April 2020 CFF Fishing Reports

Hi Everyone, the Coronavirus lockdown is still with us! During the month of April 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 John Warren: (from March, I missed this one in my email inbox) My grandsons have been taking advantage of their extend spring break and doing well on Fall River and Crooked. This one is from Fall and will send additional pics from each after this ( you should be able to tell which river.) I met them Sunday in Maupin and showed them around. No pics from there, but I got around 10 trout and one of boys got around 8 with a few whitefish mixed in. Truck thermometer read 71 in the afternoon!.

From Richard Harvey: Like last month the OFC properties fished well.  The key was to go small with your flies.

From Lane Hoffman: Fished Rocky Ridge Ranch it’s fishing the best I have ever seen! Really big fish, I’m talking about 5 to double digit Rainbows! Fished both the upper & middle lakes, both were excellent. Size 10 olive “Seal” bugger & a size 12 olive jig fly. Both were fished on an intermediate sinking fly line and a 1X fluorocarbon leader, don’t go light on the leader & use a loop knot! A fished Krumbo Reservoir on the south end of the Malheur Refuge in SE Oregon which fished very well. Two size of fish, 12 to 13 inches & 20 plus all footballs; great float tube lake. By myself so no pic’s.

From George Krumm: I fished RRR three days this month.  There are good numbers of large rainbows this year.  I didn’t make it down to Mullein, but both of the other two lakes fished well.  On my best day, I landed about 20 fish which doesn’t sound all that great, but at least a dozen were over 5 pounds, with a few much larger than that. Black leeches, olive leeches, and black chironomid pupa imitations all worked.

From Dave Kilhefner: George Couts and I hit a couple Oregon Fishing Club lakes. We met at Oregon City Home Depot, put on our masks and carpooled to the Highland Lakes area. Fishing was a little slow but we both managed to land a few plus it was great to get outside. Chironomids and small leeches were the best flies. The next day I fished the Sandy River. Shared the water with a guy fishing jigs and beads, so tried something different and threw a spoon and caught this beauty.

From Darryl Huff: I frequently hook sturgeon on the Sandy while steelhead fishing. This one was a little larger than most. This one took a bead and was landed on a 10 pound leader.

From Greg O’Brien: Not much fishing for me this month, but did manage a few trout on a recent outing to Rainier Ponds. 

From Kevin Rogers: My one time out I fished Sauvies on opening day before it got crowed. Worked on fishing dry flies for a change, they were hitting non stop for about an hour.

Hope everyone is tolerating the social distancing requirements, masking up when out in public and maintaining a positive outlook. This lockdown won’t last forever!

Crooked River Fish-a-long Report

This years Crooked River Fish-a-long was very well attended with 14 members; thanks to everyone that made the trip, it was a great outing with everyone getting fish!

Saturday’s weather was cloudy and the temperature was warmer than it appeared as the hills still had a bit of snow hanging on. Paul warmed us up with hot coffee, donuts and a campfire and then later we had Cheryl’s homemade Sloppy Joes and Coleslaw beside a refreshed fire.

The water was low and clear. The flow out of Bowman Dam was 85 cubic feet per second and the water temperature 39-40 degrees. We all went for the deeper water spots and found a fair number of willing whitefish schooled up in the shallows. The “hot fly” was anything small and dark. Euro nymphing tactics accounted for most of the action but several members did well with small wet flies.

While most of the fish were in the 8” range we did get a few bigger ones, with some whitefish pushing 15” long and trout to 14”.

After the fish-a-long several members continued on to the Owyhee River with Lane Hoffman. A report of this trip will be in March Fishing Reports due out soon.

CFF March 23rd Fish-A-Long

This month’s Fish-A -Long will be held Saturday March 23rd on the Crooked river near Prineville.

The Crooked River is one of the state’s best rivers for rainbow trout. The river boasts a population of 3000 trout per mile along with big numbers of whitefish. It’s a great place for beginners.

