Owyhee

[Rick J]

Well, steelhead fishing has been slow this fall so I am packing up and heading over to Don Rotsma's out of Portola Wed PM - we are hooking up the tent trailer and off to the Owyhee for a few days. I fished it for the first time maybe 2 years ago and had one of the best fishing days I have ever witnessed. Hot summer and a front came in and rained and I have never seen such an intense PMD hatch that lasted for several hours - easily hooked 30+ fish - ranging from 16" to over 20" on PMD parachutes.

Sounds as though there are still some PMD's around plus BWOs and midges. I don't know when the last time was that I trout fished in the fall - I am always chasing steelhead and the occasional salmon on the Chetco and Smith. So a new adventure

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

We have several groups of anglers who go there now and report it is one of the best Brown trout fisheries in the West.

Lots of small flies on top............

[aaron]

Dad just got back from that neck of the woods. Be prepared for crowds on the O if the weathers decent.

[Rick J]

Well - don't think we could have picked a worse weekend to veture forth! Left Don's around 7 PM on Wed and drove east to Winnemucca then north on 95 into Oregon. Stopped around 1:30 in the AM and pulled off the road and crashed for a few hours then up and onward. Thursday dawned windy and overcast and by the time we got to the Owyhee the wind was really getting going - set up camp and started at a nice run right behind our tent trailer

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Few fish working sporadically but no luck - we moved around looking and would get a small hatch of BWO's going and the wind would kick up and blow them off the water. Don managed a couple of fish that first day.

Next day we got up and started driving the road looking for rising fish - still windy and if anything getting stronger - fished a run we had fished a couple of years previous and Don tied on a size 22 zebra midge below his size 20 BWO parachute and immediately hooked a fish then had two more grabs then things went dead with the wind really howling.

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Late afternoon we were up river at the end of the road and the wind stopped for around 30 minutes or so and a great PMD hatch came off and fish started working

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Don caught this nice brown and I hooked one that went at least 20".

Hit another couple of runs with sporadic hatches and caught a few fish at each location.

The weather never got above the mid 40's (It was in the 70's just a few days before) and Friday night the wind was gusting to at least 50 mph and just about lifting our tent trailer! It was wild and still going Sat AM. We never even strung a rod on Sat - just drove around looking and finding no rising fish or hatches due to the wind so left around noon and headed back to Reno.

So not an auspicious way to end our trout season - there were a good number of fishermen on the river but it was sure a weekend for boys and their toys as it was opening deer and chukkar season and there were guys in camo gear scurrying around on their ATV's everywhere!! We saw 3 turkeys at one run - this area did not really strike me as turkey habitat but what do I know!!

Still a fun trip but the wind and weather put a damper on a great river at least for our days there.