Just like May, the June water levels and weather were a little crazy but June was still a great fishing month. Lots of us got out on the water and had good times. As always, pictures first with the reports below.
From Ian Porteous: Landed a big Spring Chinook on lower Neverending on the Sandy River. I was pleasanty shocked! Also managed to hook and lose a nice summer steelhead a week later on the lower Sandy.
From John Silkey: Spent a weekend out at Crooked River Ranch and got a few days in on the middle Deshutes in the canyon. Few fish but a gorgeous setting with no one around. The pattern was the same each day – hook an 8 inch rainbow on a beaded prince at the end of deep runs on one of the first few drifts, then nothing else the rest of the time on that run. Even found a whitefish. Still well worth the hike down to the water (and back up!)
From Trux Dole: Attempted an afternoon of Shad near Pinnacle Rock but the water still very high. We tried bank fishing to no avail while gearheads anchored 40 yards offshore were slaying them. Managed to land a couple once we piled back into the small boat, but we were the Shad clowns as two of the three of us broke our rod tips trying to land fish, we had a broken net, then my buddy hooked a sturgeon (unlandable) and then we forgot to pull in the stringer before heading back and lost all the fish!
From Garrett Lesko: Here’s a bunch of photos from my June fishing trips: Three Creeks Lake, the South Jetty in Newport, South Twin Lake and the Lower Deschutes.
From Phil Bartsch: Took my granddaughter, Pippa, fishing today for her first time. She caught 2 trout on the Clackamas at McIver Park. I’d say she was hooked for life.
From Jim Adams: I took advantage of the heads up about how well Harriet Lake was fishing. Knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to attend the club’s fish-a-long I went up a few days early with my brother Steve and the fishing was off the charts. Fishing from pontoon boats using intermediate sink lines we each netted 30 to 40 fish . It was a good day to experiment testing different patterns and I can honestly say that I couldn’t find a leech pattern that didn’t work. A new pattern for me that was very productive was an olive Landon Mayer mini leech tied on a jig hook. My friend Wes and I went back up to Harriet later in the week and it was a another 30-40 fish day, again mostly on leech patterns. Wes tried a gaudy 3-inch articulated pattern that had barbell eyes and legs and it was hammered by fish until it finally came apart. The following week I took another friend that is new to fly fishing up to Harriet. The fishing was not quite as good as the previous week but Jack was very happy after netting about 15 fish up to 17 inches on his first time stillwater fly fishing.
From Darryl Huff: Landed a nice Spring Chinook bead fishing on the Sandy. Made it out to Harriet Lake with Mike Shiiki, who has been doing very well there. The fishing had slowed down compared to the prior weeks, but we still caught quite a few on balanced leeches and large dry flies. Late afternoon they were refusing the large dries but during the last hour of light the fish committed vigorously & we had some great dry fly fishing. The Yellow Sally was my top producer.
From Chris Brehm: Fished three days in Central Oregon. One day with just a few on Crane , then a windy day on East Lake landing a mix of Browns, Rainbows, and a gorgeous little Brookie on Nymphs and buggers. Third day was on Hosmer where I got some great action on Purple Haze dries. Fish were in great shape and fought hard. Finished the month at Pelican Bay on Upper Klamath Lake. Fished hard all day trying everything sub surface with no luck. In the evening saw a few swirling up near the springs so in desperation I put on an Elk Hair Caddis and got the only fish of the day, a very fat 22” Redband. Sorry about the poor photo but I can blame my brother for that.
From Wayne Hughes: Put in some time chasing Tiger Muskie. I was told by a Local that the Month of June is not normally a good time to find biters. He was not quite correct with three straight of casting oversized flys resulting in only one follow. I am guessing we saw about 8-9 total fish in both Merwin & Mayfield. Managed to land some bass and trout but overall it was tough fishing. I have been told July and August are better months; hope its really true! In June the water temp was cold in both lakes so hopefully the warmer summer temps will make the Tigers more aggressive.
From Chris Gardiner: Not local but if anyone ever found themselves in the Spokane area about an hour or so East you can drive up along the North Fork of the Couer D’Alene river in Idaho. It’s a beautiful river and the road has a ton of easy public access spots to fish. I had a free pass on Father’s Day weekend and did pretty fair on West Slope Cutthroat. They were pretty good fighters and didn’t let up, even in the net!
From Jim Bennett: First “big” bass of the season and a large mouth at that. Weighted in at 1.9 lbs. Caught near Hebb Park. Not on a fly unfortunately. Still trying to figure that one out.
From Greg O’Brien: I’ve been doing hardly any fishing lately due to studying for by board exam coming up next week and I got COVID too, finally. That wiped me out for a few days.
A friend a I floated Warm Springs to Trout Creek with my cataraft for a day of mainly trout Spey style fishing. He went deep with his 4 wt using sculpins and T tips while I stayed more toward the top with a 3 wt, Scandi head and soft hackles. I got one nice trout with a hard mid-swing grab near Warm Springs, then fishing was real slow as we went down through the Mecca stretch. We had a tribal permit too, so could fish both sides once below Dry Creek. We saw lots of back anglers and many rafts and guide drift boats were on the river too.
I switch up to a dry dropper and had a couple small trout or smolts slash at a Yellow Sally dry and hooked a couple on a little rainbow warrior dropper. Overall a slow but beautiful day. One of the guid/client boats we saw often took out in front of us and said they only hooked 3 trout during the day, so not just slow for us. Anyway, can’t wait to go back!
I forgot that early June before another water spike I fished for Shad on the WA side below Bonneville. I went with Spey rod since I was standing right at the willows. 5 wt Spey with T11 worked well. I got a half dozen or so fun Shad in an hour or two before it started pouring rain.
From Dave Kilhefner: In early June I hit Harriet a couple times and did really well. Tried to do some Shad fishing but the water was pretty high, getting up into the parking lot at Clackamette Park so mostly I hit the OFC ponds instead. The fish were picky but after seeing a bunch of damsels flying around I tied on a damsel nymph and managed to land a pretty nice trout. Wrapped up the month by getting COVID and was really sick for 5 days but thankfully now I’m fine.
Thanks to everyone for providing these reports!