Crooked River – Page 7

November 21, 2021November 19, 2021

Talking about Fishin’

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.

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.

October 31, 2021October 30, 2021

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.

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.

October 10, 2021October 9, 2021

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.

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.

August 29, 2021August 28, 2021

An Evening Hatch

A swim and roll in the dirt makes everything better

Weather patterns seem to rule our lives. Yet another week of wildfire smoke dropped on us in what seemed like a random pattern. Over the course of a day air quality would move from good to unhealthy and back. We did manage an afternoon of relatively smoke-free weather.

So of course we headed up to the river. Now normally we’d be on the stream mid-morning and home by three or four oclock. This week it was an afternoon and evening trip. We packed for dinner and headed to the Crooked.

Early in the week there are usually fewer people, but it is August, so we were happy to find our favorite site completely empty.

Redband rainbow trout have adapted to the arid, desert conditions of central Oregon

We put out the chairs along the stream’s edge and settled in for the day. Tip and I worked on getting rigged for fishing, while JQ pulled out her camera gear.

After the heat of the day passes, there is typically good fishing and this day we had a nice caddis fly hatch. I worked a stretch of stream within eyesight of our camp and was busy casting to hungry redband rainbows.

Evening hours present a quality of light photographers call “golden hour”. The closer the sun gets to the horizon the warmer the light qualty. It also creates shadows that enhance the subjects and landscape. We also discovered that bird activity picked up in the evening.

In an aggressive display of “sky-dancing” this golden eagle drove off an osprey perched along the river’s edge. Golden eagles are one of the fastest, nimblest raptors in North America. They have been clocked at close to 200 miles per hour.

Air quality didn’t improve the remainder of the week so it was good to get that break. We are looking at car trips to do some photo/video shoots which allow limited exposure to the nasty air. Hints of fall weather are in the forecast so we’re hopeful for some better days ahead.

August 15, 2021August 14, 2021

More Heat and Smoke of Summer

This week we were, again, dealing with smoke from an increasing number of wildfires, as well as record high temperatures.

The week started out with an air quality level at a breathable ‘moderate’.

We headed up to the Crooked River and with a little searching found a quiet, shady spot to set up our chairs, break out cold drinks, and open the lunch boxes. Mid-day temps pushed 90º but a light breeze through the shade of ancient junipers made for a pleasant day.

Fishing wasn’t great but Tip and I covered a lot of stream to to be sure. We spent most of that time wading. The reparian is still pretty lush as the river level remains high. A few more weeks of this and the resevoir will be all but dried up and we’ll see a dramatic shift in stream levels.

The wildfire smoke settled onto us for the remainder of the week and we’ve been living with “unhealthy and hazardous” air quality conditions. Hoping for some relief next week.