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.
Who knew the North Umpqua had so many waterfalls? I sure didn’t. But following our recent tour, I’m impressed.
I’ve certainly traveled the North Umpqua before, but I’ve actually not spent the time I would have liked to actually. I certainly knew it was a place of great beauty, but other than a day of fishing a small stretch I really hadn’t had the time to dig in. This past weekend was the first attempt to remedy that.
After stumbling across a web brochure I was surprised at the number of waterfalls either on or running into the North Umpqua. Add in a great campground and we had a weekend.