I returned last night from 4 days fishing centered in Sisters, Oregon.
Fished 3 new to me rivers - the Metolius, the Crooked, and the Deschutes and
had a great trip.
Day 1 - Metolius River. I arrived at Camp Sherman on Thursday around 11
a.m. and fished the Metolius River from Camp Sherman to the next campground
below and did pretty well. My first fish came in about 3 casts right down
from where I parked my Eurovan, a beautiful 18" rainbow who took a #14 BHPT.
Shortly after that first fish a rise bagan with caddis and small stones
hatching so I switched to an #16 EHC and got a few refusals so I went to a
#18 and began hooking fish. For the next 2 hours I got about a dozen trout
in the 6-14" range on the caddis. Around 3 p.m. the whole thing shut off
but I switched to a nymph again and got a few here and there. Right at
dusk the big stones began flitting around on the water and I stuck on the
biggest stonefly dry I had and managed to hook one fish right at dark.
Day 2 - Crooked River. I drove out into the desert on Friday to fish the
Crooked from about mile 13 up to just before the Big Bend Recreation area
near Bowman Dam. I started the morning with an orange scud and got a few on
it right around mile 13 in the riffles. I moved up to Castle Rock area and
tossed the scud only to have a nice fish rise to my strike indicator so I
switched to a #14 EHC, caddis were about, and began fishing dries. I found
the fish were all about 2' from the bank hiding among the rocks where there
was a moderate current. For the rest of the afternoon I hunted out and
fished this type of water and landed about 35 trout, mostly 8-10" but got
one nice 14" rainbow. I also ran into a LOT of rattlers on this day, 8 in
all, they were out in full force.
Day 3 - Upper Deschutes River. Since I couldn't get a guide on the lower
river I headed to the upper Deschutes above Bend, fishing from Lava Falls to
Benham Falls during the day. It took me an hour or so to find the fish but
once I found them I did pretty well in similar water all day. The fish
seemed to be hanging along the edges of riffles, especially ones where there
was a big depth change at the edge. I got almost all my fish on a #14 BHPT
or #14 BH Prince nymph and landed about 25-30 trout in the 8-15" range, all
rainbows. I also got a few monster whitefish, 14-16" fish that put up a
pretty good fight. Dillon Falls was one of the best spots from the boat
launch down to the actual falls. That evening I hit the stone flight on
the Metolius again and got 2 fish up, landing a fat 13" rainbow that looked
like a small football.
Day 4 - Metolius River. I decided that I liked the Metolius the best so I
stuck to it on the 4th and final day. My intent was to explore new water
but I ended up in a big mixed hatch with lots of fish rising just at the
downstream end of the Camp Sherman campground. I spent about 2 1/2 hours in
this one pool trying to figure out each fish. I got several on a #16 very
dark X-Caddis, several on a #18 EHC, several on a #18 BWO Comparadun and
several on a #12 Yellow Sally. These were all nice fish, the avereage size
was 14" there and I had one monster rise and another one on that was easily
20". I landed about 10 fish in this spot and lost several over the few
hours I was there. I also got two huge whitefish on a #14 BHPT just before
the hatch(es) started up. The rest of the day I did roam a bit and landed
another 8-10 trout, most of them smaller but one other nice 14" fish, all of
these on nymphs. At dusk again I had one on the stone just as it got too
dark to see.
I hated to get up Monday and head home, the trip went really well. I'd never
been on any of these waters before but the Flyfishers Guide to Oregon and
the new NW Fly Fishing article on the Metolius really helped me prepare and
they were pretty much right on as far as what to fish and where to fish. I
may be heading back down in 2 weeks en-route to Crater Lake, until then I'm
heading back to the Yakima which has been HOT this past few weeks.
Tim
