Tag: Crooked River

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Back on the Crooked

November is turning into a really great month, weather wise. We’ve had sun and mild day temperatures for the last few weeks. Mornings are frosty but by 10 am the sun has taken the chill off.

This week we headed out to an old favorite, the Crooked River, to do some fishing and take some photos of the canyon in fall. Had the place to ourselves, set up the camp chairs and really enjoyed the day.

Fishing was good even got into an afternoon dry fly session. As you can tell from the post the canyon was very picturesque.

The other activity was to put up a ‘Flybrary Project’ card.

You likely saw the post on Instagram @jstv. Essentially this is a fly sharing project to encourage people to share their pastime. You can check it out at www.flybraryproject.com and if you are interested, catch an episode of ‘huge flyfisherman’ on YouTube, it’s hilarious.

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Caddis hatch on the Crooked

First summerlike day and we headed to the Crooked River. It started as a Euro Nymphing practice session. The river was kind of high and turbid so we didn’t really expect much action. But the cooler was full, the kindles loaded up … so we were ready for anything.

As I was rigging up the nymph leaders, I noticed that JQ was taking a great deal of interest in a juniper near the stream’s edge. There was a Black Caddis Hatch and the tree’s branches were alive with the tent winged bugs.

Didn’t see much surface feeding, so I continued with the wet fly rig. This was moderately successful. But what got my attention was all the rises just downstream.

I headed back to the car and got out a dry fly rig. The rest of the afternoon was spent catching six to ten inch Red Band Trout.

 

 

 

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Learning a Polish fishing technique

For a flyfisher little compares to plying dry fly to stream. A moment where a fish breaks the surface, hook is set and a flash of silver proceeds your line going taut. Most of us are on the river for that experience.

However, there is a great deal of time when no bugs skitter across the water. The fish are, as any seasoned angler will tell you, always feeding. It’s just most of the time that is done below the surface.

You can enjoy a good book when there is no hatch. Or, you can employ a wet fly technique of which there are many. The current method we are attempting is “Czech Nymphing.”

“… The fly line is hanging under the tip of the rod and its end often does not even touch the water. “

–Blue Quill Angler

The origin of this style of fishing varies, but we kind of like the story about a Polish fisherman who stunned the 1989 World Flyfishing Championship with a very different style of fishing and unique hand tied flies.The beaten Czech team came back in subsequent years and “owned” the technique by basically being better marketers than the Poles.

This week we attended a ‘how-to’ clinic on the Crooked River. Organized by Sunriver Anglers the morning’s lesson was guided by Mary Ann Dozer an accomplished Euro Nympher, fishing guide and a master casting instructor. We had a blast!

Many fish were hooked. A dozen were actually ‘caught,’ and our education in short line nymphing has started. Along with how to manage line, rod and flies, we also got great pointers on casting, as well as how to read the water.

The Crooked’s boulder strewn bottom is readable from the surface. As water roils around or flows over structures in the river you can get an idea of sub-surface formation. With that information you can find the best place to toss (cast) your rig.

This river has long been a favorite place to park our van and fish the tail waters of Bowman dam. The river is known for its Redband Trout population (a subspecies of Rainbow trout). There are a fair number of fish in this river, though most are smaller sized. That said, it’s a much friendlier wade than the Lower Deschutes. Which was particularly true on this day.

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A picnic on the Crooked

Weather wise it has been a very odd start to our spring. There was the late winter snow fall. Then…this week, within one single day, it started with snow, ended with warm sunshine, and included thunder and lightning with freezing pellets.

For the most part winter is subsiding and while no buds or blooms are visible yet, there has been increased bird activity.  We are also managing to get out a bit more these days. It feels great!

The Crooked River below Bowman Dam is one of our regular stops. Even with it’s steep canyon walls, plenty of sun warms the riverside. Open year around for fishing is one draw, but there are also lots of great camping and picnicking sites.

The Crooked is a very fishable stream, easy enough to wade and small enough to get to any spot a fish might be holding. There are quite a few people on the river, but you rarely bump into anyone and at most see another fisher up or down stream a few hundred yards.

There is a visit to the Crooked River marked in our calendar for mid-May. We have a guided trip on the river to learn Czech Nymphing. If you read our blog regularly you are going to see a lot of this river … your welcome!

This day we were coming from the John Day area and turned south out of Prineville to check on the Crooked. it was a perfect spring day filled with bird song and warm sun. Tip enjoyed paddling around in the water and we polished off a late winter picnic at one of the camp sites.