fishing – Page 3

May 25, 2025May 24, 2025

May Musings

May, in Central Oregon, is an anomaly to seasonal shifts. April brings hope for spring. May comes, and winter still hangs around . . . think hail storm just two weeks ago.

Then you hit Memorial weekend, the official start to summer activities (camping, rafting). It’s not summer, yet it doesn’t feel like spring.

This week was a busy finish to the month. While we didn’t do any major excursions, we did manage a couple of trips up to the Crooked River.

There is the promise of a caddis or mayfly hatch . . . which didn’t materialize . . . on top of shirt-sleeve warm afternoons.

We’re still shaking off layers of winter, but are well into wildflowers, lower river levels, and increased wildlife activity.

Some of the week was spent raking up those layers of winter in the form of yard debris (disposal offered for free).

We also pulled out old trees to replace with new bare root stock. Not real exciting stuff, but nice additions to the yard.

With the promise of summer we’ve renewed plans for adventures now that our home improvement projects, AKA spring cleaning, has been completed.

May 11, 2025May 10, 2025

Central Oregon Tour

We put a lot of miles on the Subaru this week . . . kind of a Central Oregon tour.

Summer has come on with a vengeance, but the rivers are still running too high to fish. The alternative is checking on places where we will be fishing soon.

High Desert spring green is short lived.

The Deschutes River canyon is dressed in spring colors . . . green and yellow. there are still a couple of weeks before the rafters take over. We hope we can work in a fishing excursion before then.

This grain field will only be green for a few more weeks . . . Mt. Adams in background still wearing winter cap

The Crooked flow never really went down at the end of winter, so it is just now getting flow rates that allow fishing at all.

But this hasn’t stopped us from taking a picnic lunch stop at one of many great spots up there.

Cottonwood Canyon and the lower John Day River

We even managed to get to the Lower John Day River, Cottonwood Canyon, Colton and Service Creek.

Again beautiful country, freshly greened for spring, but extremely high levels on the river.

In the end we did some birding around Abert and Summer Lake.

That proved to be a bit premature for the summer migration, but we managed some great bird images for the blog.

A Black-necked Stilt forages in a mudflat

With the return of warm dry weather we’ll be getting out a lot more in the coming weeks.

February 2, 2025February 1, 2025

Winter Fishing

Weather finally softened this week and we headed to the river to fish. Fishing doesn’t stop in winter it just takes a different form.

The Crooked River is a ‘tailwater” . . . that is, its flow is regulated by a dam. On a tailwater, levels can fluctuate dramatically, sometimes in a matter of hours.

This inconsistent flow is offset by more constant water temperatures. The mix is good for the aquatic insects, fish food, that cling to the rocky stream bottom.

In winter months a fish feeds mostly on small aquatic invertebrates, most of them less than a quarter inch long. For that reason one employs a different method casting to winter waters.

The Canyon walls can close off the sun by early afternoon. But on days where the wind is light a few hours of midday sun will temper the air over icy river water.

Tying winter fly patterns is simple but not easy because the materials are wrapped on very small hooks. To get these bits of thread, fur and wire down to the fish a tungsten bead adds some weight sitting just behind the hook’s eye.

Adornments of silver wire ribbed over purple, red or green thread and topped with a collar of dyed rabbit fur . . . midge patterns . . . . are the choice for this day.

But nothing I attached to the end of my line enticed any takes. Getting on the river and taking in it’s sun glazed surface was reward enough. There will be other days to ply the river with my handspun offerings and pretty soon winter will pass.

December 1, 2024November 30, 2024

And, it’s December . . .

Hope you all had a relaxing holiday break and enjoyed whatever variety of feast you sat down to.

We headed to the river and supped on cheese, slices of smoked meat, and chunks of bread.

November ended on a cold note.

Our week started snowy, shifted into a warming trend . . . just enough to create a layer of ice. And then came the freeze.

By week’s end it got clear and cold, really cold . . . like 15 degrees.

Deceivingly cold day on the Crooked River

Roads were clear, so we headed up to the Crooked for holiday break. Turned out to be a bit too cold to stand in the river for any length of time.

But the day was blue-sky gorgeous. Brewed up a cup of cocoa and enjoyed watching flocks of birds swoop from stream to tree.

We’ll move through December avoiding the ‘buy now’ push, bake some cookies and enjoy our fireplace.

Cold weather makdes tying knots a bit more difficult

Winter fishing has a different pace as well.

Can’t let the corporate pitchman’s babble take up any more space in our day . . . get outdoors and breathe in fresh air is now our winter mantra.

November 10, 2024November 9, 2024

Refocused

It doesn’t matter what you call it . . . there are times when it’s important to refocus energy.

This was one of those weeks, and time on a stream is our preferred method.

Looking for a place to start

It was a perfect fall day.

Sun generated enough heat to counter the chill, as long as you were layered up. The Crooked was fishing well, and wildlife was prolific.

Media, mainstream and social, has gotten in the way. The constant barrage of sales and holiday propaganda came to an end . . . severed and throttled, those sources of noise were quieted.

This blog is where we can be found.