Central Oregon Escape Part 2 of 3 - Metolius

The Metolius River has to be one of the most famous streams in Oregon and one that somehow I had never managed to make it over to for any fishing. However, when Colton and I planned our trip out that was something that I had hoped to change. With high flows and rough weather on the first stream we had fished, we hoped that the Metolius would be a little more accommodating. Being in essence a large spring creek flows were not an issue. In fact the Metolius is a bit unique in that comes out of the ground as a full fledged river.

The source of the Metolius

Although there was some wild weather with a bit of a nasty hail storm before we got to the river, We were able to wait it out with a stop at the local fly shop and an awesome BBQ joint in Sisters' Oregon and by the time we got to the river the weather didn't look half bad. The crowds however seemed to be the bigger concern, as we got one of the last two camp spots left where we stayed. Without a whole lot of daylight on our side, we decided that we would just hang around camp wait for the morning to fish the river.

The River

With the rising sun we set out upstream and before long we found a decent looking stretch of water. However, after literally covering it top to bottom by doing everything from swinging streamers for Bull Trout, nymphing and fishing dries we were unable to find anything in the area so we headed further upstream. After hiking for about a mile, we came upon some promising water and once again started covering it as thoroughly as possible. Hoping for a Bull Trout I started off swinging a big Rainbow Trout imitation, while Colton tried his luck nymphing. Not surprisingly Colton's luck seemed to be a bit better nymphing and although he didn't land any, he did manage to hook into three decent fish, while the bull's seemed to make a complete no show. While I love nymphing, I would rather fish dries if it is worth it and with some good hatches that were "supposed" to be happening this time of the year it looked like a good possibility. It seemed that the other fisherman also preferred dries and most didn't even consider nymphing an option as the favored strategy was sitting on the bank waiting for the the hatch to happen. However, after hours of fishing and not seeing a single rising fish and no Green Drakes and just a few PMDs nymphing seemed like a much better option than sitting on the bank. After covering our section of the river I gave up on the Bulls and started nymphing like Colton and within a few casts I had a good take and got a nice solid hookset.

Hooked up

Although the fish felt decent sized, it wasn't fighting like a trout and before long I had a beautifully colored Whitefish in the net.

My Whitefish

And underwater

After landing the Whitey we gave the river another hour for things to pick up, but when they didn't we decided to head out on the road again, this time making for the Deschutes River. Next Part 3 - Salmonfly time....

Central Oregon Escape Part 1 of 3

With water conditions less then ideal in eastern Washington where I was working, I talked to my buddy Colton and we made a plan for him to come down for Memorial Day weekend for a little fishing escape to central Oregon. Even down in Oregon the flows were still high, but at least fishable, so we made for one of my favorite Columbia Basin Redband streams. We didn't get to the river until about 10:00 PM and by the time that we set up camp, it was time to crash for the night. When we awoke in the morning, we found a river that was flowing about double what I am used too for this time of the year, but the clarity was there, so we got to fishing.

High water

We started at a side channel that I had done well at a couple of years ago and it didn't take long to see result as on my first cast a decent fish grabbed my size 18 Copper John, but it popped off after a short battle. A few casts later Colton had a similar experience, but with a larger fish. The next fish that I hooked into I got a better hookset on and after a little game of tug of war I slid a nice sized Mountain Whitefish into the net.

Whitefish time

I have never understood why Whitefish have so little respect among anglers, as they fight well, aren't a half bad looking fish and being native to the watershed's they are found in definitely gains them some bonus points in my book. I was glad to get the Whitefish as it got the skunk off for the trip, however after the one whitey we couldn't manage to find any other fish in the stretch.

With that we decided to relocate, so we hopped in the car and drove a few miles downstream until we spotted a likely looking run with a few boulders breaking the current. At this point it was about mid-day and the weather, which had been grey in the morning was now sunny and starting to warm up. Once we got on the water there were some size 14 and 16 tan Caddisflies coming off, but the trout didn't seem to be keying into them on top yet so we started out nymphing. We got a few takes and another whitefish doing that before the rises started in earnest and we decided to switch to dries.

