The McKenzie In May
by Paul BelfantiOn May 16 my son, Pete, and I traveled down to Eugene and Springfield for a guided fishing trip on the McKenzie. We wandered down late Saturday afternoon and stayed overnight at a motel in Springfield. Sunday, the 17th, did not start out on a good note. The place we were staying, although reasonable - price-wise, had some bus tours staying there resulting in no hot water in the morning; nor could we take advantage of the complimentary breakfast as the restaurant was packed with the rowdy bus group. After stopping for nourishment at Burger King we met our guide, Jim Berl (Adventures in Fishing), at the Leaburg boat launch about 8:15 am. The launch is between the Deerhorn and Greenwood ramps. It is easily missed unless one notes Jim's good directions.
Even though the weather was less than ideal (low 50s and raining) we had high hopes the day would turn out well from a fishing standpoint. Jim in his outgoing nature assured us he would get us some fish. If not this time, then on a second trip. He had a feeling that the morning would be slow and the afternoon would pick up as, hopefully, the weather cleared. As it turned out, the rainy weather brought out better fishing during the morning. Jim had my son standing the bow casting two dry flies a #10 red Humpy on the tippet with another attractor pattern about #12 orange caddis fly on the dropper (about eight feet from the end). I was rigged up with three flies (yes, three are legal on the McKenzie). The end fly was a slightly weighted Kaufmann style black stone nymph. The second was an unweighted black stone with the top dropper a large Trude. The was the setup. I was glad I was not expecting to do any major casting with it.
What a morning! the fish surprised us immediately with more activity than we expected. This included both stockers and native trout in the 8-10 inch category. Then came some real surprises. Twice I had two fish at the same time. Jim explained this was not unusual and he said there have been cases of three fish on at the same time. The other genuine treat was catching and releasing two native rainbows in the 16-17 inch range. They both gave a good battle on Jim's 6-7 weight rod.
As we moved down the river, Jim took us to the right side of Goat Island which is not passable during summer months but this time of year, with the river high, was good location for mainly native fish.
The high water and generally cool temperatures limited the insect activity to a few light colored mayflies and one stone fly. Attractor patterns and nymphs were definitely the flies to use on this day. About 4 pm in a downpour we reached the take-out at Hendricks Bridge. All in all, except for the normal western Oregon weather, we had a super day. I would recommend for those who are planning a McKenzie River trip to seek out Jim Berl.
