John Day Fishin

[Derek]

Just got back monday from a four day trip on the river. Caught some nice ones but a little slow the water is prety high one was 19" the other a little over 18" the rest were 12 to 14 range. Anyone plannin on goin we tried almost everything and the only thing that seemed to get there attention was Rapalas the fire tiger color was killer Service Creek to Twiginham was the best fishing from twiginham to clarino didn't have much luck.

 

[chris61182]

Nice catch! I need to make a trip to the John Day eventually.

 

[FishSlayer420]

yeah man nice fish good trip seems like i might have to make a trip over there sometime in the near future. How is that river pretty calm or is there some nasty water there?

 

[redhawk50]

If you are talking about nasty as in rapids for floating it, the stretch between Service Creek to Clarno is pretty low key I don't believe any thing over a Class II. I have done Twikingham(sp) to Clarno at a pretty high water level in a canoe in a little more then a half day. Clarno to Cottonwood you have one pretty technical rapid (class III, I think) called the Clarno Rapid that I know is not recommended for drift boats and then the "narrows" that is a minefield but not that fast of current. It is all basalt so pretty sharp stuff. So I would say Service Creek to Clarno not nasty unless you are not safe and Clarno to Cottenwood potential for nasty if you don't know what you are doing. I know Drift Boats have gone down at the rapid before Clarno Rapid and I have seen people bailing out their dented drift boat at the Clarno Rapid. Amazing river though!

 

[Derek]

Yah it's prety calm with the high water not sure about when it is low I heard it's a little trickier just cause you have some rocks to dodge. But yah I heard the Clarno rapids are prety nasty.

 

[redhawk50]

Yah lower water means a lot of rock dodging and if it gets real low a lot of boat pulling instead of paddling or rowing. Watch out for the afternoon wind also it picks up and the current is slow and you end up going the wrong way. I have luckily had the chance to run the Clarno Rapid at both high and lower water levels. At high it is one fun big slide and wave not so technical but at lower water it was pretty technical having to work around rocks to get in position and then instead of going up over the rock that forms a the big wave at high water you try to avoid bouncing off of it. That rock is why Drift Boats don't work so well down there. I am heading that way today to do some bank fishing up at Service Creek Area...hope I get a campsite ray:

 

[FishSlayer420]

Thanks guys. I want to make a trip up there. Would there be anywhere to bank fish a nice strtch of the river?

 

[lost_cajun]

The places that you all keep mentioning on the John Day, are they near the mouth or further up the river somewhere? I have a camper and my zodiac with a 15 hp. It works great to get me rivers and lakes all over most of the country, but I am not used to the rivers and rock around here. Any advise and warnings about this area would be appreciated. I would like to go maybe this next week for a few days. I will probably go during the week, cuz we hate crowds.

Thanks for any heads up.

Newbie,

Pat