Colton hooked up with a Redband

Once the hatch kicked into gear, the fishing was fast and furious for a couple of hours with the little Redbands greedily feasting on caddisflies.

Colton's beautiful Redband

During the early part of the hatch the fish didn't seem overly picky, but as it progressed the weather started getting grey and threatened to rain and the takes also started getting fewer and further between. To try to counteract the slowly fishing I switched to a lower ridding egg-laying caddis and the fish seemed to respond a bit better to that.

Another Caddis eating Redband

While the switch in flies made a difference for a while, the changing weather was something that it couldn't fight and once the wind and the rain picked up that hatch died like somebody had flipped a switch and dry fly time was at an end. We went back to nymphing for a while and I got another ~16" Whitefish before we decided to call it quits and head back to camp.

My big Whitey

A sign that it's time to leave

We got back to camp just in time to save our tent from blowing away and with worst weather on the horizon we decided to make to for the Metolius River with hopes of better weather and some good fishing in the morning. Coming soon Part II - Metolius

Eastside wanderings

My recent drought of blog posts has been accompanied with an equal drought of fishing for me. Oddly enough this is despite being stationed on one of Washington's better Steelhead and salmon streams for my job at WDFW. Part of this is due to the long hours I have been working with 12+ hour shifts the normal. The other half is that during the month of May the only open water on this particular river was the lower two miles and it was only open two days a week while I was there. So between gale force winds, high flows and working late I only managed to fish the lower river once during my time there. However, that one time will go down as one of the most memorable outings of my life. With only a few hours of daylight left after work I made the hour drive down to the river only to find that of the two miles of open water only about a 1/4 mile was actually accessible due to the rugged terrain.

However, that 1/4 mile held some pretty enticing water, being situated between a rapid and a series of falls, it was clearly a place where migratory fish would keg up. When I arrived there were a couple fisherman working the upper part of the run, who said that fishing had been decent and a few salmon and Steelhead had been caught earlier in the day. With that I headed downstream to the tail out. It didn't take long once I started fishing to see signs of fish. These included rising trout, a school of suckers holding on the bottom and every now and again the tell tail roll of a spring Chinook Salmon.

The lower river

With Steelhead around and I rigged up my nymph rod and started working the closest seam. Within a few casts I started to see results too, as I had a few good takes and a brief hook up, before solidly locking into a fish. While it wasn't a Steelhead like I was hoping for it was a nice sized sucker fish and I was just happy to catch something.

The sucker fish

I hooked into a few more sucker fish, before deciding to try out the next run downstream. The water was quite a bit faster in this section of river, but the fastest water was on the far side and the near water looked like great traveling water and the type of place that I would expect an anadromous fish to hold. My fish cast was in a little too close and it resulted in my indicator going down me snagging up with the bottom. I put the next cast a few feet further out and once again my indicator went down in just about the same spot. However, the take down was followed by a couple good head shakes and line peeling off my reel. I didn't realize how big the fish was at first, but as my line got into the backing a huge spring Chinook breached on the opposite side of the river. This was easily the biggest fish that I have ever hooked and my conservative estimate was 30lbs. The fish held in the run for a couple of minutes, with me doing my best to try to control it. During this time it jumped a few more times giving me a rather good look at it. However, before long it started to work its way into the rapid below me and I knew that I was in trouble. I held the fish on the edge of a back eddy for a short bit before I could tell that it was going to make a run for it. To counter this I gave just a couple more turns to my drag in hopes of tiring the salmon faster. However, this turned out to be my undoing. As the fish turned downstream it came up and did one more slash on the surface and in doing so snapped my 20lb tippet like it was nothing, leaving shaken and in awe of what had just happened.

The springer run

After a few minutes to collect my wits, I went back to fishing the run again and although I spotted a few rolling fish I wasn't able to hook into another monster. I left as the sunset with hopes of returning on the next open day, however with the higher than average spring the flows just didn't allow it again.

