The week in review.
Arrived home around midnight last night after dodging two thunderstorms in route. The first was horrific. Never before have I seen so much lightning. We passed the storm in Wisconsin north of Green Bay. We were just above and several miles to the north of the storm but I had a good view of the lightning which never stopped in the twenty minutes the storm was in sight.
Trip to the Owyhee provided me with six great days of dry fly fishing for big browns (17 to 20 inches). The river basin is in a high desert and the water is used to irrigate the surrounding crop land. This year they had over 40 inches of snow on the ground at one time (normal winter snowfall is 6 to eight inches). The spring melt filled the reservoir and flows as high as 6000 cfs were run for several months. This flushed the silt out of the big pools and scoured the buildup of algae and grasses from the river. As a result there were major changes in the river. Instead of the usual flows of around 175 cfs, this summer the river has been run at 300 cfs. The full reservoir resulted in much colder water. Gone were the tricos and large midges that provide fishing from dawn until PMD time around two. The PMD's extended much further down river than previous years and provided dry fly fishing for about three hours every afternoon. It wasn't until evening (8:30 until 10:30), however, that the fish really got going. The spinner falls got the fish up and gulping and it seemed you had a fish on constantly from start to finish. This year, with high water everywhere in eastern Oregon and Idaho, the river received heavy angling pressure from wade fishermen. At three hundred there are no boats on the Owyhee. The country is stark and hot. The canyon through which the Owyhee flows is beautiful. The wildlife abundant. The DRY FLY fishing for big browns is as good as can be found. If you go, leave your bobbers home.
Came home to find that our house had been hit with the worst rainstorm in the 35 years that I have lived here. Our cellar was flooded and both the trout and bass pond inlets jumped their banks and poured stone and gravel into the ponds. Several trees were up rooted and Rainbow Creek, which runs through our property, cut through the woods forging new channels for itself, moving huge logs and tons of stones and gravel in the process. In short I have work to do.
Will be going down to camp this weekend to mow the lawn and will report on conditions as I see them. Reports will likely be "sporadic" thereafter until the home front is returned to some semblance of order.
Trip to the Owyhee provided me with six great days of dry fly fishing for big browns (17 to 20 inches). The river basin is in a high desert and the water is used to irrigate the surrounding crop land. This year they had over 40 inches of snow on the ground at one time (normal winter snowfall is 6 to eight inches). The spring melt filled the reservoir and flows as high as 6000 cfs were run for several months. This flushed the silt out of the big pools and scoured the buildup of algae and grasses from the river. As a result there were major changes in the river. Instead of the usual flows of around 175 cfs, this summer the river has been run at 300 cfs. The full reservoir resulted in much colder water. Gone were the tricos and large midges that provide fishing from dawn until PMD time around two. The PMD's extended much further down river than previous years and provided dry fly fishing for about three hours every afternoon. It wasn't until evening (8:30 until 10:30), however, that the fish really got going. The spinner falls got the fish up and gulping and it seemed you had a fish on constantly from start to finish. This year, with high water everywhere in eastern Oregon and Idaho, the river received heavy angling pressure from wade fishermen. At three hundred there are no boats on the Owyhee. The country is stark and hot. The canyon through which the Owyhee flows is beautiful. The wildlife abundant. The DRY FLY fishing for big browns is as good as can be found. If you go, leave your bobbers home.
Came home to find that our house had been hit with the worst rainstorm in the 35 years that I have lived here. Our cellar was flooded and both the trout and bass pond inlets jumped their banks and poured stone and gravel into the ponds. Several trees were up rooted and Rainbow Creek, which runs through our property, cut through the woods forging new channels for itself, moving huge logs and tons of stones and gravel in the process. In short I have work to do.
Will be going down to camp this weekend to mow the lawn and will report on conditions as I see them. Reports will likely be "sporadic" thereafter until the home front is returned to some semblance of order.
Comments
Post a Comment