I got a great night’s sleep. I kept rolling over until I finally got up at 11:30 AM. Fisherman were coming back from the water. I didn’t get a chance to talk with them though. Upon waking up I decided to go to the nearest town, 15 miles away, to get soda and water. I need to find caffeine pills so I can detox from diet soda, for health and how expensive it is. The town had a great food truck and I the first and best Philly Cheese Steak I’ve ever had.
I walked my way to a table with two obvious fly fishermen. I asked if they had fished Crooked River that morning and they said “yes”. They got a lot of fish, but “not as many as they should have, due to the low water and heat”. “There are a lot of fish there” stated the second guy. I told them that I was camping there, and they told me to “go get them”. They only “gotten” thing ended up being me and my exhaustion.
I got all my gear together, and at 3:00 started fishing the glide just below my campsite. I was hopper-dropping with a foam “bug” fly as an indicator and one of my new purple perdigons as a dropper. The perdigon was too heavy and pulled the indicator fly under the water. Back up I went to my campsite and put on a bobber above the perdigon. Ten minutes later the bobber and fly were in a tree behind me, so I headed up again to try something new. I used a size 12 parachute Adams as my indicator with a size 18 zebra midge two feet below as a dropper. No success and I ended up having to cut off the rig due to a tangle.
I then moved to faster water below, guiding a sheep creeck special 12 through a riffle into a small tailout. After fishing for twenty minutes with nothing, I headed back. I knew I was out of shape and I have 3-4 months of fishing to correct that. However, I don’t know how to fish creeks and small rivers. For the last 30 years I have either float tubed lakes or fished for Steelhead on large rivers. Cast down and across, make an immediate upstream mend, and hang on for the freight train hit. Here, not so much. Beautiful, 4000 fish per mile, silted (normal) water to hide me from the fish, and nothing.
But, I am in a beautiful area, am fishing, and will stay an extra day or two to figure out what to do here. A neighbor camper just gave me a beer, and talked about Oregon fishing and recommended that I check out the Metolius, as it is good all year. AND, the headwaters come right out of a cliff. I’m 5 days ahead of my projected location, so that is a great opportunity after a day or two here.
Evening:
A camping neighbor befriended me and I saw him heading up river so I followed him. What did I see? A 150 meter “steelhead” riffle. I fished it for 45 minutes swinging a perdigon, then a small PT Nymph. No luck, but beautiful water. A guy came in below me and asked what was working. I told him I heard PMD’s, so he put one on.
And Wow, they worked. I watched him land over a dozen small, 6 inch fish, with three larger fish over 12 inches. I asked to see the fly and he generously gave me two. I stuck around watching him for a half hour and was able to take a picture of him with a nice sized fish. Trout were hammering the dry fly. Guess I’ll have to go into town tomorrow to get some flies.
I think I have the van figured out, although I’m liking 2 gallons of bottled water instead of pumping from my 5 gallon jerry cans (US Military Grade). Where to keep two extra gallon bottles of water is my next task, but all is well. I’m doing what I meant to do, and things are going well. I doubt I’ll have another “need a motel NOW” breakdown.
Take care. Tight Lines!!