Crooked River, 25-27th report with pictures

[GlobalFisher]

Stats:
Temperature: Around 85 degrees, horrible wind the whole trip.
Water: Clarity was pretty bad, the water was very cold. They just released some water from the dams and it made a ton of moss and seaweed all over. It was all over the water and rocks, so just about every cast you would have to clean off your fly.
Total Fish Caught: 11
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Day 1
Well we had planned to get out of town on thursday night, that did not happen. We packed everything got everything together, then my dad had some work to do. That took a long time and we ended up leaving the next morning at about 8:30AM. We stopped at the flyshop on the way and talked to them a bit, and bought some flies. The drive was about 2 or so hours, and we finally arrived. Looked like we would have some great fun over the weekend... :laughing:

We got camp together and organized it all, I got some fly rods ready in this time also. I brought Ira(nightdancer) 5 piece 4 weight redington wayfarer flyrod and my 9' 5 weight fly rod. I put on a pheasant tail and a strike indicator on one rod, and an elk hair caddis on the other.

I got on the water around 1pm and fished until about 7:30pm. I caught 3 fish in that whole amount of time. I mainly fished tailouts, and ripples. I caught 2 rainbow trout in some tailouts both around 8". When the sun went behind the canyon and made it all shadey I changed to a #14 tan elk hair caddis, and waded down to my favorite part of the river. Every time I go to the Crooked River I fish this particular spot and it always produces for me. After quite a few casts through the wind I got the fly right behind the rock I wanted to. I saw some fish rising behind it a little earlier. Sure enough a big fish slammed my fly. I moved back towards the bank still fighting the fish, there were a few people watching to see the fish. Right when I had grabbed my line to move the fish closer towards me, it thrashed its head back and forth and snapped my 3lb line right off. I got a close up look at it, and it looked to be around the 14-16" range but he was pretty girthy! Very beauiful rainbow trout! :veryhappy: I did see a pretty big rattlesnake though. That was pretty startling! I was walking through some tall grass and out of now where I heard him rattle! :laughing: I quickly moved out...

Day 2
Day 2 was pretty much bad for me, I fished all over the river with a lot of different flies and had no luck. My dad caught 3 bows that day, one was 12". I think he was using a #14 prince nymph and a pink scud. My brother also did not catch anything. I did see a lot of activity towards dark down in this still watered area. Fish jumping all over. I had a ton of bites but nothing stayed on. Saw another rattler that day also.

Day 3
This was our last day at the river. I got up early, had some breakfast and grabbed my rods. Fished my usual spots and some different places. Didnt get a bite for a couple hours. I moved up towards my brother, he was fishing a big bend part of the river behind some large boulders. I fished above him in some tailouts. After about 5 min I caught a rainbow around 8". I waded accross and walked back to have lunch. A little later I fished a little bit more, this time with no waders. I found this spot that was partially calm but had a few small ripples in it. Tossed out a pheasant tail and a strike indicator. I almost got a bite every cast. I ended up catching 4 out of the whole in about 30 min.

Then we headed back to camp and put things away, packed stuff up and left. The wind and the seaweed stuff were the bad things for this trip. It really messed up fishing. There is 5,000 fish per square mile, rainbow and redband trout. Some whitefish. Fishing is usually great, but the trip was very fun. :veryhappy: I also played some frisbee golf, one by 1 point if I remember right.

Next trip we are trying to go to the Umpqua river for smallies!

Here are some pictures: