Crooked River Fly Fishing

March 2020 CFF Fishing Reports

/ davekilhefner / Leave a comment

Hi Everyone, the Coronavirus lockdown has most of us staying home to remain safe and healthy. During the month of March some CFF members ventured out on the water, kept their distance and enjoyed good fishing. Here are their stories with the pictures on top and the report below:

From Darryl Huff: All of the steelhead I landed in the month of March were wild. The one I’m holding surely made my top three best fighters for a winter steelhead. I found great success in my trips to the Deschutes after being introduced to the idea of fishing golden stones this time of year. In a discussion with an employee at the Deschutes Angler, I learned that the golden stone is carnivorous. Being on the move hunting for food they are more available to the fish than the salmon fly stone at this time. 

From Frank Day: Fishing down at the coast was very good (in early March). After having good success on natives on some of the small streams, I ventured to the Wilson River and got a limit of hatchery steelhead.

From Greg O’Brien: Some friends and I went to the OP.  We fished the Clearwater, Humptulips, Queets and Hoh.  Fish were played and lost (me), and fish were caught and landed (not me). Timothy and I fished Puget Sound for Sea Run Cutts and brought some nice fish to hand.

From Richard Harvey: The Oregon Fishing Club properties have been warming up this month.  Matching the hatches has been the key.

Also, congrats to Richard on completing the 2019 Fly Fishing Challenge! (We were late getting his certificate out to him)

From Phil Bartsh: All 3 goldfish are doing just fine. Thanks for asking.

From Lane Hoffman:  The Crooked River trip had 5 members attending. The river was crowded but fishing was good. Most fish were caught using the Euro nymph method & emergers as we had a midge & BWO hatch. Rainbows & Whitefish. (No photo’s, sorry!)

Next day Ken Baker & I went to Chickahominy Res. Conditions were perfect but we didn’t do well. A couple using power bait caught fish, nice hard fighting rainbows to 20 inches.

I went on to the Owyhee. Perfect day warm overcast expecting a BWO hatch. Didn’t happen. They were raising the water level as the Res. is going to fill. Did manage to catch a few but they were nice Browns to 22 inches.

Pictures are Rainbow’s from Rocky Ford Spring Creek near Ephrata WA. I was by myself & couldn’t get good pics! The bigger fish was 5 pounds! 2nd week in March!

Chris from Semper Fli Guide Service guided his client into this McKenzie river hog in early March.

March 17th Speaker Josh Linn

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Josh Linn of Royal Treatment Fly Fishing will be CFF’s guest speaker Tuesday, March 17th.

Josh’s presentation will be on the popular technique of Euro Nymphing: Learn about the flies, tackle and techniques used in Euro Nymphing to increase your trout fishing success.

Josh will also be teaching a Euro Nymphing class at our Crooked River Fish A Long on Saturday, March 21st.

It will be a great presentation you won’t want to miss!

Meeting details: https://clackamasflyfishers.org/meetings-events/

Royal Treatment Fly Fishing  http://www.royaltreatmentflyfishing.com/

2019 October CFF Fishing Reports

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October is always a great month to get out on the water!

From Richard Harvey: Sea run cutthroats moved into the coastal rivers well in October plus bigger fish began to show up. Also got a surprise silver.

From Phil Bartsch: Gary Stein and I went up to the Crooked River last Thursday (10/24).  Water was really low and super clear, but we managed to catch more trout than white fish.

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From Greg O’Brien: I got a little swung fly steelhead action, some excellent trout fishing, and even a some predawn saltwater action at Barview Jetty.

Hit some trout lakes too: the trout on Timothy Lake and Rocky Ridge were big and hungry for small black leech patterns.  Diamond Lake was tough fishing when snow and wind came in hard but managed a couple of rainbows, but no tiger trout before getting off the water in a hurry.  

From Dave Kilhefner: went back to Beavertail for the last Westfly Rondi. It was a repeat of the fish a long weekend the weekend before. Egg patterns were the ticket with great fishing Friday afternoon and steady fishing the rest of the weekend. The sheep were out in force on the rock wall during the day plus saw a very nice buck on the drive home.


December Speaker George Krumm travelled to the Naknek River in Alaska with a few friends for some fall swinging for big ‘bows.  Some large fish were landed up to 32.5” on big leeches using switch rods, commando heads and sink tips. George fished out of Katmai Trophy Lodge.  The weather was sometimes challenging with conditions ranging  from below freezing some mornings to wet and windy with winds up to 35 mph.