Thursday, my friend Mike and I decided to take advantage of the good flows on the Middle Fork of the Willamette above Lookout Point and float for wild trout. Whether it was the late rain or the Corps hording water due to low snowpack or a combination of the two I guess it doesn’t really matter. Point is, the MFW is running about 245 c.f.s. higher than long term median for this date above Salt Creek and about 400 c.f.s. higher than usual below the North Fork. This makes me happy as the MFW can be a real bang and drag show as the summer progresses.
Putting in at the Traihead at about 3:30 we fished the mid-day doldrums but rainbows did come to the Ice Prince, Half-Down stone and Possie Buggers. Once the sun was off the water fish became more active the catch rate bumped up dramatically. We both caught really nice cutthroat which seem pretty few and far between up there. Mike got bent by a big rainbow:
The big fish of the day ate a Parachute PED. The river was putting off prolific amounts of Yellow Sallys, big golden stones, brown caddis and there were a few PEDs in the mix. The fish weren’t keyed in on the top as much as I’d liked to have seen but they were willing to eat an Elk Hair Caddis without too much convincing. Bottom Line: The fishing was good and the levels are great. It’s a nice time to be out there. –KM
2 responses so far ↓
1 kahana // Jul 17, 2010 at 4:38 am
I was up there a week ago for a couple days and did the run from Oakridge to Black Canyon, the fishing was phenominal the second half of the day, but all morning I hardly caught anything. It seems at about 3 O’clock the dry fly bite turns on, I got a 16 incher on a parachute Adams
2 Alex // Jul 18, 2010 at 7:13 am
^ Nice Kahana, are you from HI, and how is that float from a driftboat ?
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