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.
We’ve searched for surf perch before. Supposedly there are little fish in the breaking waves of the Oregon Coast sucking up bits of crab, shrimp and sand worms, but our previous trip for them didn’t provide the truth. This trip turned out a bit different. (hint: yes they are there!)
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.
