Flows were looking good in mid May, which isn’t always the case on a river as fickle as the Owyhee. Snowpack was good over the winter, and flows were slowly declining to what would be ideal for a trip, 2700 CFS. We packed our bags, hooked up the raft and headed to southeast Oregon for our second trip on the Wild Owyhee.
After a lot of unpacking of boxes we took a week off from moving and headed to the Grande Ronde River. We thought we were timing it just right, the flow was set to drop below 1500 CFS and the fishing really picks up as the river drops. Little did we know the water would be a murky brown from intense rain. The fishing was the worst I’ve ever seen it, but getting on the river still can’t be beat.
Spring is always a nice time to hit the John Day River. Wildflowers are blooming, it greens up for a short period of time, and the blackbirds and geese fill the air. We launched at Service Creek and made our way to Clarno over the course of four days in May.
After a relatively dry winter, spring in Oregon has been pretty moist. This trip was no exception. Flows were pretty high, especially if you are interested in fishing. But the flowers were blooming and we had long stretches of the river to ourselves.
