Part-time Waldport Resident - Fly Angler

Greetings All,
Thanks for accepting me into the fold. I'm going to be living part-time in Waldport (I also live in San Diego) and am excited by the fishing opportunities. I was just up there last week for the first time and I really had a great time - such a beautiful spot! I did get a chance to fish - I was in Newport picking up some supplies at Englund's and noticed that the south jetty was RIGHT THERE. I ended up stringing up a 6wt with a red and white clouser and on my sixth cast I connected with about a 1.5lb black rockfish - it came up and snatched the fly right at the surface. Epic. I was also able to launch our 14' Klamath and crab in Alsea Bay - I ended up with two keepers and am fired up to get back over there. I will be there this summer from mid June until early July - please reach out if you'd like to fish. I also have conventional gear but am marginally more effective with flyrod and fly. Best, John

Welcome.  You are in a great location to take advantage of many of the PNW opportunities.  Congrats on already getting a rockfish with a fly.  Sometime, give that a try at night with a bright light.  It can be really good.

I too fish with both fly and conventional gear, but usually choose fly if it will work.

Look forward to hearing of your new adventures on the Oregon Coast.

Welcome!
I'm a fairly recent San Diego transplant myself.
I really wish I would have moved to the PNW a long time ago.
There are SO many more fishing opportunities here, and so much variety!
I especially love getting on the ocean  in the summer here, getting salmon and rockfish in the same day. Still kicking myself for never taking my kayak and fishing the kelp while I lived there.

Thanks for the nice words- and after visiting last week, I'm crazy excited to get back up there. I'm a high school teacher with 27 years in and hope to be up there semi-permanently in 4 more years.

I was surprised by the rockfish - it kind of reminded me of the calico bass that we fish for in the kelp down here. If that's a spot and a fish that I can count on as my "go to" - well, that's going to be awesome. Plus, I'd like to eat some of the lings and rockfish from the area - we don't each much of the inshore fish here.

I've got a camp site reserved at Le Page Park for a week of smallmouth topwater fly fishing this summer - I was there last summer and while the fish were small, it was a blast with a 5 wt and a small popper (I'm partial to the Stealth Bomber pattern in brown).

Oregon has blown my mind - I feel so fortunate to get to fish there.

The black rockfish are easily one of the most abundant near shore fish.
If you can find a school, from kayak or jetty, you can usually get a few, if not a quick limit.
You can catch em off jetties all day long, but will probably need to peddle/paddle a bit to get the bigger ones. And they make great tacos.
There is great summer smallie fishing through out the Willamette, no need to go all the way to the Columbia to get em, though there are probably more big ones there.
I dabble in fly fishing myself, would be happy to show ya a spot or two this summer.

Cheers John!  Welcome to the Central Coast.

Don't neglect the Alsea River for trout. You can catch sea run cutthroat (limit 2) in tidewater once the season opens up. They are fun.

Wow - thanks again for all the tips and the warm welcome.

SD2OR - I will take you up on that offer (smallies on the willamette)- lunch and first round will be on me! I'll reach out to you this summer when I get up there. When you said that you wish you had moved up there sooner, I get it - it felt like being in another world with all the opportunities for getting out and having fun. I travel and fish in Baja a bunch - I was telling my friend that the wide open beaches around Waldport felt like a colder version of Baja.

Nobaddays - excellent handle - that's a slogan/motto I see in Baja all the time. I'd try the night jetty thing but I think I'd like to have somebody with me if I tried that - some of the holes on that jetty look like they could swallow me up.

C_Run - YES - I am going to be all about tracking down those sea run cutties - and there's actually a small arm of the Alsea right in my backyard (I don't think it's fishable since it goes almost dry at low tide... but you know I'm going to cast into that thing) - I'll be there for a month this summer so if you're in town, and want some company, reach out to me and once again, lunch (at the Salty Dog) is on me.

Rogerdodger... I've been reading all of your reports and have even watched some of your videos of you crabbing off your i11s - I have a couple kayaks and one of them is an i11s that I keep in a compartment of my camper - there's about six of us in my local fly club (San Diego Fly Fishers) and we all use them for fishing mangrove estuaries down in Baja... I've punctured mine so many times with fish spines. I am waiting on delivery of an Old Town autopilot 120 but I have to say, the i11s has been a great water craft.

Welcome.
I'm pretty new to kayak fishing but have a lot of offshore experience.
I had to sell my offshore boat and have been getting out on my hobie Lynx as often as I can.
I am also looking to get back into fly fishing.
I'm not comfortable enough to stand and cast from the Lynx yet but it is coming.

Thanks for the Welcome, Mr. Fisherman. That Lynx is a nice kayak- let's fish sometime!

I'm not comfortable enough to stand and cast from the Lynx yet but it is coming.

I have a Lynx and have tried standing and fly casting.  I really would need a stripping basket to do it very well.  Without the basket, my line had a lot of things to get tangled in.  It was easier just to cast sitting down.

I'm not comfortable enough to stand and cast from the Lynx yet but it is coming.

You don't stand to fly-cast in a kayak.  You learn to cast sitting down.  You'll be happier - and safer.  Seriously, a kayak can glide right over a fish in 12 inches of water without spooking it; standing up to sight-cast isn't necessary.

Agreed on the sitting while casting - I fish from an i11s a bunch in Baja and 90% of the time I cast seated. Crazy how good you can get from the seated position. Sometimes I drape a towel over the pedals in the kayak to limit the amount of snags. Here's a little video I made of fly fishing for juvenile grouper in mangroves of Southern Baja - excuse the language in some parts - I got excited... all casting from seated position and it's pretty much target casting at this spot if you want to get hooked up.

That looks like a heck of a good time!

Looks like a blast!