Veterans Day on the Deschutes and Crooked

I had a great idea for Veterans Day this year. Instead of doing nothing around the house with my day off I should go fishing for steelhead and trout! It was such a great idea that nearly everyone else across Oregon had the same exact though.

Simon and I rolled out of town at 4am and headed for Warm Springs. The goal was to fish steelhead until mid day and then drive over to the crooked to catch some trout. We arrived at Mecca Flat just shy of 7pm and there were already 4 cars in the parking lot. Not good.......well, we decided to fish the crappy run in front of camp and of course got nothing. While fishing the run, there were about 12-15 other cars that rolled into the lot to join the fun. I wasn't even about to attempt a frustrating hike down the trail, so we drove back out, fished the guard rail hole, got a tug, and headed for Prineville.

After a quick stop a McDonald's around 10:30(we were delayed for 5 mins while waiting for them to start serving lunch), we pushed on for Big Bend Campground in search of rising trout. A few people on the river, but it was a far cry from the Mecca parking lot. Our luck did not last for long as a friendly Subaru driver rolled up seconds after us, threw on his warm gear and rigged a rod. We had company!

No worries though, I was just excited to test out my new Sage Z axis 590-4 and my Sage 4550 reel that was paired with Rio's Gold trout line.
http://www.sageflyfish.com/dyn_prodlist.php?k=242758

As I stepped down to the river, trout were already feeding on BWO's. I threw on a Baetis Cripple and immediately got fish. What a refreshing feeling. I hadn't fished dries to trout since coming back from Montana in early August. I guess when you have the Steelhead fever its hard to concentrate on anything else, but this was pretty cool!

A lot of the fish were small, but there was enough action on a few bigger fish to make things interesting. I later switched to a nymph rig when the hatch stopped and even hooked up with a nice bow of about 16 inches. I am not sure if we were in the best spot on the river or what, but Orvis Clad Warriors(definition to come later) just kept coming down the trail. One gentleman even decided it was kosher to fish within 20 feet of me. I wasn't even mad as I just convinced myself he was a veteran!

Great day to be on the river as always. We got home safely and Simon didn't even try to run us into a snowplow on the way back over the pass.

Simon thinking "Why did I come on this trip, I can't even cast my Spey Rod yet?"

A nice shot of the Crooked here. Foam lines baby!

This has nothing to do with the trip, but it is my beer of the night.