Metolius River, OR

After staying with my mom for a few days at eagle crest and getting some golf in, I headed to the last stop on my Central Oregon tour. My favorite place in the world to fish the Metolius River. Boy was I glad I made the stop. The fishing was crazy good and I landed almost everything you could think of though I did loose quite a few fish. Most my takes were indicator or euro nymphing but there was some action on late stones. The rainbow pictured below took a pats stone and the brown trout below took a blue psycho prince.

Summary:
Location: Blue hole to Gorge Campground.
Time: 9am - 8pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black stone nymph, 12 rainbow warrior, 14 zebra midge, 12 copper john hybrid, 10 Rogue Stone, 8 black and brown Pat's Stone, 14 blue psycho prince, 14 hot wire
Fish: 4/13 on trout + white fish
Species: White Fish, Rainbow, Browns
Biggest Fish: 16" brown
Smallest Fish: 12" rainbow
Rating: 9.5/10 (lost more fish than I ever have before. 

Crane Prairie & Wickiup Resevoir, OR

Some other intel I had gathered was fishing Crane Prairie and Wickiup Reservoir. Crane Prairie was burned before the reservoir was filled. So scattered throughout the lake are a bunch of dead, burnt, limbless trees. The method I was told to fish was called the crono-bobber method. Basically fly fishing with a bobber or in this case a 9' 6x leader, Ice Cream Cone midge and a strike indicator at the leader not. Was told to use extremely light tippet as the fish were leader shy but if I was successful the fish were to be monster rainbows. I was also told that the best fishing is from the second you can legally fish in the morning until the sun hits the water and no later than maybe 9am. So with my pontoon and crono-bobber rig I set out and tried my luck. Just as the sun was coming over the mountains my indicator went down. The fish looked close to 20" and like any rainbow in the lake had a pot belly to go with it so I would estimate it was over 4lbs. Unfortunately it wrapped a tree and broke off. I stayed out until 9am but then packed up and headed over for Wickiup.

Wickiup was a whole other ball game. Here you are fishing for monster brown trout eating tiny flies. Recommended at this time was and 18 or 20 callibaetis fly. I saw several fish sipping on the surface and a few more below as the lake was low and gin clear. Was not succeful in hooking up and mostly fished the intake portion of the lake as this is where I was told to go.

Summary:
Location: Craine Prairie Resevour and Wickiup Resevoir.
Time: 7am - 9pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: Ice-Cream Cone midge, and various callibaetis patterns.
Fish: 0
Species: Rainbow and Browns
Biggest Fish: N/A
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 6/10

Upper Deschutes, OR

So on my way out the last time I was tipped off that there is a way to catch big brook trout where I like to fish on the Upper Deschutes near the blue holes. I even found a fly fishing video as evidence that there were a lot of them. So this trip I was looking for the big brookies. When I say big the larger ones average 18"+. To target them you want to swing a size 10 or 8 brown crystal wolly bugger under every fallen tree and there are plenty of them. Swing you fly and if it doesn't get eaten or snagged cast again until one of the two happen. If the later happens and you get snagged, then simply walk down to the tree, unhook your fly, drop it on the other side of the log, and swing the next fallen tree. Eventually, you are destined to hook a crazed brookie. For me this happened on the second tree I cast after the three blue holes. It was crazy! If I haven't painted the picture there are a lot of fallen trees including the one you just swung him out from. So a good part of the battle is keeping him out from the trees which means putting him in the riffle. One of the coolest fish I have caught in my life. I dont know where the picture from the camera is but I took a picture on my phone to sent to friends.

Summary:
Location: Near the blue holes
Time: 11am - 8pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: Brown crystal wolley bugger size 8/10, 14 parachute adams, and 14 brown elk hair caddis.
Fish: 20+
Species: White Fish, Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 17" brookie
Smallest Fish: 3" rainbow
Rating: 10/10

Crooked River, OR

Took a while to get on the road. Had to get my dog up to date on vaccinations, still haven't completed shopping, decided to get my hair cut, and so on. I did make it and looked at each camp ground again to find a great spot at Chimney Rock. Low and behold after I got paid and all rigged up with a foam olive caddis and orange scud dropper a lightning/thunder storm rolled in. Didn't have camp set up so went and sat in the car. Afraid I wasn't going to get back out tonight and having only 10 cast in, the thoughts began to cross my mind. Should I have started somewhere else, why did I pay, should I just go to bed...? The rain stopped and I charged back up the river. Good for me I lost that scud on a back cast battling the wind, I changed to a gray parachute Adams on a scud hook with some red tinsel out the butt. A few cast later I landed the first fish and shortly after the second. Deciding it was getting too late to legally fish I called it a night. I'll take my red-band and rainbow and am looking forward to tomorrow.  This week is going to be a riot!

Summary:
Location: Crooked River, OR
Time: 1pm - 9pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 12 foam olive caddis, 14 scuds, and 12 parachute adams.
Fish: 2
Species: Rainbow & Redband
Biggest Fish: 12" rainbow
Smallest Fish: 11" redband
Rating: 7/10

Wynoochee River, WA

Seamed a little early for summer runs but you never know. Fishing the diversion Dustin landed himself a brute. I saw a small pod swim past me a little down the river.

Summary:
Location: Diversion Dam
Time: 6pm - 9pm
Rod: 7wt fly rod and spinning gear
Tackle: nymph with glow bug and gold spoon
Fish: 1
Species: Steelhead
Biggest Fish: 12#
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 8/10

Westport, WA (Charter Salmon and Rock Fish)

Company likes to take us out fishing. Caught lots of fish myself but the boat didnt quite limit out. Was a great time.

Summary:
Location: Chartered out of Westport
Time: 7am - 4pm
Rod: Gear rods
Tackle: Hearing
Fish: 10+
Species: Chinook, Coho, and Seabass
Biggest Fish: 21# Chinook
Smallest Fish: 2# sea bass
Rating: 7/10

Yakima River, WA

It was time to take Dustin and his girlfriend out on the Yakima River. Water was in good shape but we were a touch off on the fishing. Dustin finally popped his cherry with a nice cutthroat. Towards the end of the run I pulled out the sculpzilla and stripped up a nice rainbow.

Summary:
Location: Ringer to Big Pine
Time: 9am - 9pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: Double the pats for double the fun, hair ear nymphs, chubbies, various nymphs or midges and the good old sculpzilla
Fish: 2
Species: Rainbow and Cutthroat
Biggest Fish: 16" rainbow
Smallest Fish: 12" cuttie
Rating: 7/10