fishing – Page 4

August 20, 2023October 11, 2023

A Return to the River

Wildfires continue to foul Central Oregon’s air . . . and It continues to disrupt scheduled outings.

Last week the world got a lesson in the destructive power of wildland fire. It certainly adds prospective to any inconvenience we might suffer at a shift in air flow.

Taking advantage of how the wind blew, we spent a day on the Crooked River. Luck favored us and there was no one in the campground or on the water.

The river treated us to an excellent parade of flora and fauna.

Temperatures in the week ahead are supposed to push up near the hundred degree mark. However, for this trip there was ample sun without a searing heat.

There are still patches of green grass and shade to rest in.

A predicable afternoon breeze and shade from the Juniper branch canopy took over about the time the sun caught our side of the canyon.

Enjoyed a picnic, shot a lot of images and caught some fish. In all . . . a very nice day.

August 6, 2023October 11, 2023

Crooked River Day Trip

This week we headed up to the Crooked. Looked like a good place to avoid the Bedrock fire smoke plume, which has haunted us for weeks.

Typically, BLM sites are in use by summer campers. So, we’ll pull into a day use spot.

This day we got lucky and found a favorite spot empty. In fact, the whole campground was empty.

Summer is peak season for camping so we’ll pay the parking fee when we find a spot. Two reasons; old guys like me get half price deals and BLM uses these dollars to maintain these spots.

We set up camp chairs in the shade of some ancient juniper trees. Pull out the lunch boxes and while I rigged a couple of rods JQ points her camera at flowers, butterflies, birds and bees.

Might be because the smoke has been bad for days or it’s just a fluke . . . but there are very few people on the river. Amid this calm, we take photos, enjoy lunch with a cold beverage and catch a few fish.

In all . . . it was a great day and nice break from the smog.

January 29, 2023January 29, 2023

Toys for the Holidays

Winter’s chill brings ice even on a river.

This post marks the beginning of BlackDogHair’s fifth season blogging from Central Oregon. As always the intent is to post a short, image-filled review of our week, each Sunday morning (best intentions).

Hope you’ll keep coming back to see what happens. If so inclined, you can leave a comment in the space provided. Regardless, thanks for reading!

A narrow channel of the Crooked River remains un-frozen.

The weeks after Christmas in Central Oregon were bitter cold . . . which prevented us from venturing out to play with the toys Santa brought.

A warming trend moved in a week or so after New Years, so that is when we actually got started on our 2023 adventures. Of course, we headed over to the Crooked River for an initial testing of holiday gifts.

Jack got a new fly rod, the Winston five weight that has been on his wish list since … forever. While no fish were caught, there was noted improvement in his casting.

JQ has been playing with macro photography for a couple of years now, using an adaptor on her iPhone. That small chunk of glass was replaced with a lens dedicated to the art of close up photography. Armed with this new optical marvel, you’ll be seeing a lot more of nature’s tiny wonders on this blog.

And with that we begin the journey . . .

December 6, 2020December 5, 2020

Thoughts from Quarantine

Deadly spikes in Covid19 cases have placed many counties in Oregon on a “stay at home” list.

So this week we didn’t do much exploring … unless you count our Kindle Unlimited reading lists.

There are bookcases in our home stuffed with traditional print books.

However, our current reading platform of choice is a 3 ½ by 5 inch screen in a ½ inch thick case.

The e-Reader in our case, a Kindle Paperwhite, can be filled and refilled. We have yet to reach its capacity with stories of adventure, mystery, sci fi and fantasy.

If you read genre fiction of any kind, a Kindle Unlimited membership is critical in these pandemic times.

There are hundreds of titles to choose from. They are quickly transferred to the e-reader for transport to riverside camp or just from bedroom to living room.

The beauty of a Kindle Unlimited membership is how easy it is to explore a wide variety of authors and story types.

You can purchase, often at reduced price, those titles you like to re-read. In many cases, there are how-to books loaded on the reader.

It will also store PDF manuals for software, and hardware we are working with.

October 17, 2020October 18, 2020

Looking through a new lens

This week, unlike the last few, was filled with ‘doing’. The air quality improved and the sun was out.

We took day trips three different days.

Hit the Crooked River on a perfect fall day … caught no fish but had a great picnic.

We love areas like this … that said, we never travel unprepared, even on short trips.

The other two days we headed east toward Fort Rock and the high desert.

Came across a few road obstacles … nothing we couldn’t manage.

If you’ve spent any time on this blog it’s clear we are iPhone photographers. We subscribe to the adage ‘the best camera is the one you have in hand’.

However, the types of images we are attempting to capture require telephoto lenses that just aren’t available on an iPhone.

This week we took delivery on a new Sony camera and lenses. Similar to the system we rented in June and posted about in issue #38 on birding.

Storm front moving across the Summer Lake Wildlife Area.

Of course Summer Lake was one of the places we headed for. Unfortunately it’s hunting season and there was some obvious restrictions on where you can go if you’re shooting but not ‘killing’.