Middle Fork Willamette Marathon

This past Saturday, I fished with Senator Merkely’s Central Oregon point man on the Middle Fork Willamette. You might imagine that I was in his ear all day about Trout Unlimited’s conservation agenda–but you’d be wrong.

Johnny is one of my oldest friends and we used to fish together a couple times a week. Since his move to Bend we haven’t been out much and it was great to fish with my erstwhile partner in crime–reliving our old adventures in angling–like the time we without hesitation turned down the two hotties who tried to pick us up while we were steelheading the ‘Slaw, only to realize later what we had done. Talk about a singular pursuit–doh! Or the time we found a huge blaze on the Mckenzie–calling it in before it got a chance to spot and spread . . . I could go on all day but I read the survey results and you want fishing reports not my semi-coherent ramblings. So here goes:

We started on the Middle Fork above Hills Creek Reservoir, fishing from the head of the reservoir which is still higher than I’d like to see it and working our way upstream. We hooked and landed a mixed bag of hatchery fish and wild trout. Johnny hooked a big rainbow that managed to throw him before we got a good look at its orgins. Trout ate Golden Stone dries and the Parachute “I hope it’s me” Adams–a story for another time . . . or not.

All this was prelude though to the evening bite on the river below Hills Creek. The hatches weren’t as prolific as they were the other day but the fish were still looking up. We caught a mess of wild rainbows, exclusively on Green Drake dry patterns. Here Johnny does battle with a fairly typical Middle Fork wild rainbow (I’m pretty sure the chin strap is supposed to go under your chin there Johnny):

and the fish:

A few minutes later this happened–note my horror:

Ok, it wasn’t all that upsetting:

and the release:

The Middle Fork Willamette is fishing great in the evening along its whole length. Perfect for a post-work get away!–KM