Talking about Fishin’

Riparian based coaching.

This week found me standing in the Crooked River’s turbid water. As the afternoon sun slipped behind the canyon wall I was trying to get in one more cast. Fishing was slow and I didn’t seem to have the right combination of bugs.

However, the day was sun drenched, temperatures pushed into the 40’s and the wind wasn’t pushing down the canyon, so it was a great day to be fishing.

It is already Mid-November and the shift to winter season has started. We’ll see less sunny days for the next month or two. Daytime temperatures have dropped and rarely get above 50, with morning temps regularly in the teens. For us, that means layers … hats, gloves and scarves become part of the kit. We’re also a bit more weather report conscious.

 

Casting the new EuroNymph rod.

Within an hour’s drive there are waters that remain open to fishing with drivable access year around. The Forest Service had controlled burns near the Metolius in late October, but we’ll head up there in the next few weeks. The Fall River gets fewer fishers in the winter, so that is also a spot we’ll check out. Like I said no shortage of destinations for our weekly fishing outing.

Much of the west coast has been drenched in fall rains, the Cascades are snow capped and promise an early start to the ski season. On the High Desert we’ve seen a light dusting of snow and brief stints of rain, but more often wake to sun on morning frost.

Cooler days will eventually give way to shoveling snow from the driveway. Right now we are making the most of late fall days with short trips out into the sage and basalt river canyons.

A Quiet Day on the River

Parked at our favorite site on the Crooked River

Took advantage of a break in October’s stormy weather and headed up to the Crooked River. Fall weather seems to clear out the campers so we had the place to ourselves.

Set up the chairs in the sun and enjoyed the day. River levels are still very low but the fishing was great, actually. As the temperatures drop, along with water levels, the dry fly fishing wanes but that means we break out the long rods and Czech-style or Euro nymph.

Looking for a good place to start

Tight line swings on a rod rigged with two flys off a light weight 10 foot long rod. This combination allows you to feel the takes, or bumping along the river bottom. In the end, if done right, there are a lot more hook-ups than on a standard wet fly rig. This day that proved true as we saw a lot of fish action, even with the Crooked’s murky and shallow waters.

The day was perfect, temperatures in the low 60’s, lots of sun and only minimal wind.

The lack of other human presence seemed to increase the bird activity. In all, it was a very pleasant day on the river.

A Blustery Fall Day

Lake Aspen is nestled among eight-acres of pine forest, wetland, and meadow habitat

It took less than a week to wash a summer’s worth of smoke and dust out of the Central Oregon air. It’s  been cloudy and wet, which means road trips were shorter and closer to home.

It got cold enough to breakout beanies and gloves, layer up and dig out the rain coats. With stormfronts there are always gusty winds that add to the bite of Fall temps.

Trumpeter swan

We went to a favorite spot, Sunriver Nature Center, to check on our favorite river otters, swans, and water fowl.

The beauty of this place is there are literally miles of walking paths, most of them paved. We did venture a bit away from the pond  and out along the airfield and horse pasture.

 

Paved areas for biking and walking lead to forested trails
This tunnel leads to even more paths

We were working out kinks in a new iPhone camera rig and trying to give Tip a chance to stretch his legs as well. The migration season is in full swing, but there were just a few flights of geese and ducks. I suspect most of them are year round inhabitants of the pond.

This week the house got a seasonal cleaning, the idea is next week’s road trips will be a bit farther afield. We’ve made the shift to cold weather gear and restocked cocoa and a flask of whiskey in the picnic bag. Now is the time to get in those last fall excursions before the winter snows set in.

Falling into fall

A gnarled western juniper thrives in the arid climate of the high desert

This week we continue to embrace the fall season with short road trips. We are taking advantage of the cool mornings and warm afternoons without smoke laden air.

Wild sage along the riverbank
At winter levels the Crooked River has exposed rock and weed beds.

One downside of the shift to winter is the river draw downs.

To get reservoirs back to capacity for the next irrigation season, dams on the upper Deschutes and Crooked river restrict flows, basically lowering river levels. The Crooked River is down to what seemed like a trickle and it’s water was too turbid to fish. However, that didn’t deter Tip from exploring.

The other activity was pizza baking … from scratch.

This Ooni is heated by gas but cooks more like a wood fired oven.

We’d picked up a gas pizza oven at the end of summer and have been playing with recipes. There is a bit more involved in making pizza, rather than heating up frozen or just carry out. There’s a learning curve and failed attempts, but we are starting to dial in the best cooking method and the last few pies have turned out great.

Scratch-made gives you a delicious pie with total control over the ingredients.

The Ooni oven will be great for other “wood fired” baking jobs. Flat bread is on the list to try.

For now, we’re working on tweeking dough recipes to fine tune our pizza crust, very important, as there are a surprising number of variations possible.

More Rocks

Highway 20 ,,, clean air as far as the eye can see

Two things have happened . . . the air has cleared and daytime temps have dropped. So it is perfect weather to do some rockhounding.

There is no shortage of places to find fossils, minerals and rocks in Central Oregon, but all are nearly void of shade. Any roads near these sites will quickly become impassable with a day or two of rain. That in mind fall is an ideal season.

We’re headed east on US 20 to a dirt road just west of highway marker 77. Glass Butte and Little Glass Butte are six thousand acres open to public collection of a ‘reasonable’ daily amount of obsidian. The state defines reasonable as less than 250 pounds . . . no problem there.

The two low hills look like most of the hight desert landscape between Bend and Burns. A few patches of scrub pine and juniper amid large swaths of sage and rabbit bush.

Drive up the gravel road a few miles and quickly you start to see the glint of black rock scattered between the sage brush. Obsidian is typically black but at the Glass Buttes area you can find red, snowflake, green, and a number of other color combinations. This makes this a popular rockhounding site.

Shards of obsidian … this volcanic glass is hard, brittle and fractures with sharp edges.

We found a spot away from the crowds in the Little Butte area. It didn’t take too long to fill our bucket with marble sized pieces, perfect for the tumbler, and a few larger chunks as well. The material we picked up was mostly black but there are some with red and mahogany streaks. All were picked up off the surface with only minimal digging.

Once back home we rinsed the desert dust, inspected our finds and separated a load to polish in the tumbler. In addition to obsidian, we found some samples of petrified wood.

We’re thumbing through the Oregon Rockhounding book and plan more fall expeditions in the future.