The Year of the Wind
Three fishing trips to the Oregon Cascade's Hosmer Lake over the last ten days have been difficult due to high winds. I've never seen such a prolonged stretch of windy weather up there, and the blow has really been a pain.
Some of the fishing requires paddling and rowing a kickboat almost a half mile against the wind, so the fishery has provided a free body building and conditioning gym this year. A friend just smashed the butt section of a $675 Loomis GLX rod when the wind and rocking boat knocked an anchor off the stern directly onto the rod, which lost the confrontation.
In between the blasts of wind, fishing has actually been pretty good. Last trip was seven Eastern brookies and three Atlantic salmon caught and released. The biggest brookies were around 16 inches, the biggest salmon about 14. All were caught on wet line patterns, particularly a #12 variegated chenille brown bugger and a #14 beadhead caddis pupa pattern. Friend Bill was getting a quantity of smaller Atlantics working the surface with #12 caddis emerger patterns, the favorite one here is called a Salmon Candy or Tied-Down Caddis. The brookies don't tend to feed on top. Hosmer is about 160 acres and is two lakes divided by a long winding marsh channel. Average water depth is about 6-1/2 feet. The water is murkier than usual this spring, but when it clears, you can see every fish in viewing range when the water is still. And they of course can see you, making for some challenging fishing.
The wind and very changeable weather have limited the usual crowds in the campground and on the water, which has been a welcome change. The first burst of sustained warm weather will cause an explosion in the number of people using Hosmer, many of whom are just there to kayak or canoe the marsh channels. There can be some temper-fraying traffic jams in the narrow channels, but people are usually pretty civil about the tangle. As the weather warms, heavy hatches of callibaetis, and several species of caddis including day and night hatching sedges provide a lot of dry fly action.
The next two weeks are my favorite time to fish Hosmer. I am usually done there by the 4th of July when the bathing suit and rubber PFD hatch takes over. Looking forward to a three-day camping trip there in about a week. The last three trips there have all been day journeys from Bend, which is about a 45-minute drive away.
Wes Wada Bend, Oregon
