Rivers Crooked River Fishing Reports

I spent the whole past three days fishing the Crooked River below the dam. Lots of trout hanging deep in pools and hiding behind rocks. I accidentally hooked into a small steelhead, but after playing him for a while to try to bring him in on my little trout rod, he swam into the shallows, rolled onto his back an spit that hook like it was hurting him. Anyway, a steelhead in the Crooked and that’s cool.

I didn’t take pictures of the fish because I was alone and that mucky bottom on the river requires that one not dick around but the scenery is gorgeous!

Looks like maybe you fed the bird? ;-)

I don't think steelhead get above Pelton dam anymore... But I'm no expert.
Could have just been a super chunky native which is still quite the catch!

troutdude said:

Looks like maybe you fed the bird? ;-)

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It seemed like it was doing pretty well. Caught 3-4 while I was standing there. I tell the herons: “I could catch more fish too if I could take them that small.” They are fun to watch, though.

Socaaron said:

I don't think steelhead get above Pelton dam anymore...

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Apparently it’s a new thing over the past few years. BLM, ODFW and some others have gotten together to reintroduce them to the Crooked. They’ve posted signs and whatnot along the road there asking people to stay out of the redds, not to target them, keep them in the water, etc. In any case more fish than I had rod. I was appreciative that it spat the hook, saving me the trouble.

Crooked River​

That's great to hear It'd be nice to see them in that system again.
It's been a few years since I've fished that river much. I was excited when I heard they made passage for the kokanee from the Metolius & Billy Chinook open and that biologists tracked a couple hundred thousand headed towards the salt. But sadly I haven't heard of any coming back and that was 4-5+ years ago now.

They have been working on bringing those fish back to the Crooked, Deschutes, and Metolius for some time now. Nice to see it happening.
I hope it is as successful as bringing chinook back to the Umatilla was.