Owyhee River Trip reflections

Quite simply the best dry fly fishing for large brown trout that I
have ever seen. The fish are mostly all over seventeen inches long.  I
caught 35 one day with only two of them under 17.  The rest were
between 17 and 21 inches long.

The food is not plentiful and the fish are eating whatever is
available. There are rising fish from dawn til dark.  The flies
include tricos, midges, baetis, pmd's, and a few caddis.  There was a
hatch of large olives one day and a fellow Delaware River angler,
fishing a two fly rig, caught fish on almost every cast. That was an
unusual event as in two trips to the Owyhee  I have not seen more than
a dozen of those olives.

The weather this year was much cooler than last year.  It started out
with highs in the 100 - 108 range but a front came through after three
days and the temperature was in the 80s and 90s the rest of the time.

Fishing pressure was higher than last year but not nearly in a class
with conditions on the Delaware.  You can always fish a pool by
yourself.  I fished a different place each day never returning to the
same pool.The fish were plentiful every where.

 As with the Delaware, the summer hatches are better the closer you
get to the dam.  The downstream fish show the effects of less food.
They are thinner and do not fight as well. I was told that the fish
also have suffered during the past two winters due to very low
releases (10cfs). The area is very dry and has been suffering from a
drought.  The reservoir peaked at 20% last year and 25% this year so
they have shut down the release when not irrigating.  Hopefully
additional rain will allow them to increase the winter flows.

If you want dry fly fishing for large trout this trip should be #1 on
your bucket list.

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