Mt. Adams

However, there was plenty to explore in the area and hiking around and scouting out the watershed kept me pretty occupied in the evenings...

Plenty of water to explore next time

New piece of art work above the tying desk

As a parting gift from my previous job at the Gig Harbor Fly Shop to my new job as a Fisheries Biologist with WDFW, my good friend and the shop owner Blake got me an awesome replica of an Alvord Cutthroat that I caught back in 2008. This extraordinary piece of art work was created by another friend of my Luke Filmer, who runs Blackwater Fish Replicas and has never ceased to amaze me with the beautiful work that he turns out. I have to say that this is a very welcomed addition above the tying desk!

My new piece of artwork!

Also a reminder if you haven't already written a letter to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in regards to the remaining Alvord Cutthroat, please do so. For more information please follow this link.

Steelhead again... Yes I am addicted...

I have to admit it while I was slow to catch on, I have been seriously bitten by the Steelhead bug. Everything about steelheading calls to me, beautiful fish, especially the remaining natives, beautiful and truly wild country and if you are willing to look for it, solitude. Not too long ago I introduced my friend Colton to this addicting form of fly fishing. For our destination we headed to one of my favorite smaller rivers on the coast. One of my traditions with this river is to always fish at least one new stretch every time that I come, so that I am always expanding my knowledge on the watershed. So after covering one of my favorite runs in the morning and only spotting a kelt and seeing another fish surface, but getting no grabs we decided to do some serious exploring. We decided to put a little leg work in and check out the upper watershed and by doing so avoided seeing anyone else through out the day.

The upper river

The upper river had plenty of beautiful water and within the first couple of corners we had spotted a couple of Steelhead redds, but were amazed to not run into any fish.

Colton fishing a prime spot

With steelheading just because you are on great water, that doesn't mean you are always going to get a fish. However, after the first few vacant holes I found great looking run and right behind a boulder where I would expect a Steelhead to sit, there was one that seemed to want to play. After a quick yet heated battle I managed land the fish. It turned out to be a hatchery fish that had significantly overshot the actual hatchery and as such I did my duty to remove it from the gene pool.

BBQ guest...

Steelhead water... Anyone home...

Not far downstream I also found a beautiful little Coastal Cutthroat that proved to be a sucker for egg imitations and had all of the spunk that I have come to expect from these native trout.

Egg eating Cutthroat

After covering 3-4 miles of new water, we found one of those spots that pretty much any steelhead traveling through is going stop at. The only problem was that the best seam was on the other side of the river and required a challenging ford. However, no risk no reward and first cast into the hole I hooked into a nice native Steelhead that absolutely went nuts before tossing the fly and giving me a good note to end the day on.

A great spot to end the day

Call for Support! Alvord Cutthroat

The Alvord cutthroat has been declared extinct for most of the past century, however in one small creek in Southern Oregon there is still a remnant of these fish left. Although it is unclear how genetically pure the fish in this creek are, some are phenotypically correct representations of the Alvord cutthroat trout and this may be the last chance to save these fish from extinction. The problem is that closely related Lahontan cutthroat have also been stocked in the creek and the greatly out number the Alvord type fish and seem to be slowly but surely replacing the Alvord type fish. For more information of these fish, please visit http://kortumofdiscovery.wordpress.com/ or http://www.nativetroutflyfishing.com/alvordcutthroat.htm.

 

Now is the time for action and I urge any of my readers to write letters in support of a restoration project. Such a letter should include the following information:

1. Conducting a transplant of the most "Alvord-like" fish to a stream with suitable habitat. Such a stream should have good riparian habitat and water quality so that a self sustaining population can be created.

2. The stream currently holding these fish should to made catch and release only and no bait to help protect the remain "Alvord-type" fish found there.

3. The restoration of these fish should not hinge on waiting for genetic testing as such testing is timely and this population is too fragile to await such delays. Also this testing is going to be difficult to conduct as the Alvord cutthroat is lacking in quality genetic samples to compare with.

