May 14 . 12
Crooked River Mothers Day Caddis
Water levels have come down making fishing a lot more manageable out on the Crooked River. Out fishing there last week and had a great day with beautiful weather and lots of fish. Started out nymphing and went to fishing dries around lunch time. Caught fish both ways but was a lot of fun when we went to dries. Things are looking good with the water levels and weather, making for a great start to the spring and summer season!
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May 07 . 12
Crooked River
The Crooked is rocking again after the flows dropped to 439CFS as of the morning of 5/7/12. Small nymphs will do the trick. Black or red Winkers Midges, Lightening Bugs in silver, Copper Johns, WD 40's Batmans. Great alternative to fishing the bigger water of the Deschutes.
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April 19 . 12
Crooked River
The Crooked, as of 9:00am on 5/1 was flowing at 554cfs. Fishing is tough but you can still manage a few trout and whities if you work it. We do have many viable options now that the season is open. Might want to look elsewhere until the water comes down a bit, but it is improving.
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March 27 . 12
Crooked
The flows bumped up to 362CFS as of Tuesday noon and that put the fishing off for a while. Savy fly fishers who are willing to work can still get limited action. It will be better when the flows stablize for a few days. We certainly don't want to discourage you, but it's going to be tough for a few days
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March 17 . 12
Crooked River
Fishing has been quite good. Flows are steady at 76 CFS. We've been getting fantastic hatches of BWO's on a regular basis. The afternoon shadows on slightly overcast days are best. Lots of rainbows in the 8-10" range are looking up. We managed a number of fish fron 12-14". The past week or two has brought us one of the more consistant hatches in recent times. The upcoming weather fronts should not discourage you. Go get 'em while it's hot. Flies of choice are sizes #18-#20 of the following: BWO Emergers, Para Adams, Griffith Gnats, Winker's Midges, Copper John's, Pheasant Tails, & Rainbow Warriors.
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March 02 . 12
Crooked River, 2-23-12
After a few days of lousy weather and big wind, Bob and I fished the Crooked last Thursday on a gorgeous day. We had big expectations, but unfortunately, the trout must have been out working on their tans somewhere else. Yeah, we caught some fish, but no wind and the extremely clear water made for much tougher fishing than our last trip. 6X tippet helped, but unless you wanted to beat on the little guys with dries all day, the better fish required moving a lot and resting the fishy water. For us, nymphs continued to produce the bigger fish, although there were rumors of a late afternoon hatch that fished pretty well after we called it a day. All-in-all, a great day on the water for a couple of very good friends, but it wasn't all about the fish. Tight lines. - Jeff
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February 08 . 12
Crooked River February 8th
My fishing partner, Bob Coltrane, and I fished the Crooked River today, mostly in a steady rain. It was supposed to be the nicest day of the week, but apparently the NWS dartboard malfunctioned. Thankfully, it was 45 degrees and not particularly uncomfortable. Besides, the shop talk has been good fishing from Big Bend to Poison Butte and we were both pumped about the perfect, overcast conditions for a Blue Winged Olive hatch.
After a leisurely, short hour drive from home on the two-lane blacktop winding through the junipers, we were in the land of redbands and whitefish.
Figuring the trout feed mainly on whitefish eggs, scud, caddis larvae, other smallish bottom crawlers, and small mayfly emergers and adults this time of year, I went subsurface the whole time, nymphing a Winston BIIIx 9' 5 wt with a bead head green rockworm and an unweighted scud as a dropper. I hadn't nymphed the BIIIx before and was really impressed with how smooth, light, and easy it is, not to mention having the perfect action for light tippets with enough butt to handle decent fish in the current. Ended up landing 15 or so, about half bows to 16" and the rest 14-19" whitefish. Of course, I missed about that many grabs, lost one bigger bow on a run, and broke off another on the hookset when I forgot to check my tippet after a releasing a good fish. Sheesh, you'd think I'd have learned that lesson by now!
Bob fished an Echo Carbon 9' 4 weight, got a couple 'bows nymphing a Serendipity, and had nothing but nice things to say about the rod, a good evaluation since he's an excellent caster. However, if the truth be told, BC is a dry fly guy at heart, so he switched to BWO emergers and parachute adams, landing about 10 bows. The dry fly trout were mostly small up to about 10", but there were some bigger fish working here and there. On the way back to our rig, we chatted with 2 other fishermen who lost track of the fish they hooked on dries, but said that they "were embarrassed to call them trout at that size".
All-in- all, a very good day with excellent company and willing fish. Tight lines - Jeff
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January 09 . 12
Low flows and 'bows
The Crooked continues to fish well! Water flows have been a steady 74 cfs and unseasonably warm weather has made the BWO's and midges happy, and that makes for happy trout! A few of our recent overcast 50+ degree days have produced some fantastic winter dry fly fishing. Expect to see good midge hatches throughout the winter. Anything above freezing will make those bugs happy. The Whitefish spawn has just about run it's course, but egg patterns are still producing well also
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October 28 . 11
A great Fall/Winter Destination
The Crooked continues to fish well. The levels are stable and the roadwork over the dam is over. There have been some decent BWO hatches, especially on overcast days. The nymph fishing can pick up the slack when the fish aren't looking up, with midges being a top producer under the bobber. There are lots of little guys, but if you keep at it, you'll find a few good ones too.
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October 06 . 11
Dam work should be done
The Dam work that has closed the road over it should be open at this point. The original date was to by Oct. 1, but delays caused the change to Oct. 6, at least that's what we heard. Anyway the fishing has been good. Midges continue to take the majority of the fish(18-22), but good hatches of BWO's(16-20) are showing up with all the recent overcast, cooler days. The crisp weather has been a nice relief, but it's just a reminder that winter is just around the corner. This is a great place to fish in the fall and winter months, crowds are light, fish continue to feed and there usually is little to no snow around.
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August 29 . 11
The most consistent fishery right now
The Crooked continues to fish well. The conditions are good and while you might have to shift through a bunch of little guys before you score a good one, it keeps your interest. Midges under an indicator has been the best option, but look for shade early to fish surface flies and again in the evenings. Caddis and Midges both have produced when the fish are looking up.
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July 22 . 11
A consistent producer
The Crooked has fished well over the last few weeks. The shaded areas will see rising fish early in the day. If the clouds keep the sun from beating the water, surface activity will continue throughout the day. If the sun shines hard, we are finding fish eating midges just under the surface. The evening should again provide some good caddis and midge action on top. It's been good to see numbers of fish still here and from what we've seen most are very healthy. There has been a good mix of small to medium sized trout, so there are multiple year classes that seem to be doing well.
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