Fishing

September 13, 2026September 12, 2026

The Shift into Fall

One of many Woolly Bears hanging out on the river’s edge.

Smoke finally lifted over a favorite haunt and we are back on the Crooked River. There were days of on and off rain, which likely had some influence over the reduction of wildfire haze.

Our chairs are tucked into a shady spot. The cooler is opened long enough to pull out the boxes with quarter cut sandwiches and cold drinks.

The winter migration is picking up and the trees are filled with a greater number and variety of birds.

Osprey

Not sure what to call the season; late summer, early fall? We’re at a transition that is neither, but without a title of its own. We like this time of year.

Labor Day’s over and the crowds have started to thin. The cold of the morning can be warmed with a sweater that is easy to shed when the afternoon sun warms things up.

But it never gets that August hot that drives you off the river by noon. We’re back at the point where you can spend the whole day on the stream.

I rig up a couple of rods, one for wet flies in the morning, the other ready for the afternoon hatch.

The river level keeps going down just as the reservoir dramatically drops, but the fishing remains good.

A bunch of Wooly Bears (caterpillar form of the Isabella tiger moth) cling to riverside branches. If they are a harbinger of winter it would seem the El-Nino predictions are on target.

The weather reports are for mild clear days ahead . . . we take that as a sign to get on the road and enjoy all the fall weather we can.

June 7, 2026June 7, 2026

A Trip to the Library

At least once a week we make the trek to the Crooked River. This week was no different.

That journey usually takes us past the site of Deschutes County’s new Central Library. It’s been under construction for a bit more than a year, but this month it opened.

The thing about libraries is that you don’t need to search through stacks to find a book, movie or magazine.

The internet has put the library online and most of our reading involves connecting to a website and downloading a borrowed e-book or audio book.

Physical books can be tracked via the library’s catalogue and a visit to our local branch makes pick up quick and easy.

But there is something nice about craning your neck reading titles on a row of books. You walk into the genre and start to find reads you never knew existed.

The apps, like Libby and Hoopla are great search tools. However, prowling the shelves of the library will often bring a forgotten author back to your attention or a book cover will spark your interest in ways no computer search can.

Lots of natural light and places to read

The new library is beautiful, as well as cleverly laid out.

Along the outside walls are massive windows and lots of nooks with comfortable chairs, desks and tables to review that stack of books you pulled.

Shelving takes up the middle ground and then in the center of each of the three floors are closed work spaces.

Some are staff offices, but many are study carrels, meeting spaces and even a MakerSpace.

Not sure we’ll visit there often, it’s kind of out of the way, but they did an excellent job of making a library that invites a visit.

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.

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.

March 24, 2024March 30, 2024

Stream Time

This week marked the Vernal Equinox.

The official beginning of spring. Equal parts day and night . . . and it actually began with some very spring-like days.

Though, we are under no illusion that this will last.

A perfect day in the Deschutes River Canyon

In the high desert there is this time between the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

The mountains are still capped with snow, but the days get shirt-sleeve warm. The lakes hold on to winter’s ice and streams have yet to swell with runoff. The conditions are ideal for a picnic in the canyon.

A couple trips to the rivers in late March, ahead of last minute ice storms are always in our plan. We set up the camp chairs along the stream and bask in spring sunshine.

The melt is coming. The mornings are still frosty and there will be some rainy days.

For the next week or two we’ll take advantage of this typical Central Oregon start to spring.