Crooked River – Page 4

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 18, 2025May 17, 2025

Bugs

Just a beetle, not a Caddis fly . . . but still a great pic.

River levels have dropped in the last few days, so we headed up to the Crooked in hopes of catching a Caddis fly hatch.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that these early spring hatches are referred to as the Mother’s Day Caddis.

He does this a lot . . . untying and retying different patterns. Sometimes it even works.

At its peak the water, rocks, bushes, and trees are engulfed in a cloud of small gray-winged bugs.

Little Black Caddis or (for the more entomological) Gannom, are often the name fly fishers associate with the insect.

There are more than a few Caddis flies varieties that have a spotted gray wing. Many of which hatch in early summer.

Without a lot more kick-net work, it’s hard to put a name to any aquatic insect.

In my case there was plenty of time to observe on water activity as there were no fish feeding over this hatch.

So, while nothing was hooked, a lot of ‘fishing’ was done. In the end, that is the general purpose of these trips anyway.

It’s already end of season for some plants. These Dandelions are setting seed in May.

Once home I pulled out my copy of Gary LaFontine’s book “Caddisflies” and it seems, to me, these are Psilotreta / Smoky Wing Sedge or Chimarra / Little Black Sedge.

Knowing precisely which, while interesting, has little bearing on choice of pattern or presentation. for that you just need a color and size match.

Still it’s fun to catch and observe the local insect population.

Data collected will be incorporated in future fly tying and hopefully next time there will be fish feeding on the naturals.

March 9, 2025March 9, 2025

Spring Yet?

Winter prodded us again this morning with a light dusting of snow.

But spring is pushing its way in. This season is an elusive beast in Central Oregon. Late winter melts are frequently obliterated with a blanket of snow.

Occurrences come even in late March. It’s best not to get one’s hopes up . . . just endure the weather outside at the moment.

The morning’s snow was gone by noon, replaced with clear blue sky and ‘spring’ temperatures.

Wedged between these occasions of winter, we enjoy the warm sunny days on the river.

The river was in full Spring run off mode. The level was up, considerably, from our last visit.

There was no fishing, but we did have time to explore and enjoy a picnic lunch streamside.

Our newest escapade involves GPS and hidden objects.

Yeah, basically a treasure hunt with map coordinates.

The process is simple, you use GPS points to locate a capsule someone has hidden, usually with some type of note inside. There is a website with these caches set as gps coordinates on maps.

They are quite literally everywhere. It’s a nice addition, an incentive to get in a bit of hiking.

February 23, 2025March 2, 2025

Winter’s End . . . maybe

This week the weather warmed and our colds waned.

It looks a bit like spring outside. Most likely a late winter melt is underway. Could be a ‘false spring,’ but we’ll take what’s offered.

While winter was losing its grip, we continued homebased projects.

One of those was trying a simple oven baked pizza.

This Cast Iron Pan Pizza features a wall of cheese rimming the edge of the pie

Using a cast iron skillet to magnify the oven’s heat, this was a resounding success. America’s Test Kitchen recipes rarely fail.

There are still signs of winter in the canyon

By weeks end the day temperatures had moved into the low forties and we headed off to the river for a long awaited escape.

River levels were up . . . putting grass and willow banks under a few inches of water . . . plus the heavy flows brought turbidity.

Fishing wasn’t great, but the weather is supposed to stay clear and warmer so there is hope for next week’s trip.

Print Recipe

Cast Iron Pan Pizza

Ingredients

DOUGH

2 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1 cup lukewarm water 105 to 110 degrees

Sauce

1 cup tomato sauce

PIZZA

3 Tbsp olive oil
4 oz Monterey Jack Cheese shredded (1 cup)
7 oz Mozzarella cheese shredded 1 ¾ cup

Instructions

DOUGH

Mix flour, salt and yeast. Add warm water and mix until most of flour is moistened. Using hands knead dough in bowl for 1 minute until dough forms a sticky ball, about 1 minute.
Spray a 9 inch pie plate with oil spray. Transfer dough to prepared plate and press dough into a 7-8 inch disk.
Spray top of dough with vegetable oil spray. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
2 hours before baking, remove dough from fridge and let sit at room temp for 30 minutes.

PIZZA

Coat bottom of cast iron skillet and use your fingertips to flatten dough until it is 1/8 inch from edge of skillet. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rest until slightly puffy, about 1 1/2 hours.
30 minutes before baking adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 400 degrees.
Spread 1/2 cup sauce evenly over top of dough, leaving 1/2 inch border. Sprinkle Monterey Jack cheese evenly over border. Press cheese into side of skillet forming 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch wall. Evenly sprinkle cheese over sauce.
Bake until cheese at edge of skillet is well browned, 25 to 30 minutes.
Transfer skillet to stovetop. Let cool for 3 minutes. Check bottom of pizza crust. Place over medium high heat and cook until crust browned. Transfer to wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes.

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.