To be honest the catch rate for our July Fish A Long was a little slow. But it’s important to keep the Fish A Long momentum going plus survey’s say you have a better chance at catching fish if you go fishing so that’s what some of use did! Most of us ended up catching a fish or two and having a good time doing it.
Dave K and Kevin R started early on the Salmon River at the Miller Road access. We tried Euro Nymphing in the riffles for about an hour but didn’t find any trout. We did see some salmon rolling in the big pool and this brought back some good fishing memories from my youth. Some history: this area used to be called the Gravel Pit for obvious reasons and it used to be a premier fishing area for Steelhead in Oregon. Back then the Salmon River was heavily stocked and the returns were very good. It wasn’t unusual to see over 100 steelhead in the hole back then. It was such a good spot that former President George H.W. Bush fished there when he came to Oregon (not trying to be political, it’s just something that really happened a long time ago).
If you’ve never been to this place, it’s a well marked pullout about 1/2 mile before the Mt Hood RV Resort. The road is gated and it’s about a 1/2 mile walk in. You need to cover water to score but the wading in the river is a little challenging due to sharp loose rocks and also a fair number of logs & log jams you have scramble around. It’s a beautiful area but also a popular target shooting area so it’s best to hit it early and then move on.
After finishing up on the Salmon River we drove to Clear Lake as we’ve had some good fishing there this year. At the lake we met up with George C, Kadir S and Ken M. There were lots of Callibaetis duns and spinners on the water and fish were rising regularly. Still, the fishing was tough as the lake had gotten very low, the level being about 3,488. You can see from the chart that’s within 3 feet of the maximum drawdown level of 3,485 and later in the day when people started swimming we saw a guy walk all the way across the lake and the water only reached his chest.
One bright spot was that Ken, who has a background in graphic arts, made us a nice sign and had it on display at Clear Lake. We got several inquiries and hopefully they will sign up for our website updates and join us someday.
The usual mid day wind never materialized and it started getting pretty warm, so we got off the water around 1pm and headed to the Frog Lake Sno Park to see if anyone was there to meet for lunch. No one was so several of us finished our day with burgers and refreshments at the Brightwood Tavern, which was a great way to end the day!