Fall shutdown - & +

[Roadkill]

First the minus water effect on one Oregon river...

Last week I had time in passing by to fish the Powder River Recreation Area for an hour. The irrigation water release from the dam was shut off about a week ago, leaving the winter minimum stream flow in the river.

I started in the pool just below this rock vortex weir that was installed when I was a volunteer Riverkeeper for Oregon Trout.
RIMG7467 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

I landed 3 native Rainbows about 8-9 inches on three different soft hackles and flymphs.

Two views from the footbridge over the top of the next downstream weir...
RIMG7469 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

RIMG7470 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

In this hole any fish there had no interest in any of my flies.
RIMG7472 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

I next moved up below the dam and fished a boulder run and the pool below the dam.
RIMG7475 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

RIMG7477 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

RIMG7479 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

I had a few grabs swinging by the boulders but no solid strikes. In the pool I landed 3 more natives and lost a hefty Rainbow about 15 inches. The hot fly was my favorite October Caddis Flymph which was taken by over half the fish.

The overhead Osprey was busy patrolling the water as well!

Now the plus water effect on another Oregon river...

I had time on last Friday to try the Middle Deschutes for a couple of hours. I arrived to see that the irrigation district had just shut off the water for the upstream diversion canals. The water in the river here had just reached four times the flow it had the day before.

I only had a few bumps on the flies in this section.
RIMG7481 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

I moved on to another favorite spot and had several more bumps and landed one 8" Deschutes Redband.
RIMG7484 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

In hindsight I should have not taken the chance on the irrigation shutdown and gone to the Metolius.

But it was a fine day and I wanted to test a few new flies on the same waters. And it was a good workout trying not to go swimming in the increased flow.

[DUBBN]

Great post.

I was looking for a spot to say that my soft hackle fishing is coming to an end. Atleast in the top 6 inches of the water column.

Nymphs will be king going forward.

My lowly Muskrat was king on my last day of swinging soft hackles. A day when catching anchovie Browns ruled.


You fish alot prettier water than I do.

[Roadkill]

DUBBN,

The one fly that hooked up on the Deschutes for me was a Muskrat Flymph tied with mottled Brown Hen Hackle and a gold wire rib.

[DUBBN]

It is sad and sombering when we know the soft hackle action is coming to a close.

I caught so many quality fish this year doing it

[Mike62]

I literally can't imagine how I'd react to being caught up in the western water wars. I fished the west when I was younger, and water wasn't an issue; I had a blast. I'm a worn out and broken down farmer, but I've had the benefit of all the water I could ever use; Christ, we just got 3.5" of rain two nights ago. Living on the western side of the Divide these days might make me seriously think about a career change.

Beautiful pics, Roadkill; but it makes me sad to think that we, man, have such control over a natural element; to the determent of many, farmers and fishermen alike.

The older I get, the less I like people (present company excepted).

[ronr]

thanks for the road trip, Roadkill...One of these days I may actually take pictures of where we fish because your photos inspire me.

Its a shame that here in Oregon we suffer from the 100 year old water rights laws that benefit hobby farms to the detriment of the fisheries. True there are long time hay farmers with water rights that make their living on the irrigation water. But for them to pay a fee based on the number of acres they irrigate, with no regard for how much water they put on the ground has resulted in what is happening to the Crooked River and your Powder river. Most infuriating is that a lot of that hay is exported out of the state. I do feel bad for those farms that actually produce food crops for humans who suffer because of the poor water management.

We have reservoirs at historic lows blamed on "climate change" or drought but never do they dial back how much they take until they are forced to because otherwise the lake would be dry.
Sorry for the rant, but two of my favorite areas to fish are made unfishable or closed due to these wasteful and archaic water rights laws.

[hankaye]

Howdy All;

Yup, they turned off the Rio Grande 2 weeks ago. The riverbed isn't
even damp here right (down stream from Elephant Butte Res.),now.
They won't even have more then 0.3cfm of "flow", if you could even
call that much 'flow'. Yet down stream in Texas they'll be waterskiing
all the while demanding we in NM send them more. Crazy weird to
me from the East Coast.

hank

[DUBBN]

I thank the lord every day for those archaic water laws. It keeps the people downstream from stealing our water.

Here in the irrigated West, more people have been killed over water, than cattle rustling, horse stealing, sheep shooting and infedelity combined.

[Roadkill]

When I was on the Watershed Council for the Powder Basin, I copied a very appropriate cartoon from the local Irrigation District Office often attributed to Mark Twain.

"Whiskey is for drinking; Water is for fighting."

As a devil's advocate, I might add that tailwater fisheries have improved fishing some areas that were devoid of trout during the normal course of the water year in the heat of the Wild West. Before this dam the Powder in this area was suitable for chasing crawdads and suckers starting about August. A thousand feet higher in some of the tributaries got you into trout.

On the flip side numerous dams cut off the salmon and steelhead runs that used to come all the way from the ocean up to the high mountains in this area.