Eastern Oregon Excursion

Having the day off, Dylan and I decided we were going fishing, we just didn't know where. We checked out the usual choice of the coast. However, it seemed as though every coastal river was blown out from the storm and was unfishable. We quickly put our heads together and decided to head east! Lets try the Deschutes or the John Day! We decided to make our way east on 84.


View John Day River Trip in a larger map
Thanks to some dead dinosaurs, we fueled the car and ventured on.



We kept bombing past Multnomah Falls, but I was still able to get a few good shots!



Right around Bonneville the showers began. A few miles in, we noticed a NICE boat on the side of the road, headed east


... As we got closer, we noticed it was SEELICIOUS!...the boat we Tuna fish for, all summer!


Bud had the motors taken off, and it was on its' way back to North Carolina to have some work done on the hull. Small world!
The journey continued and we guessed the rain would quit once we hit the east side of the range, and luckily, this was exactly the case.


Through the tunnel, and on to the east side, we kept on driving. Dylan and I made our way through The Dalles and past Hood River.





We rounded the corner to see the mouth of the Deschutes River.



The river looked to be in great shape, so we knew we'd have good conditions at the John Day also! We took the Biggs Junction and made our way SE. We saw the smallest of towns.. Like the ones you'd make horror movies based upon. Here's Wasco. Not even a 'One-stoplight town'.


Making our way deeper into Eastern Oregon, we ventured across some unique places...


Heading across the open plains we noticed all of the wind farms and the GIANT wind machines!



These things were so large! It was amazing listening to these things hummmmmmm, and the power they must be producing!


We came across fields and fields of wind machines. Eventually, our road began winding its way down the canyon to the bottom.



These farms were everywhere out on the plains. We had to stop and take lots of pictures...


Saw an old Windmill with the new ones behind it... thought it was a great picture!

Came across some old homesteads that had been long-abandoned..



We were excited, knowing that our destination laid at the bottom of this vast ravine.


We pulled into the parking lot, geared up, and got our waders on.


We pulled up just in time to notice a couple guys that were just taking out. They had been on an 80-mile float that lasted 10 days!


These guys were burley! One guy was lucky enough to apply and GET DRAWN for a big-horn sheep tag. Just two days earlier (thurs.) this guy was so lucky, they had a herd of sheep up the hillside and they made their stalk. After 3 shots, he was fortunate enough to earn a trophy of a lifetime!


Not too many people on earth can ever say they shot a big-horn sheep! Was a beautiful animal!



Click on the picture and check out the road. A truck along the road gives a good idea of how far away this was.


Anyway, the wind was howling down the canyon, making it feel like 30 degrees out there! Was SOO COLD! However, we bundled up, walked up the canyon and started fishing.


The catching wasn't so great, but we did see a nice steelhead caught as well as a couple that had followed my lure all the way up to the surface a few times, yet never decided to bite! Grrr!



Now THAT'S frustrating! Oh well, it was our first time trying that river so we expected very little. However, the scenery was absolutely amazing, and just being able to see such geological formations was awesome!


We are so fortunate to live in Oregon and have this dynamic landscape available to us!

Steelhead/Sturgeon Fishing at Bonneville

Sorry for the late post, been busy all weekend. I had the pleasure of fishing with Gary (Imnaha), for some steelhead on Friday. We got up to the fishery around 7am and were suprised by the lack of trailors.
...Either that was a GOOD thing, or a BAD thing... yet to be determined...



We decided to head upriver past some recognizable landmarks, such as Beacon Rock,


and made our way to a secret locale we clever named the 'shad rack'

We anchored in 15' of water, put back a U20, and some spin-n-glos/shrimp combos.


first bite was on Gary's rode. The thing starts fighting more like a summer nook than a steelhead. larger with the long, pulling headshakes. Didn't fight like a sturgeon...but it was. Nice sized fish too, almost keeper size. Safely released and back to the deep depths of 15'.


Around 9 or so, my rod buries. safe to say this fish is hooked good. The fish rockets straight out of the water with three or four great acrobatic jumps. After her show was over, I grinded her up to the boat, to notice no extra fins.

BONK BONK! (Didn't take much for a 6 lb fish)



"Hey, look at the holdover trout I caught up here at the lake!" is what I felt like saying holding it up.


...just seemed so tiny compared to salmon/tuna/halibut as of recently. But still great fun, don't get me wrong!~ Sometimes its good to scale down.. Its like tying on a #18 caddis to a 4wt and hittin a small creek the day after bloodying the boat with tuna 35 miles out on the Big Blue.
....Brings things into check.

Meanwhile, absorbing the rays of the sun, Gary is brought to his feet by another good bite later that we KNEW was a sturgeon the minute it started poking at his rod.


Another good healthy legal-sized fish.


Again, popped the hook out and let it swim on back to scavenge on something dead.
We made sure to keep the prawn rig up further off the bottom but with their good sniffers, they still seemed to find it.
One random thing I thought was kinda ironic is that the sturgeon both came on the inside rod, and on the bait that was higher up in the water column.. and the steelhead came on the outside rod, deeper water.


Turned out to be a great day on the water.. We ended up keeping one steelhead, and letting two 'incidental bi-catch' (trying my gillnet terminology) sturgeon back to grow larger and maybe keep, another day.

Hope to get up there again.. Just watching the osprey dive for fish, the herons fight for fishing grounds, even the other fishermen attempting to anchor, made for some great entertainment!