this lake. Fly fishing for Pre Spawn Browns isn't hard due to the aggressive nature they have in the fall. My method and set up consists of a variety of sinking lines fished on 6 and 7 wgt rods. My 6 wgt I have set up with the clear intermediate sink line, a 9-10' 2X fluorocarbon leader and a size 10 Orange and Olive Seal Bugger introduced by Denny Rickards. My 2nd rod, the one I was using when I caught the fish above, is a 7 wgt strung with a 27' fast sink shooting head tied to Rio Slick Shooter running line. I had tied on a white and grey Still Water Bug also introduced by Denny Rickards. One thing I have found successful, through much trial and error, is stringing a small, kokanee egg sized, peach colored bead in front of my bugger style flies. I just string it on the leader ahead of my fly. Because of the number of spawning Kokanee in the lakes that I fish, I think it adds a lot to the effectiveness of my flies. If you are fishing a "fly only" lake you will have to incorporate the egg imitation into the pattern, like an egg sucking leech, to be legal. I like to find areas of lots of shoals and weed beds with a significant drop off where the big fish will come and go from as they start their search for the food they need to stock up on prior to the rigors of spawning. My method is to find evidence of fish activity which could be either fish rolling or jumping or the surface activity of nervous small Tui Chub. Once I have located a likely spot at a depth of 6 to 10' near a significant drop off, I will start my casting and retrieving employing the countdown method. For the Browns, I usually start with a countdown depth of 15 and increase by 5 seconds till I am hitting bottom. If you decide to give it a try, you certainly wont find the crowds you would normally find at the same lakes during the summer Kokanee seasons, but you will find some great fish and the ability to immerse yourself in the colors of Fall.