Oregon

The area near Bend, Oregon became my home for 3 weeks during the summer of 2013.  I was able swing, drift and cast the Metolius, Crooked, and Deschutes, and McKenzie rivers and Tumalo Creek.

Metolius River
Fishing the Metolius River in Oregon might be one of the toughest and most rewarding experiences that I have had fishing.

By far the most beautiful and one of the most amazing things I have seen in nature is the Metolius River.  Crystal, literally perfectly clear water gives you visibility beyond 15 ft. deep when the turbulence gives you a window.

The hardest thing about the Metolius is finding fish.  There are so few fish there that they are few and far between, but when you find them you are casting to more than a single fish... usually.  After hiking and driving to different spots on the river I was able to find a nice pool and run that held fish taking midges and other small nymphs in the middle of the water column.

This was also the first time this summer that I was able to fish with my best fishing buddy, Tyler.  He met me at the camp site on the Metolius River.  We spend the next 2 days getting into some of the most amazing rainbow trout fishing that I have ever had.  But we also got whooped by the river.  Especially the second day.

I was able to have success only by getting extremely deep.  My set up included a sinking leader, then a long section of tippet to bring even my floating line deep into the water column all attached to a tandem nymph rig.  This heavy sinking leader was the key to me hooking up and landing 5 fish on the first day there.

The second day of the Metolius River, whooped both Tyler and I.  We caught no fish, Tyler lost the fish of his life after it took to the air 5 consecutive times on hookup, and got a hook stuck past the barb in his thumb and I broke my recently repaired 6 wt. again!!!

Crazy Chipmunks, stole my food, clawed my paper towels, and crawled on my when I was sleeping!

Ice Cream Cone Fly.

Crooked River
Both Tyler and I left the Metolius humbled by the hard fighting rainbows and swift, clear current.  We needed a break and some easier fishing.

After consulting Fly and Field Outfitters, Tyler and I headed out to the Crooked River with our tails tucked.  The Crooked was a great place to regain our confidence.  Pulling dozens of fish out of the river on midge pupae and streamers after the sun went down was super fun.  The river was full of hard fighting little rainbows and some big whitefish.  Tyler ended up being the best whitefish fisherman I have ever seen.

Whitefish

Redside Rainbow

Tumalo Creek
While staying in a rental house in Bend, both Tyler and I were able to take advantage of some small creek fly fishing.  We went to Tumalo Creek just outside of Bend.  This was a small creek, with small fish but, it is always a good time to cast big hoppers to willing native and wild fish.

Wading Tumalo

Her first fish.

Upper Deschutes
Big Brookies!!! Big streamer eating brook trout.  The Upper Deschutes is completely full of blown down trees from some catastrophic event years ago.  Now it provides some excellent big brook trout fishing, with a few rainbows thrown in.  Two separate evenings we were able to get away and chase brook trout.  I recognized this river from a trip there a few years previous with my wife and father in Law.  The river hadn't changed much and the big brookies were still there as they were previous.  We had a good time and I learned a new streamer technique in the process, using my line to yo-yo the streamer back and forth in front of a juicy lie.  I ended up catching the best brook trout of my life.  Epic two nights of fishing.

On of Ty's brookies.

Biggest Brook Trout

Upper McKenzie River
One of my goals of the trip out West was to catch my first cutthroat trout.  That did not happen in Montana.  I had a second chance in the McKenzie River.  I found a great campsite right by the river, and after finding a pocket right behind a rock in front of the site, I had accomplished my goal.  The following 36 hours was full of willing, but tiny cutts.  These fish were gorgeous and lived in one of the most beautiful places that I fished.  Every tiny pocket held a cuttie.  The best experience was a tiny tributary into the McKenzie that had tiny pools of just a few inches but a size 14 stimulator always produced.

One of my first Cutthroat Trout.

Feeling Good. Thanks Oregon.