At least one excursion a week is focused on fishing. From May to August those pursuits are primarily in search of dry flyfishing opportunities.
We started flyfishing on the North Fork of the Flathead River, casting Royal Wulff patterns to West Slope Cutthroat Trout. Catching a fish off the surface of a river is, to me, the most fun.
These last couple of months we’ve been chasing the Caddisfly hatches on the Crooked River.
Starting around Mother’s Day and extending to early July, there are a series of these emergences nearly daily. Just before and during the hatch, fishing is optimal.
The biggest challenge with Caddisflies is they hatch, shuck out of pupal skin, and fly off to the bushes at dawn and dusk.
On the Crooked dusk in July is hot and windy . . . kind of miserable and not the best fishing conditions. But on the high desert mornings are typically much cooler and calmer.
We’ve been very successful leaving the house about 6:30 (yes after sunrise, so not technically dawn) and being on the river about an hour later. This has connected us with some really successful fishing.
By the time the afternoon wind picks up, we’ve had nearly four hours on the water and are ready to have a cold one and call it a day.
We’re not going to stop spending mornings on the Crooked, but as we move into July and August the target species shifts to Small Mouth Bass on the John Day River, and then the futile pursuit of Summer Steelhead on the Lower Deschutes.
We’ll take you along on those journeys as well.