Crooked River Revisited

O
OnTheFly
I have just returned from a tremendously awesome fishing trip on the Crooked River and had it not been for Markcanby I would not have gone at all. Early last week I get a call from him suggesting the idea and Friday late afternoon we were on our way. Arriving at the river around 7:00 under clear skies, we set up camp, whipped up a couple burgers and planned our strategy for the next day. That night had to be one of the coldest nights I have ever spent in an tent. It would have made a penguin uncomfortable. I reluctantly crawled out of it in the morning to find my tent was covered in frost. In his tent, Mark used two sleeping bags plus a catalytic heater but all the heat went to the top of the tent leaving the floor like an ice box. Guess it would of worked if his tent had a loft. :lol: In the morning we were joined by Bigsteel and lilsalmon and started fishing. We found an enormous hatch of Blue Wing Olive mayflys on a small stetch of water and we dug in right there and presented our best fishing efforts. The water was so littered with bugs that you would loose sight of your own as it hit the water in the middle of thousands of naturals. Bigsteel started the show by hooking into the first eager rainbows followed by Markcanby. lilsalmon, still in the learning process of fly casting, caught them too. But it was Markcanby who managed to fool the most fish. We almost had to throw water on his fly rod to cool it down! Two of his fish were a very impressive size and were absolutely beautifull. (Markcanby or lilsalmon will get pictures soon). For me, well I came out a no hitter. I had one on but it broke OFF. We got back to camp late afternoon to pack up and we got the pleasure to meet Irishrover who somehow found us during his fishing day there as well. Although I came back without fish, my greatest pleasure was simply fishing on an awesome day in an awesome place with new friends.
 
B
beaverfan
Sounds like an awesome but cold adventure! I haven't fished the Crooked River since I was a kid, I'm gonna have to make a trip over there soon.
 
M
Markcanby
OnTheFly did it to himself! Here we sitting in this huge hatch tring to find a fly an what does he pull from his pack? A DAM BANANA!:naughty::naughty::rolleyes::rolleyes::think::lol:
It was great I think it all came down to tippet I had on 6x OnTheFly had 5x
 
T
Thuggin4Life
Now thats a cool trip minus the cold. Can' wait to se the pics.
 
O
OnTheFly
Markcanby said:
OnTheFly did it to himself! Here we sitting in this huge hatch tring to find a fly an what does he pull from his pack? A DAM BANANA!:naughty::naughty::rolleyes::rolleyes::think::lol:
It was great I think it all came down to tippet I had on 6x OnTheFly had 5x

Big mistake on my part. I wanted to sneak it into Bigsteel's back pocket to see if it would have the same effect. :lol:
 
M
Markcanby
OK Rose sent me the pics so here they are.
 
M
metalfisher76
Markcanby said:
OK Rose sent me the pics so here they are.

Nice job guys!! Those are purty feeshies.
 
L
lilsalmon
We smelled the skunk early on....but I made up for it the next morning and got my first and only fishy (on this trip), about 12 inches.....it was purty and bigsteel came down as a witness cuz I woke up the whole river.....I tend to get excited. Mark and bigsteels fishes :))) were very nice.....lucky I had my handy dandy cell. It was nice meeting you both and we lucked out with a more pleasant night with no wind and not that cold at all.
 
H
halibuthitman
I can't help but feel like I was meant to be there... I would have eaten that banana!! great sounding trip... october mabe??
 
M
Markcanby
Absolutely but can you bring your heater?
 
H
halibuthitman
I can bring a 22 ft trailer!! but... arent we supposed to earn them fishes...?
 
M
Markcanby
Oh we did our earning for the year Friday night trust me. I still get the shivers just thinking about it.
 
B
bigsteel
Nice to meet you guys,,,what a fun day to spend on the river with great company,,,i can tell ya how may times them bwos came up to fly and tried mating with it....that was funny there puttin up signs on the river that say no wading in april for the spawning fish,,and Irishrover shows up and says i had to wade acroos the river to read the damn sign:lol::lol: got your message jim i thhink we made the right choice by leaving sunday i think the weather was close to gettin nasty..
 
Irishrover
Irishrover
They should use bigger letters on those signs! I could see the picture of the fish but the letters were small. So yup I wade across the river to read a sign that advises people not to wade in this area.:lol::lol:

I knew it was going to be cold when I woke up to a snow storm Friday morning. Starting me thinking about wall tents and wood stoves for campinng up there. The trailer in Culver was pleanty warm.

It was nice to meet every one and put a face with the names. Another trip up there would be great and fall is a good time to hit it. Of course fall any where in Oregon is a good place to be.
 
Last edited:
B
bigsteel
onthefly looked froze when we showed up
 
jamisonace
jamisonace
Looks like its supposed to warm up this week. I'm in Bend for the next two weeks and looking for tips on the crooked. I was thinking I'd start fishing below the dam and work my way downstream. Can anyone confirm that the levels are in good shape. It looks like they are just over 5' but I don't know if that's fishable or not. I'll be flyfishing and I'm hoping someone with some knowledge about the area will give up a few tips to get me into some fish. Thanks!
 
B
Basser@Heart
Where were you guys fishing? Right below the dam or a ways down river? Thanks!
 
Irishrover
Irishrover
I was fishing between mile post 17 and 18 near Big Bend camp ground. Later as that place had more fishermen show up I moved farther down stream. It's all good from mile post 12 up river.

This time of year they may be dumpimg more water into thew river. The irrigation season is just about to start and they start filling the river by lettting more water out of Bowman Dam. It take a while but the fish adjust to the high river levels. The irrigated farm land is below the good fly water. So the effect is to have more water in that strech during irrigation season as they are trying to push more water down stream.
 

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