McKenzie River fishing report
Just returned from fishing the upper McKenzie river with my brother and father. Fall colors and scenery were gorgeous as usual. We fished from Friday afternoon through Monday and did not see another angler either from the bank or drift boat. As long as it was not raining, hatches were plentiful, mayflies from size 20 to size 10, October caddis, other caddis from size 18 to size 12, stoneflies in assorted sizes and colors, midges... if the sun stayed on a patch of water that wasn't too fast or shallow there would be hundreds of splashy rises to emergers. The first afternoon we tried a spot with easy access and reliable fishing, my dad got two about 12" and my brother one, all on mayfly imitations. Later on tried a few casts at another good spot and had a big dark shape come up underneath my size 8 orange stimulator, but it sank away (probably indignant at my poor offering).
The next day we tried a different place that had lots of splashy rises, of course they were all on the other side of the river and the bottom dropped off sharply with lots of conflicting currents in between us and the beckoning fishes, and plenty of trees at our backs. Oh, did I mention that the water was hovering at a toasty 45 degrees F as well? So I worked up to the head of the run where there were no rises, but tried a small beadhead Birds' Nest on a dropper below a big stimulator. In about 5 casts my dry fly is headed for the bottom, I pull up and my rod resembles the St. Lous Arch, except it is bouncing and throbbing. Never got the fish up off the bottom and it came unbuttoned. A few casts later, a similar experience, I was able to work this fish up near the surface and I would estimate it was 12 to 14" until it came unbuttoned as well. After I calmed down and dried off the indicator fly, a group of about a dozen kayakers came down the river into the hole and decided it would be fun to shoot back up the rapids, paddle back and forth across the hole and generally put the fish down and ruin the casting. If you know the McKenzie you know how rare it is to find white water to play inSo off we went to another spot and I managed to get 3 more between 10 and 12 inches, all on the stimulator and barely able to fit their mouths around the fly!
Sunday we hiked up to a deep run and tried high-sticking. My brother got 4 beautiful, strong fish, with the largest being just a hair under 17". I got one hit on the swing at the end but no hookup. Across the way the river was in sun and the water turned on with rising fish. We managed to get over there just as it was the topwater action was tapering off, but no luck even though we tried various emergers and swinging nymphs down and across.
Sunday was overcast and the rain turned on early afternoon, we had no action at all despite all of our efforts. Throughout the weekend we were blessed to view eagles, great blue herons, grouse, and deer. We also spent the mornings sight-seeing and hiking since the weather was cool and the fishing commensurately slow in the first half of the days.
All in all a wonderful time of companionship, beauty, and enjoyable fishing.
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