Oregon Fly Fishing Report – Small Stream Outfitters & Guides

• Broke out the big sticks yesterday and fished springers. Can't beat fresh chinook for dinner. Sashimi tonight! #
• McKenzie today… Osprey stole our fish…. twice! That's ok, we got plenty of others. #
• Looking forward to a sunny guide day on the McKenzie tomorrow. #

It’s well know among anglers that Spring Chinook, along with chrome fresh Sockeye are the tastiest of all Salmon. And so when the river was kind enough to relinquish three hatchery springers to us on Friday, we decided to take full advantage and prepare a little Springer Sushi. It’s a rare occurrence that we take fish home, but on occasion when we are lucky enough to be scouting with friends and the catch happens to be of the hatchery variety, well…. yum. We’re firm believers in the principal that all wild fish should be released carefully and hatchery fish and designed to go home with anglers.

Since this meal was so delicious, I thought I would pass along the sushi process, which is surprisingly easy and oh so tasty.

Spring Chinook Sushi
Preparing the fish. Make sure you bleed the fish immediately when you harvest it and keep the fish whole and on ice until you filet it. Filet each side as normal leaving the skin on but removing the rib bones. For sashimi, I like the area of the fish just behind where the pin bones stop and before the tail gets too narrow. The slices from a 15-20 pound fish in this area are just the right size. Take a single filet and slice down the lateral line and then remove the skin. 1/4 of a fish will feed 2-4 when served with rice. Trim the filet a bit to make a more uniform piece of fish, in this process remove and bones and dark grey flesh. The remaining meat should be firm, full of color and odorless. Wrap the filet in cling wrap and freeze overnight. Some people like to brine the fish also, to kill additional bacteria. It’s really your choice, but if you brine make sure you rinse the filet throughly before serving. The next day thaw the filet slowly in the fridge. When almost thawed is the best time to slice it. Using a very sharp knife cut 1/4 -1/3″ strips at a 20 degree angle off the filet. The angle will give you those lovely fat rings. After slicing, place the springer slices in a bath of ice water. You can use a little fresh lemon and rice vinegar in the water if you wish.

Preparing the Rice
Cook as much premium grade sushi rice as you need using 3 parts rice to 4 parts water. This recipe is for 3/4 cup of rice and 1 cup water.
In a separate pan combine 1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tbsp caster sugar (I used organic cane sugar), and 1/2 tsp salt. Warm until the salt and sugar dissolves. Mix the vinegar mixture into the rice and let cool.
Preparing the Sushi
With all your ingredients at the ready, pat and dry your pieces of fish with a paper towel and dab the underside of each piece with a bit of wasabi (a little goes a long way) Then form the rice using your hands or a bamboo mat into shapes slightly smaller than your pieces of fish. Arrange and have wasabi, soy sauce and pickled ginger at the ready.

Enjoy and keep those platters coming, your guests can’t get enough.

Tight Lines,
Small Stream Outfitters

When I first started guiding in 1997 and throughout the next four seasons, I worked on an incredible river, the Goodnews in Southwest Alaska. I had the pleasure of guiding along side some incredible guides, including my long time friend Jeff Jarret of Jarrett’s Guide Service on the Clearwater in Orofino, Idaho.

Jeff is now branching out his Idaho operation and starting a small all-inclusive lodge based out of the native Yupik village of Goodnews, Alaska. He has arranged great five day all inclusive fishing trips for Kings, Silvers, Chums, Rainbows, Dollies and Grayling and will working out of the village July and August 2009.

He has a few bookings left for his first season and takes a maximum of four anglers per week. This is an incredible opportunity to fish one of the greatest rivers in Alaska for half of what other similar operations are charging. To learn more about these trips, visit Jeff’s Goodnews River Webpage or call him at 208.476.3791

You can also call us at 503.515.3533 or Email us for more information

Additional photographs of the river, scenery and fish can be seen on a few of our archived image galleries.
Goodnews Gallery 1
Goodnews Gallery 2

Viewing Osprey on Oregon rivers is a regular occurrence. Like us, they are fishermen and good ones at that. I always enjoy watching them and it’s a rare treat to see them dive and catch a fish. They have never tried to grab a hooked fish from myself or a client, that is until yesterday.

I spent the day on the McKenzie with David from Kansas having a glorious time catching Rainbows and Cutthroats. Even with the sunny skies the hatchery rainbows were particularly aggressive and David’s rod was bent often. About halfway through our float, there’s a great riffle that always holds fish and is a favorite hang out spot for a pair of Osprey. Rich Youngers of Creekside Fly Shop has had client’s fish stolen on multiple occasions at this spot, but for whatever reason, it hadn’t happened to me. I had heard all the stories and saw all the pictures, so of course David and I were chatting about the birds as we approached and set anchor.

David made a cast with his streamer and instantly hooked up. I watched him as he fought the fish and just as I was about to reach over and grab the line to land it, a large splash startled us. An osprey was in the water, just feet in front of the boat. He took off with our fish in tow and now Dave had a 12″ rainbow and very large bird attached to his 5 weight! Awesome! “Break him off”, I yelled while laughing. He pulled back and away the bird went, back across the river. Now one less hatchery rainbow in the river… That alone was enough to make the day and certainly lightning couldn’t strike twice. As I tied on a new tippet and fly, Dave got out his camera to snap some photos of the other half of the Osprey pair, sitting in a tree across the river.

I finished the knot, stripped off some line and flicked a cast out the side of the boat, waiting while he finished snapping shots. As the fly swung in front of the boat (did I mention fishing was hot yesterday) the rod surged and now I had one on. “Get that camera ready” I said. And with that, she took off from the tree, flew across the river and started a dive on the fish. Not wanting to lose another fly, I shook the fish off right before she hit the water. Success!! She got the fish, I saved my fly and Dave snapped away. Count two for the Osprey. As she flew away, presumably to feed their babies, Dave and I chuckled as he made a cast and hooked another fish.

Now with the Ospreys fed, we can get on to catching more fish!

This short film follows a group of friends from a extremely remote Alaskan lake SouthWest 55 miles to the Bering Sea. The stream in this film sees less than four float trips per year and until the late 1990’s was considered unavigable. The first two days of this trip consisted of dragging rafts over endless shallow gravel bars until the South Fork of the river connected with the North Fork some 15 miles from the lake. From there on, it was smooth sailing and constant action. At times, the term every cast was a reality and not an exaggeration. When a fly was cast over a chum or sockeye spawn bed, it was never more than a few seconds before a 16″-25″ rainbow grabbed the presentation. This is the story of the fishing trip of a lifetime.

This video may also be watched on our website at smallstreamoutfitters.com

For more info on this video email us!