Please submit letters of support for an Alvord phenotype rescue and restoration project to: Shannon Hurn, ODFW District Office, 237 Highway 20 South/PO Box 8, Hines, OR 97738 or via email to shannon.m.hurn@state.or.us

Beyond Expectations

Sometimes when you think you have things planned out, a spurt of the moment change of plans can be a great thing. That was the case for me over the weekend. My original plan was to take things easy and catch up on my to do list. However, a phone call from my buddy Jonathan quickly changed that. It seemed he was in a bit of a bind, he had planned a guided trip on the Olympic Peninsula for Steelhead with a friend of his from Colorado, but his friend got the flu the day before the trip. So he had a seat for the trip that needed filling and with a nice hole in my schedule I quickly took him up on the offer to join the trip.

So Friday night I got home from work tossed my gear in the car and we headed for the coast. As is common with Forks, WA it rained most of the night, but we woke to clear skies in the morning and met up with our guide Jim Kerr (http://www.raincoastguides.com/) just as the sun was peaking over the horizon. With the rains overnight the rivers had bumped up a bit and the clarity was marginal, but flows were dropping and with any luck some fresh fish would be pushing in on the high water. As it would turn out luck was with us...

The river

With steelheading I always set my expectations very low, if I hook a fish it is a great day as it is  more about just being out on the river. Therefore when Jonathan got things started out nice sea-run Cutthroat and a beautiful 4-5lb native hen kelt, the day had already treated us better that I would hope. However, it just kept getting better, as I followed suit with a similar sized wild hen that was still working her way upstream to spawn. As always with steelhead fishing not every piece of choice looking water is going to hold a fish and as such persistence pays off and not to mention it helps having someone as knowledgeable as Jim at the oars. Jim put us on a great looking run with some down timber that he said typical holds a fish or two. He was right and just where you would expect a steelhead to sit, there were two of them and Jonathan and I had a double going. It was quickly clear that Jonathan's fish was the bigger over the two, but it didn't stay on long enough for us to see just how big. I had a good hookset on my fish and after a quick fight I ended up landing a beautiful about 8lb chrome buck.

Native steelhead, it doesn't get a whole lot better.

The fishing remained good throughout the day with Jonathan and I each picking up another steelhead. However, one of my highlights of the trip was still waiting as downriver I got into my biggest fish of the day and this season so far. A wild hen that I hooked part way down a rapid and that decided that it wanted to go up that rapid. This left me being pulled on from both ends, the raft going down the rapid and the fish up and by time we got to the bottom, there were maybe five to ten wraps of backing left on the reel. With that I hoped out of the raft and chased the fish on foot, finally gaining the fly line back by the time it decided to go down the rapid. This worked to our advantage though as we were able to land it in a side channel at the bottom of the rapid and I briefly admired the 13lb hen before sending her on her way again.

My big fish

In the next hole down river Jonathan hooked into a nice fish, but after a couple minutes the Steelhead won out and continued on its way. However, a few casts later Jonathan got a consolation prize with a small jack Steelhead and then while demonstrating a couple useful small stream steelheading techniques that apparently work wonders Jim got a nice hatchery Steelhead.

Jonathan working some prime water

Jim with his "quick and easy" hatchery Steelhead

At this point I really would have thought that the day couldn't get any better, but it wasn't over yet and Jim still had a couple of tricks up his sleeve. Although we had missed our shot at a double earlier in the day, take two went better and this time Jonathan got his big fish with about a 13lb hen, while I got another buck that looked to be 8 or 9lbs.

Double!!!

All that I can say is that this was one of the most memorable days I have ever had on the water with one of the best guides out there. I really can't image a more knowledgeable guide or more pleasurable person to fish with than Jim. The knowledge that Jim passed along would have been well worth the price of admission alone. Add to that how good the fishing was and things went well above and beyond any expectations and it will be a trips that I will be talking about for along time to come!

The sunset over the Olympics and Lake Crescent, a great end to a great day