Fishing season gets into gear for me here in Central Oregon this week. Friend Bill stopped by the house this morning on the way to Hosmer Lake, which is perched high in the Cascades Mountains. Hosmer has only been ice-out for about ten days, and both campgrounds are still gated and closed. We will have to pack in the float gear to get to the water. Hosmer Lake is one of those places that gets loved to death, so early season is the best time to enjoy this beautiful place.
I'll join Bill for the day at Hosmer tomorrow. Hosmer is a marsh lake, about 160 acres, two large pools separated by a long, serpentine, reed-lined channel, with an average depth of 6 feet or so. There are landlocked Atlantic salmon here up to 19 inches (commonly 12"-15") which are fun dry fly fish, but for the grizzled flyfishers, the real prize is the Eastern Brook trout, which are very cagey and strong, and difficult to fool. These also go up to around 19 inches (commonly 10"-15").
June at Hosmer is practically an unofficial clave as acquaintances arrive from all over the Pacific Northwest. Many of these people have fished together here and shared a campfire for 15 years running. I know some people who have fished the lake for 35 years.
On Saturday, I am hoping to join lister Jim Burbank and four of his friends from the St. Helens/ Portland area who are camped on the Crooked River canyon east of Bend til Sunday. Again, it will be a day trip, and hopefully the weekend crowds won't be overwhelming, but the weather around here has been really nice lately...
The next two weeks will be prime time for the salmonfly hatch on the Deschutes River for anyone who can stand to battle the crowds of anglers. Bill passed over the Deschutes on the way here, and said the number of anglers visible from the highway was a 'real turnoff'. And this was on a Wednesday morning. The further you can walk from the last vehicle access, the more satisfying the experience can become. And there are lots of anglers going from point to point in drift boats. (It's illegal to fish from a boat on the Deschutes...you must get out and wade fish.)
The campgrounds will open at Hosmer around the first week of June this year (possibly delayed by some logging of dead and down hazard trees), and we hope to spend a couple of nights camping in our fishing van while brookie hunting and socializing. After that it will be day trips (Hosmer is 45 minutes away from Bend.)
This is the time of the year we live for- the return of potent flyfishing opportunities in Central Oregon. It seemed long in coming this year! It's time to catch up to the lowlanders.
Wes Wada Bend, Oregon
