High Lake Snow

I actually didn't watch the Penn State game today. Can you believe that? I decided I needed to take advantage of one of the last nice weekends of weather and probably my last weekend with free time. So, we decided to hike into a high lake (by Oregon standards, only around 3000 feet) for some fishing and camping.

It was a short hike and the weather was holding out for the most part, switching between sun and spitting rain. When we got to the lake, there were fish rising. By the time I got my fishing stuff set up, the fish had a change of plans and were nowhere to be found. I decided to fish a streamer for a while when all of the sudden I looked to the other end of the lake and saw these whisps of clouds coming over the lake. It looked like snow, but it just didn't seem cold enough for that. Quickly these clouds made their way over and I was hit by a wall of cold air and snow. That was more than I had bargained for and I started to pack up my stuff when just like that the weather cleared.

With the weather clearing, the fish started coming up again. I waded out and waited for a rise near me. When finally a couple fish near me started rising I tried to cast in front of them and intercept their path. Didn't happen. I tried again. Nothing. I finally realized the fish were moving so slowly in the cold weather I needed to cast much closer to the initial rise. I tried this tactic and was rewarded by a violent (by lake standards) rise. I pulled tight and felt the sweet head shake of a fish. Then I felt the not so sweet feeling of no resistance. I had been broken off. Heartened by the little bit of success I tied on a new fly and managed to catch a nice 16" brown trout. (Unfortunately, my camerawoman was too busy trying to stay warm to take a picture.) My short window of nice weather and good fishing closed and it started to rain (luckily it had warmed up a little). The fish shut down and I decided it was probably a good time to go. With both Britt and I wet and cold, we changed plans and drove back to Springfield. It sure felt nice to be warm and dry again.

Metolius River and First OR Backcountry Lake

Went with Britt on a fishing trip to the Metolius River and a lake in the Cascades. Left Friday after class and drove a couple hours into the middle of nowhere, actually it wasn't far from places, just felt like the middle of nowhere. After a quick mile hike, we were at a small lake that I was hoping would have Brook Trout, but the stocking record the last couple years made it seem like it'd be more than likely Rainbow Trout. The lake was muddy and I decided to use the downed trees as my casting platform. As you can see from the picture, I've fished from steadier ground before. With very little light left in the day, I only had about an hour to work my magic. Unfortunately my only magic was getting trout to viciously attack a skated caddis, but not to be hooked for more than a second. One 12" fish made like a great white and flew threw the air after hitting the fly. How I managed to not catch any of these fish is beyond me. In my world the only thing better than fishing a secluded lake at the end of a day is to fish a secluded stream at sunset (other than a Penn State victory, of course).

Metolius River

This big spring creek turned into a river was beautiful and seems like it should be full of fish, but you could fool me. I only caught a couple small Rainbows and an ill gotten Whitefish. I did see two big Rainbows cruising around by the bridge, but they seemed to have lockjaw from being continuously harassed. Oh well, in such pretty country you can't always expect to catch a lot of fish. Maybe next time there will be a more serious hatch and I might see some fish rising. That'd be nice.

Next to the Pacific, to be specific

I just had to use that line.

First Oregon Trout

I did catch fish bigger and, somehow, also caught smaller fish. This is my first Oregon fish. Hope to catch many more (and much bigger).

Pictures

I have uploaded all my pictures onto Picasa. You should be able to access them through this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/crichard.higgins?feat=email

Tetons

Not sure which was a more impressive, Tetons or Badlands. Both were amazing and rugged. Don't think I'd want to be lost in either.

Upper Meadow of Slough Creek

We hiked up to Second Meadow of Slough Creek, which was about 3 or 4 miles in from the trailhead near the campground. It wasn't that difficult a hike, which was fortunate considering how little exercise driving is. Once we made it past the first meadow we didn't see another person. This was the Yellowstone I was looking for. Big Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout cruising around in clear water. If I was able to creep up without being spotted (luckily they weren't as weary as Brown Trout) and made a good cast in front of the trout, I stood a good chance of a hookup....and a better chance of the fish inspecting the fly, nudging it with it's nose and then swimming on. Rejection was common, but luckily there were a lot of opportunities. It took me a while to overcome the excitement of seeing a good fish slowly swimming over, taking the fly and me setting the hook too early. Once I stopped pulling the hook out of the fishes' mouths, I managed to catch several nice fish.