The Plan: We will meet at Big Bend Campground about 1 mile below Bowman Dam between 8am and 9 am. Coffee and doughnuts will be provided.

Water conditions will be much the same as last year: low water flows with water temps in the low 40’s. Most of the fish will be found in the larger deeper pools.

Gear: 3 to 6wt rods with matching reel and floating line. Dry fly fishing can be good with Midges and Baetis dominating the hatch this time of year. The most effective technique is indicator nymphing with small glo-bugs (they look like scuds) and/or smaller sized standard nymphs like Pheasant Tails and Zebra Midges. This is also a good place to swing soft hackles or small wooly buggers.

The rocks can be slippery so bring felt or cleated boots and it will likely be cold in the morning so prepare and dress warm.

Lunch: Cheryl will not be there but is providing the food again so it will be good.

If you have questions, please E-mail Paul Brewer

If you are planning on fishing with us please email or text Paul so that we have a head count: Paul Brewer 503-635-3156 ponzdog@icloud.com

March 19 Speaker John DeVoe

John DeVoe, executive director of WaterWatch of Oregon, will be CFF’s guest speaker Tuesday, March 19th.

John will explain some of the very important water allocation issues we are facing both now and in the future. Lisa Brown from WaterWatch will accompany him to explain her ongoing work on our own Clackamas River. It will be a very informative presentation.

Here’s some links to recent news articles where WaterWatch has defended some of CFF’s favorite waters:

https://pamplinmedia.com/ttt/89-news/246164-114003-court-sides-with-water-watch-in-clackamas-river-case

https://www.opb.org/news/article/water-fight-on-clackamas-river-continues/

http://waterwatch.org/?s=clackamas+river&x=0&y=0

http://waterwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Bend-Source-011619-LTE-Crooked.pdf

Crooked River Fish-A-Long Report

Thanks to everyone who braved the snowy driving conditions to make it over to the Crooked River last Saturday. Several of us drove over on Friday and it was cold, snowy and had us questioning our sanity. Fortunately the weather cleared! We all had a great Fish-A-Long with everyone getting fish.

Saturday dawned clear with blue skies. The hills had a light dusting of snow and the morning temps hovered around 27 degrees. Paul warmed us up with hot coffee, donuts and a campfire. With the cold weather there didn’t seem to be a big rush to wader up and hit the river but we got there eventually.

The water was very low and clear. The flow out of Bowman Dam was only 53 cubic feet per second and the water temperature 42 degrees. We tried the usual pocket water spots first but seeing no fish activity, we quickly went in search of bigger pools with deeper water, finding some rising, active fish. We targeted these using a dry fly/dropper setups. The dry fly didn’t seem to matter much but the best dropper pattern was a Zebra Midge, a money pattern for Crooked River, especially in the winter.

While most of the trout were in the 6” to 8” range we did get a few bigger ones up to 12” to 14” long. The big fish of the day was a real surprise; Dave K’s 22” rainbow that took a Zebra Midge fished deep under an indicator in a big pool. Besides rainbow trout, we caught Whitefish from 4” to 14” long as well.

   

CFF March 24th Fish-A-Long

This months Fish-A-Long will be held Saturday March 24th on the Crooked River by Prineville.

The plan: meet at Big Bend Campground about 1 mile below Bowman Dam between 8am and 9am. Coffee and doughnuts will be provided.

Gear: 3 to 6wt rods with matching reel & floating lines. Dry fly fishing can be good with Midges and Baetis dominating the hatches this time of year. Another standby technique is Indicator Nymphing with small glo- bugs (they look like scuds) and/or standard nymphs like Pheasant Tails and Hair’s ears. This is also a good place to swing soft hackles or small woolly buggers.

Waders with felt or cleated boots for slippery, moss covered rocks and layered clothing as it will likely be cold in the morning.

Lunch: Lunch will be provided.

This is a great time to fish the Crooked River for trout and whitefish. Fishing can be excellent!

Questions: E-mail Paul Brewer Ponzdog@icloud.com