Luck was with us and we enjoyed nearly perfect weather for our annual Central Oregon Fish A Long. The overall bite & surface action was good plus fun times were had by all. Here’s a recap; pics first with the description below.

Thursday’s destination was Little Lava Lake. The water was very clear and you could see lot of fish cruising & rising, but they were challenging to figure out; eventually Laura and Dave K got some surface action on Callibaetis Cripples fished over some shallow weed beds. Rich had exceptionally good success fishing a Brown Perdigon nymph under one of the new Bung indicators; these indicators definitely raise the level of strike detection & lead to more hookups.

For several years we’ve wanted to go to the Cowboy Dinner Tree and we made it happen this trip. CDT features a huge 31oz steak & all the trimmings for $50. It was worth the hour drive & back from LaPine to Silver Lake.

On Friday we got up extra early to beat the paddle boarders to Hosmer Lake. It was just at the end of the summer fishing season with low water and weedy water defining the conditions. Laura did well on a Bumblebee Fly and Chris with a big Beetle. Interestingly, we hit all Brookies in the mid lake channels and Rainbows were only found cruising the lake edge.

Saturday was a little windy. Chris & Laura went up to East Lake and had their best success with chironomids using the “deep dangle” technique along a drop off. The rest of us explored the area; the petroglyph pictured is called “the spaceman.”

On Sunday most folks headed home. Chris, Dave & Lane decided to try for Bass on Davis Lake but the lake was too low to launch a boat so we headed to Crane Prairie. We fished the mouth of Cultus Creek and each of us landed 3-4 nice sized trout.

The best flies this trip were; Brown Perdigon Nymph, Red Snow Cone Chironomid, Green Leeches, Callibaetis Cripple, large & small Foam Beetles and Blue Dry Damsels.

Thanks to Chris B for hosting us and to everyone who came and made this another fish a long to remember!

Our much anticipated Central Oregon Fish A Long was a lot of fun in spite of some cold fronts that rolled thru and slowed down the trout bite. Here’s a recap; pics first with the description below.

Thursday we hit Hosmer Lake. I had some bad luck when my electric motor died in the channel halfway between the upper & lower lakes, so I had to use the oars. The extra excercise made the burgers taste that much better at the end of the day!

On Friday we enjoyed a big breakfast with Crepes supplied by Lane. Then we hit Crane Prairie and it got cold fast plus a rainstorm rolled in around noon. That night we had a spaghetti feed. After dinner Chris organized a poker game where the bets were flies. It was a lot of fun!

Saturday morning was cold with more bad weather predicted. We had a big bacon & egg breakfast then finished our fly exchange from last nights poker game. With the bad weather we fished on our own. Rich did OK on the Deschutes between Wickiup & Crane Praire. Then we enjoyed a Pork Loin Dinner supplied by Tim.

On Sunday we made the trip to Diamond Lake. Warmer weather was predicted but unfortunately it was late in coming and the bite didn’t start until around 4pm. That evening we enjoyed Mexican Food in LaPine. The next morning we all drove home. It was another fun Central Oregon Fish A Long. A big thank your to Chris and Stevie for hosting us again this year!

June Fishing Reports:

From Lane Hoffman: Went back east to go striper fishing. Had a really good day, landing around a dozen including one on a surface popper!

From George Krumm: Made a trip to Wasilla, Alaska to fish the roadside accessible lakes. It was another great do-it-yourself trip!

Thanks to everyone that attended the Fish A Long and submitted reports!

Our November Fish A Long was well attended. It was more of a camping trip with a good fire to sit around, eat really good food and enjoy good conversation…with a little fishing thrown in. The weather was dry and the wind was down but as you’d expect, it was a little chilly. Fishing wasn’t hot but everyone got fish. Here’s a rundown.

Most trout were taken drifting egg patterns. The salmon spawn was mostly over but good afternoon hatches of small bugs had small nymphs producing action too. Rich did well swinging small size 14-18 soft hackles in the afternoon. These shorter days sneak up on you and the bite was over around 3:30. Fortunately we had a lot of firewood for evening campfires.

We had our BBQ steak dinner on Friday night. Everyone contributed and it was a meal to remember. The moon was down early this weekend which made for excellent stargazing.

Besides fishing the local wildlife was out. There weren’t as many Rams running around as last month but we saw some every day.

Beavertail is always a good fall destination. Thanks to everyone for coming. Until next year!

This months Fish A Long was well attended. We had good weather, good food but somewhat challenging fishing conditions with a huge full moon (the pic below was taken at night!) and a spike in the water levels. Everyone got fish, but we had to work for them. Here’s a rundown.

On Wednesday afternoon I met Rich at Beavertail. Unfortunately the fire ban was still in effect. Thursday was a nice day but it was very windy in the afternoon. We hit the Macks Canyon boat ramp area and each got about a dozen fish. With the chilly wind we decided to drive into town for dinner.

Friday was another nice day and no wind. Perfect! People started arriving around noon and we hit the river. Then we had a fancy fireside dinner of fried potato’s, chili and grilled steak.

Saturday we got lucky with a second day of no wind. Ken brought delicious homemade egg rolls that we decided to have for breakfast. Since everyone is staying tonight we moved our steak lunch to dinner.

Fishing was good but not hot and we worked for our fish. I had a double on redsides and Rich got a 5lb steelhead down at the Macks Canyon ramp but these fish didn’t cooperate for the camera! It warmed up and the afternoon temp hit 70 degrees.

The bighorns were active in the canyon and put on quite a show. One strange coincidence is that 4 people needed jumps this weekend…lots of dead/dying batteries.

As expected the hot flies were smallish egg patterns in red, orange or pink. Ken had this cool new beadhead pattern called a Shlush Jelly Egg that worked well.

Best tactics were indicator nymphing with standard fly tackle and for euro nymphing drop shot rigs worked best. With the extra current and slippery rocks covering water was challenging but it did pay off.

Thanks to everyone who came and made this a great October Fish A Long!