It really felt like fall this week. We managed to get in a fishing trip, as usual, but the majority of our week was spent getting a start on winterizing.
Red Rudbeckia, aka black-eyed Susan, was a big success in this year’s garden.
Central Oregon winters can be fickle weather-wise, but there is the guarantee of one good snow dump. For that reason, you need to button up the exterior.
Petunias, a favorite of mule deer in our neighborhood
We’ve transformed the patio from a basic BBQ spot to a retreat, complete with a host of herbs and flowers. This has been a great place to share a morning coffee or evening cocktail.
Brief stop between watering sites
The patio gets crossed by neighborhood cats and there is a resident family of chipmunks that skitter across. The chipmunks seem to be using the bottom of our grow towers as watering spots.
In recent weeks there has been a small clutch of Mule Deer Stags feasting on neighborhood greenery.
Interrupted mid-munch (petunias, strawberries, and cherry tomatoes are top contenders)
We’ve seen a decrease in foliage on flowers and trees. We watch them nonchalantly strolling through the neighborhood streets.
However, we’ve not been successful in catching these tree pruners in action . . . until this week.
This week was a change. We went from “Red Flag” warnings and heat waves, to weather reminiscent of winter. It’s not unlike any late summer day in Central Oregon.
As this is getting written, the sun is beaming in my window and it’s around 70 degrees outside. But for most of this week we’ve been watching storm clouds roll in from the Southwest bringing down pouring rain.
We didn’t do any long trips, but we did get out a couple of times . . . driving through the storms. In the high desert you can see weather coming and watch thunderheads bring rain to you.
Clouds are broken by blue sky drifting in behind the storm . . . then, it all starts again.
This probably marks the end of summer. The forecast for next week has clear skies and much lower daytime temperatures.
We’ll likely get out on the river and do some road trips. There are plenty planned, and fall is a great time to be out in the woods.
Didn’t really get out much this week. We remain sandwiched between two project fires and spent most of the week engulfed in smoke.
The opening, when it presented itself, was taken with a trip to the Crooked. Yeah . . . we’ve been there a lot lately, but it’s dry fly season and that tailwater has been very active.
Fuller’s Teasel (bull thistle) frames a lush riparian
Last year my brother-in-law passed and among his possessions was an old Sage Graphite II 9-foot 5-weight fly rod.
A very nice rod, but with one problem. It was missing the tip section. Not broken, which is common, but not in the rod case and nowhere to be found.
There’s one!
Sage rods are, in theory, lifetime warrantied. So I figured why not give that a try. I mean with only three fourths of the rod it wasn’t going to fish like that.
Long story short . . . Sage was unable to repair the old rod, but they did replace it with a new one . . . my choice. I opted for a 9-foot 4-weight, an ideal dry fly trout rod. It arrived this week and was immediately put into service.
Post-meal preening by another successful fisher.
Now there are negative points to late summer in Central Oregon; heat and wildfire smoke top that list. But on the positive side, the dry fly fishing is peak.
The Crooked River is a tailwater (flows out from a dam), a type of water that’s fished most of the year sub-surface.
Bull Thistles are regular obstacles along the stream edge.
Anytime of year, some type of aquatic insect is moving around and an imitation of that bug will catch fish.
In early spring and late summer, the aquatic insects hatch (present on top of the water) in greater numbers. You can have success with a dry fly any time, but during a hatch it gets crazy.
A Eurasian-collared Dove floats in for a landing
Dry flys require a more precise presentation than sub-surface fishing. However, the payoff is seeing the strike . . . often missing the strike . . . but it puts you more directly into the process.
It’s a lot of fun. The last few weeks have afforded us some great dry fly days on the water.
Hard day on the river
The signs of fall are around us. Days will be cooling off and we’ll soon move onto the Deschutes River to cast for Steelhead.
For now, we’re enjoying morning coffees on the Crooked and plying Small Black Sedges to hungry Redband Trout.
The week started with a wildfire burning east of Redmond and headed for Sisters, with another one burning north near Oakridge.
Both of these conflagrations managed to spread plumes of smoke over the area . . . well, actually it was fickle wind patterns.
Dry fly presentation over a morning hatch on the Crooked River
In the middle of these smoke-filled days, there was a trip to the Crooked River. Opportunity pushed Prineville outside an “unhealthy” AQI (Air Quality Index) shading on the weather map.
Apple Weather and Watch Duty get regular scans on our phones . . . tracking wildfire activity and air quality.
The Crooked is a welcome respite from thick smoke-filled air and fishing was good too. It is the height of summer season and the lush vegetation, juniper trees and snags are busy with bird activity.
A young Osprey is getting better at hunting, eating, and keeping the gang of Magpies at bay. The Magpies really are a marauding gang. At any point a dozen of them swarm over the trees.
Off to grab another of his 3 to 5 fish per day diet
With just a skreech from one, a few more come flying. They menace the Osprey but don’t really do much damage . . . if you don’t count making meal time stressful.
Nice little Redband Trout
Our day begins before the sun hits the water. All morning I’ll fish over the caddis or mayfly hatch.
By noon activity on the river’s surface has tapered off. By now it’s getting hot, even in the shade, so we pack up and head home.
Tip napping in the shade of an old juniper tree
The Apps suggest that smoke will wane in the next couple of weeks, so that’s good news.
We’ll wait till the Labor Day crowds thin before venturing back out.
Summer seems to be rushing away. We’ve been heading out early and seeking shade by late morning. Now, the cool of the morning lasts longer and we linger along the river until past noon. Very soon it will be fall.
One of the harbingers of fall is stone fruit.
These beauties are ready to pick.
When the produce aisle peaches actually give off their sweet heady aroma, the skin of a plum gives to the touch, and apple varieties triple, then summer is near its end.
A late summer storm starts to engulf Mt. Hood.
We’ll make several trips to the hillsides above Hood River before the end of October. Each visit is rewarded with a new variety of tree ripened fruit.
Stone fruits mark summer’s close. Apple and pear varieties will reach a peak toward the end of September, trailing off by Halloween, and at that point winter looms.
Some varieties require extra protection from birds.
On this trip we were treated to a glorious display of weather patterns. Clouds, rain storms and patches of sun encircled us.
Looking North just outside Madras
From a vantage point on a sage steppe above the Columbia River, all you have to do is change your angle of view to get a different sky.
We started the day with rain and moved in and out of storms all the way north.
The patio gets crossed by neighborhood cats and there is a resident family of chipmunks that skitter across. The chipmunks seem to be using the bottom of our grow towers as watering spots.
