Rich and I arrived on Wednesday afternoon. That evening we were greeted by the Harvest Moon, one of two “supermoons” to appear in 2024. While a full moon is great for camping, it’s been known to shut down the daytime fishing. Thus, we expected the fishing might be a little slow and were not disappointed!

After a good nights sleep Thursday morning dawned brisk and sunny. We had some coffee then went to the Camp Sherman store to talk flies & lies at the fly shop counter, check out some premium tackle then get a breakfast burrito. After that we found some unexpected entertainment by watching 18′ to 22″ trout slam Cheetos drifted under bridge. Then we drove into town as the hatch really doesn’t get going until the early afternoon. We got back around 2:30 and a few fish were rising. Fishing was on the slow side and after missing some trout on emerger patterns, Rich decided to throw his Kelly Galloup “Triple Articulated Boogieman Streamer.” A huge bull trout crushed it on the 4th cast and promply broke a 13lb tippet off. We think a sharp rock may have helped it!

I spent Friday morning drinking coffee and organizing flies. I decided to stick with dry flies today. Haven’t done that in a while so it took a while to find the groove. Had about a dozen misses & refusals on drake emerger patterns. By the end of the day I had 3 respectable trout in the 14” range. A very fun afternoon!

Friday evening we had a good turnout that made for fun evening conversation. We couldn’t have fires so we sat around Riches lantern. Not as nice as fire but on the bright side there was no smoke to dodge.

Saturday morning was chilly; the overnight temperature got down into the 30’s. We walked down to the rivers edge by camp and discovered a couple nice trout working under the trees & brush. It was impossible to get a cast in there, but by wading carefully and feeding line into the current it was possible to drift a foam beetle into the zone and a healthy 17” specimen gobbled it down. It was the kind of catch that makes the whole trip worthwhile.

Hatches were sparse today but managed a few whitefish euro nymphing egg patterns. That’s about as down and dirty as you can get and still be fly fishing!

Rich and Dave hit the Bend Whiskey Fest in the afternoon and said it was a lot of fun. Then they fed more trout with Cheetos at Camp Sherman on the way home.

Sunday was another nice day. We had coffee, talked about the fishing then went down to look at the river. That nice trout from yesterday was back under the trees sipping on whatever the current would bring it. It was hungery for everything except our flies. Another time!

Thanks to everyone for coming and making this another great Fish A Long!

Best Flies:
Whitefish: #12-14 Red Glo Bugs, #12-14 Olive Hares Ear
Resides: #12 Green & Grey Drake Cripples, #14ish Foam Beetle
Bull Trout: Big articulated streamers (6” +)