River – Page 6 – Occidentalist

Reflecting on Rivers, 2017

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2017-11-02
Post category:Fishing River Uncategorized
Post comments:1 Comment

November typically signals the end to river floating season. In the past, seeing November roll around was a bit depressing. No more floating, fishing is pretty much over and the days are really short on daylight. It seems nowadays there’s no shortage of things to get done in November, so it’s not all that depressing, but it still marks the end of river floating season. And wow, was 2017 a season for floats.

I feel very lucky to be able to live in a place that I can float 7 rivers in a year (some multiple times) all within a one day drive of the doorstep. So these are my thoughts reflecting back on a year of being lucky enough to float over 360 miles on 7 rivers in Oregon in 2017.

Deschutes

How amazing is it to have the Deschutes as your backyard river? 1.5 hours to the put in, abundant permits, amazing trout fishing with bonus steelhead in the fall, and great camping and even hiking if you make the time for it. Trips to the Deschutes are kind of the bookend to the floating season. It is typically one of, if not the first trips of the season and is also commonly the last trip. It seems like it is always a good time to float the Deschutes with a wide season of good weather, predictable flows and great fishing, I don’t know what else to ask of a river. Fishing seems like it is on the decline, but I don’t ever see a year in the future without the Deschutes.

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From Summer to Fall, 2017

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2017-10-06
Post category:Fishing River Uncategorized
Post comments:0 Comments

Well, somehow summer has passed and here we are in fall. There were fewer trips and more work days than I would have preferred. It was a heck of a fire and smoke season in Oregon this year. Oh and there was this eclipse thing.

Eclipse over Sisters Oregon (dark at 10 am)

Even when we got back to fishing there was plenty of smoke and fire action to be had.

Scooper on Odell headed for the Kelsey Fire

Smokey makes an appearance in the smoke over the Horse Prairie Fire

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Grande Ronde, 2017

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2017-07-10
Post category:Fishing Hiking River Uncategorized
Post comments:0 Comments

The Grande Ronde was the last in the string of spring and early summer overnight floats on the calendar. Located in far northeastern Oregon it’s a bit of a drive to get to but well worth if for the scenery and great floating. The flows had been running high all spring and they didn’t come down enough to provide for any good fishing for this trip, but that was the overall theme for most of the trips this year. With high flows the trip was short each day on the water, with 2 to 3 hours being enough to get you to the next camp.

As always the scenery was spectacular.

The most plentiful wildlife seemed to be swallowtail butterflies which were out in droves.

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