Take a Kid Fishing

Laurance Lake, Oregon

For those of you looking for a great place to take a kid fishing near Hood River or Portland, check out Laurance Lake.  The lake sits in the shadow of Mt. Hood and is only a short drive from Parkdale, Oregon... Easy striking distance from the PDX metro.  A non-motorized boat will make life easier for you although there is good bank access near the dam.  There's a great camp area if you want to make a weekend of it.  Expect to see other folks, especially on Saturday night.  However, the camp host does a great job keeping the peace.  You can have some great dry fly fishing in the mornings and evenings but trolling or stripping olive or black wooly buggers will put some huge numbers up!  Stop in at the Gorge Fly Shop (Hood River) or The Fly Fishing Shop (Welches) and they'll make sure you have the right bugs. 

Have fun!

-TL

Fishing Dogs Are Cool

Many of you that have spent time in my boat have heard stories about my new canine friend Zelda.  While i've known for a while that she is possibly the worlds greatest dog, she still needed to prove herself in a fishing situation.  The drift boat kind of freaked her out at first but after a while she settled in and got comfy.  I'm happy to say...  It's official, she IS the world's great dog.

The Dirt on Hickman's Dean Week

Larimer Outfitters head guide Jeff Hickman returned last week from his hosted trip to BC West and the Dean River.  The guests had a blast.  Over-all, there wasn't the numbers of fish like Jeff's week last year, but the average size made up for it... The found some monsters!  Getting stoked for my trip on August 5th!

-TL

Heading to Idaho

Tying with foam is fun...

I'm headed to northern Idaho to chase Cutthroats this week.  My good friend Shawn Visintainer from the Silver Bow Fly Shop in Spokane agreed to show me one of his favorite rivers.  After a few evenings at the vise, here's my arsenal of foam... Shawn tells me they've been finding 50 to 60 fish a day on dries!  Stay tuned for photos.

-Tom Larimer

Deschutes Steelhead Are Here!!!

It's that time of the year again... Deschutes steelhead are showing up in the lower river and life is good.  We've been finding fish on a regular basis, but it's been a hunt.  Good anglers are finding one to two fish a day.  That being said, the dam counts are finally picking up and I'm expecting the fishing to follow suite.  For those of you wondering, the water temps. have been 61 to 62 degrees in the mornings and reaching 64 to 69 depending on day time temperatures.  The water is still fairly high after the rains from last week.  We've been finding fish on floating lines rigged with an intermediate Poly Leader and flies dressed on heavy irons during the low light time periods.  Sink-tips have been very effective in both the shade and in full light conditions.  So there's the dirt...  There's fish to be caught and it's only going to get better.  Here's a few shots from the past week or so.  -TL

Our schedule is filling up quick!  Give us a call at 541-490-9446 or email us to plan your trip!

The Trout Fishing Is Good

Mmmmm... Yellow Sally

The trout fishing on the Deschutes is as good as it gets.  We've been having some great fishing in the mornings and early afternoons.  The river has been slowing down around 2:00 pm, then picking back up around 4:00 pm.  While the dry fly fishing has been a little slow, we've been having huge days dead drifting small pheasant tails, midge and caddis pupa.  If we have found fish on top, it's been a yellow sally or caddis game.  However, the fish are starting to key in on terrestrials like grasshoppers and ants.  Windy afternoons can generate some great dry fly fishing this time of the year.  Most anglers on the Deschutes don't consider fishing grasshoppers... That's because there isn't a large population of bugs from Mack's Canyon up river.  However, the lower river offers some fantastic terrestrial fishing.

-Tom Larimer

Hickman's Dean Trip Update

LO client Jim Greenleaf with one of his Dean River treasures

If the grin on Jim Greenleaf's face is any indication of how the fishing has been on Jeff Hickman's hosted week at BC West, I can't wait to get there!  Check out his other fish of that day on the Deneki Blog.  You can also get updated fishing reports on the Deneki Facebook page.

I head north to BC West and the Dean River in just a few short weeks...  Tying flies like a crazy man!

-TL

Back in Anchorage

The flight from western Alaska to Anchorage gave me some time to reflect on a my week at Alaska West and the Kanektok River.  Over-all, it was an insane week of king fishing.  Every tide brought huge schools of giant chinooks in from the Bering Sea.  -To be blunt, we fucking whaled on 'em.  It wasn't uncommon to hook five to ten kings on a single day of fishing.  Plus, the XL fish showed up in mass.  It was everything you dream of when it comes to king salmon with two-handed rods.

After a few days of the best salmon fishing on the planet, I decided to check out what else the Kanektok had to offer.  I was blown away!  We had incredible mouse fishing for leapord rainbows, chums on switch rods and beautiful grayling on dry flies.  It really opened my eyes to how amazing that fishery is.  Not to mention, the guide & lodge staff nocked it out of the park.  It was my best trip to Alaska yet... And I can't wait to get back.