M
Modest_Man
We left Friday around noon, camped out at Trout Creek. Put in early Saturday. Took out today around 3 at Sandy Beach. Rained hard Friday night, fairly pleasant the rest of the days with today being the nicest by far.
This was primarily a rafting trip, I just brought some fishing stuff along for the afternoons after camp was all set up and the rafting was done for the day to dink around on.
I managed my first fish ever on a fly rod (whoo hoo), a northern pikeminnow. Then I managed two more pikeminnow, all on a large nymph. Then the last night of the trip I managed two trout on large dry flies. I also caught about a dozen trout on spinners (I know, what a sin on the Deschutes; 92380469 fly fisherman and 1 spinner fisherman). The largest of which was probably 16" or so, average size of 10-12" with a few below and a few above. Photos of trout will have to wait until I get some photos back from others. My fiance managed 3 trout in 10 minutes (and a sucker) one morning on spinners to just show me how good she was. Everyone who fished managed some fish, though we didn't try that hard.
Talked with lots of fly fisherman (hundreds on the river this weekend into today); most said the same thing. River is cold, river is high, fishing isn't that great yet. Saw all of one fish caught while we floated past, and we floated past literally hundreds of fisherman.
Rapids were fun. Ran Whitehorse and Oak Springs without scouting (oops, river was fast and we made way better time than expected). Scouted Boxcar and had my worst run yet right into the hole but popped out just fine. No one flipped or even came close, the worst thing about the trip was the TICKS.
I also took plenty of bug photos for the hatch guys.
First of all, here's the cataraft loaded up -
Here's everyone else - three cats and a raft -
Camp the first (and second) evenings
My $50 in flies from the Welch's fly shop. Fish caught on the lower left nymph and lower right dry.
I need to work on my flyfisherman pose.
My fiance's mom getting into the action. She landed a pikeminnow and lost another
And some bugs.
This was primarily a rafting trip, I just brought some fishing stuff along for the afternoons after camp was all set up and the rafting was done for the day to dink around on.
I managed my first fish ever on a fly rod (whoo hoo), a northern pikeminnow. Then I managed two more pikeminnow, all on a large nymph. Then the last night of the trip I managed two trout on large dry flies. I also caught about a dozen trout on spinners (I know, what a sin on the Deschutes; 92380469 fly fisherman and 1 spinner fisherman). The largest of which was probably 16" or so, average size of 10-12" with a few below and a few above. Photos of trout will have to wait until I get some photos back from others. My fiance managed 3 trout in 10 minutes (and a sucker) one morning on spinners to just show me how good she was. Everyone who fished managed some fish, though we didn't try that hard.
Talked with lots of fly fisherman (hundreds on the river this weekend into today); most said the same thing. River is cold, river is high, fishing isn't that great yet. Saw all of one fish caught while we floated past, and we floated past literally hundreds of fisherman.
Rapids were fun. Ran Whitehorse and Oak Springs without scouting (oops, river was fast and we made way better time than expected). Scouted Boxcar and had my worst run yet right into the hole but popped out just fine. No one flipped or even came close, the worst thing about the trip was the TICKS.
I also took plenty of bug photos for the hatch guys.
First of all, here's the cataraft loaded up -
Here's everyone else - three cats and a raft -
Camp the first (and second) evenings
My $50 in flies from the Welch's fly shop. Fish caught on the lower left nymph and lower right dry.
I need to work on my flyfisherman pose.
My fiance's mom getting into the action. She landed a pikeminnow and lost another
And some bugs.