Each year we try to at least make one trip to Southern Oregon to hit up the Owyhee river. There's a 11 mile stretch of hungry Brown Trout infested water. The Browns in this section are the most picky fish I have ever fished for. But they are all large and they like to eat. So once you figure it out you're in for a good time. We really enjoy fishing this river because you sight fish. We wait and watch for fish and cast dry flies to them. It's challenging because these fish know whats up. So you tippet down and change flies often to find the one that a particular fish will eat. The challenge is worth it when you pull in a 18" brown caught with a size 22 midge using 6X tippet. This area does get a fair amount of pressure from fisherman so when fishing expect to see plenty of other fisherman. Be respectable and wait your turn. The fish aren't going anywhere and they seem to come back very quick. We don't cover a lot of water we change-up more and keep catching fish out of the same holes. Here's a few pics from our adventure. Fish On!
Oregon Fly Fishing Owyhee River
Day 2 of my solo fly fishing adventure landed me at the Owyhee river below the Owyhee Reservoir. This river is unique! I have heard good things about huge brown trout in this river. At first sight of the river I am disappointed. The water is green! I figured I'm pretty low in the canyon and it must clear up around the dam. I keep driving and the water color stays the same. I'm thinking to my self I wasted a few hours last night driving here. I get all the way to the Owyhee Reservoir and the lake is green too. I'm bummed! Thinking there's no way I'm going to catch any fish in this dingy water. I was a good 7 hours from home and paid the money for a daily fishing license so I figured I would at least give it a try. I found a good zone and tied on some nymphs. I fish my way up through the run and no luck. When reaching the top of the run I figure I was almost done. I then decided to fish my way back to the truck and head out. I tied on my sink tip leader and a Platte River Spider (baby brown trout streamer). I make a few casts and then slam fish on. I'm suppressed! I strip back a 12" brown trout. I let him go and take a few steps down river and make a couple more cats. Slam again another fish. This guy was a beast. This is why I made the trip. He owned me and ended up getting away. I was blown away. I was about to quit. I repeat the process for the next couple hours. Catching fish all the way down the river. I was having a blast. Never have I had such success swinging a streamer. Around 1:30 I start to see fish slurping. There was some kind of hatch going on but I couldn't be bothered. I had a working set up and decided to stick to it. While walking down stream catching fish and watching fish go wild on the top of the water mad me a firm believer that this is truly a world class river. I fished until around 6:30 starting to get hungry and knowing I had a long drive ahead I decided to pack it up. I would recommend that everyone makes a trip here some day. River access is easy and also there's a lot of campsites next to the water. I think it would be a fun weekend trip.
