Oregon Lake Tour - Fly Fishing Oregon's Finest Waters

I just recently finished an exploratory mission on some amazing parts of the scenic and beautiful state of Oregon chasing trout with the fly rod.  On this mission we covered a lot of miles.  We saw amazing scenery and epic fishing.  Spring time weather like the fishing was a grab bag from cold to hot and everything in between.

From Oregon City we drove to Diamond Lake.  Where we saw massive  quanities of chronomids hatching.
Bugs were everywhere and it was a good thing they were not of the biting variety.  Our luck was poor as the temperature our first night dipped to a cool 27 degrees and the wind picked up putting a strong chop on the surface.  Our efforts mocked by a nearby bald eagle and a mallard that ate more chronomids off the surface than any trout I have ever seen we headed out to calmer waters and lower elevation.

Diamond Lake 

Our next stop was Klamath Lake near K-Falls and almost to the southern state border. Here we chatted with Rocky Point Resort's manager who had reported some good fishing on streamer patterns for large trout. Here the rainbows average in the pounds and inches are far to paltry a measure for these beheamoths.  Most action was to be found in the Rocky Point areas and around Crystal Creek entrance on streamer patterns of white and silver with some gold bits mixed in.  Intermediate lines were the call to action here and timing was important.  The wind picked up in the afternoons but the water temps also rose peaking the bite in the warmer hours of the day.  Here one or two grabs in a day are the norm with the real possibility of a 10lb or larger rainbow grabbing your fly.

Klamath Lake at Rocky Point Resort

With 20-30 mile an hour winds in the forecast we changed our plan and headed off to the Crooked River for the next leg of our journey.  Arriving mid-week we had the pick of campsites in the well appointed campgrounds along the Wild and Scenic Crooked River cooridor below Bowman dam.

 Time at the campfire was a highlight of the trip

Our timing at the Crooked coincided with some recent rains/thunderstorms and some added releases from the dam.  Flow as at 270 cfs as we embarked and included the lovely addition of green algae floating in globs down the river.  This became such a nusciance that the continual cleaning of our flies turned our hands green.  (The good news is that this seemed to be greatly reduced by mid-day.)  Our first attempts at the magic combination were a bit timidly received-a few fish here and there.  We finally dialed in on a red San Juan worm and a midge larve pattern like a Zebra Midge.  These worked well on fat 6-14" rainbows and a few whitefish.  The bite seemed to really pick up around 10:30 with the main event of the day being a great Blue Winged olive hatch that was going full bore by 12pm.  This was soon interupted by the introduction of a small tan caddis that was a bit spunky on the surface and elicited some great splashy rises from rainbows up to about 14".  This was the funnest fishing of the day and after rising our share and then some we headed out on our next journey. 

The Crooked River BWO hatch was good to us mid-day.

This segment of the trip took a couple hours to bring us to Rock Cr. Res.  Here we set up camp and were prepared to relax by the fire but were interupted by rising fish everywhere on the lake near our camp.  This kicked the energy level back to high gear and soon the float tube was inflated and the 5 weight was swinging! After a slow start we found the fly they wanted a slim damsel pattern that was getting hit on nearly every cast.  Most of these fish were stocker trout about 8".  Reports of trophy trout 6-8lbs were rumored as we checked in with the camp host but during our short time here we did not find any of these.

Rock Creek Res. in early May on a low water year. 

The next morning and final day of our journey we drove the short 20 minute drive to Rocky Ridge Ranch for the final rod bending test of our Oregon Lake Tour.  Here we were rewarded with a dandy rainbow on the first cast for Darrin and then an onslaught of rod bending battles until we finally gave up took some advil and left and a mere 1pm.

One of the dandies we landed at Rocky Ridge Ranch

All in all we had a blast, celebrated some wild and amazing places in Oregon and I can't wait to go back!

Time for a new map!

See more about our professional fishing adventures at: www.watertimeoutfitters.com