A few weeks after my Alaska adventure in July (which I posted on in mid October), I was in the mood to catch some fish and be a warmer and dryer climate, so I went to Oregon for a week of FLY FISHING. No sea kayaks allowed! Additionally, I wanted to catch a few exotic trout, M.R. Montgomery style.
My first stop was a small, remote creek in the Southern part of the state where I caught several trout (technically a type of char) that I have been pursuing for a number of years. Meet Mr. Bull Trout. The real challenge was finding where they are located, but once you’ve done that and actually cast a fly to them…well, let’s just say that these fish are pretty dumb. One kept striking at my fly repeatedly, until it finally hooked itself. “Hook? What hook?” DUMB.
The same stream also has a healthy population of Upper Klamath Lake Redband trout, a chubby (but small) one of which is shown here
That night was less than restful, as a marauding pack of raccoons tried to get into my rig to get at my food while slept in the back. I can sleep through some ruckus, but claws scraping down the side of my truck isn’t one of ‘em! The only consolation was the next day dawned with a beautiful sunrise through the clouds.
After a few gigantic cups of coffee, I hit the road and headed North, looking to catch another of the Redband trout subspecies. I located this stream and duplicated a photo by the Gig Harbor Flyfisher. Thanks Adam!
The Chewaucan Redbands were real easy to catch. Here is one of many I caught. Not lunkers, but continuous strikes and fish on.
Continuing on my Redband Trout hunt, I hit another stream in the same general vicinity, but further North and in another drainage, and caught several Fort Rock Basin Redbands. Here’s one.
The Fort Rock Basin Redbands were found in a pretty small steam, pictured here.
Staying with my M.R. Montgomery bent on this trip, I headed East to the Donner and Blitzen River. This is a view of the river twenty feet behind my campsite.
Plenty of Harney-Malaheur Redbands to be caught in the Blitzen. This was a smaller one of the bunch.
I headed up Steens Mountain and camped out at Fish Lake that night. I caught many more H-M Redbands during the evening rise, and slept outside that night to enjoy the stars, which were amazingly clear in the Eastern Oregon night sky. Quite a memorable experience. Here’s a view the next morning, looking West, down one of the glacial canyons on Steens.
Later I drove and hiked to the summit of Steens Mountain. Here’s a self-portrait of me on the summit. The Alvord Basin is in the background.
After heading down the mountain on the Southern road (NOT recommended!) I headed South and East into the Whitehorse Basin, in search of some Cutthroat trout of the same name. Here’s some typical scenery. (It looks a lot like Nevada, doesn’t it?)
After a few missed turns, some serious off road detours, and a dumb @$$ that parked right in the middle of a narrow one lane road, I finally found the stream I was looking for. This was an additional surprise I didn’t anticipate. Another bummer was that I needed to go higher into the headwaters to catch some fish, as the water was too warm in the lower reaches for trout, so I was out of luck.
I was WAY out in the middle of nowhere, now driving on a spare, so I didn’t want to risk going deeper into the bush with no help anywhere in sight. As a result, I bugged out, regrouped, got my tire fixed, and headed back to the golden state for some more fishing. A nice sunrise welcomed me back the next morning.
I was in the mood for some bigger water and larger fish, so I hit a favorite East slope river I’m known to frequent.
A nice 16” rainbow I caught on a BHGRHE that I tied. A cool feeling that hasn’t gotten old. Yeah, baby! The fishing was good that day and that evening there was a thick caddis hatch. Plenty of actively rising trout to be had, without another angler in sight.
The next day I headed further South and hit a lesser-known stream from an even lesser known trailhead. If you know the area, here’s a picture of a cairn on the trail you can’t POSSIBLY miss. This sucker was a least ten feet high. Some of you might know where I’m talking about.
Down at the bottom of the canyon was a nice stream, pictured here.
This stream was chock-full of rainbows, as many as you wanted to catch. However, I was in pursuit of another kind of trout. I spotted this likely looking undercut back and HAD to make a few casts.
The result? The picture says it all. CA heritage trout number seven.
A nice antidote for a less than stellar Alaskan fishing experience. Good times, great fishing and a nice way to close out a fantastic summer.
Cheers!
--FlyGuy (Dave)
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