Crooked Casts

Yesterday was my first time fishing the Crooked River and maybe my fourth time fly fishing. For all you central OR residents I would highly suggest giving this river a shot considering it holds approximately 3,000 fish per mile.
The white fish are spawning, providing a nutritious resource for trout during the winter months, & the midges are hatching. It's too bad fly fishing is so much fun because I really can't afford another hobby & the lady won't tolerate it.
Hugh

3k fish per mile?  are they all those sizes or  a bunch of tiny ones?  nice fish.

I fished it all the time when I lived there. Water temp stays constant 54° all year because its a tail water fisherie.I have never caught a fish over 15" but the average fish i caught was 8 -12.

I have been lucky enough to live about 30 minutes from the Crooked River over the last 18 years, I still fish it all the time.  The average trout is remains 8"-12" (most I catch are 8"-10") but average whitefish is 12"+ and there are plenty.  Even with cold temps in the air it's a year round fishery- like said before it's a tailwater fishery below bowman dam.  The whitefish are excellent fighters and delicious smoked!!!!.  The two trout limit is fine, most people catch/photo/release.

There is no limit on whitefish -so catch some, keep them and smoke them- give it a try.  My favorite Crooked River set-up is a size 12 Beadhead Prince with no more than 3" inches of line to a size 18 pheasant tail nymph.  It works better for me to have the dropper fly directly behind the beadhead for catching fish.  I think the beadhead not only gives the weight to drop deep, but is a great indicator for getting the attention of the fish, then 9 out of 10 slam the little dropper.

If the dropper fly is too far from the bead head, I just catch less fish but it still works.  Glad you like the river!
-Scott

Hey thanks Scott, will give it a try as I'm heading back there this morning.
H

I love this river. I've only flyfished it a few times, but had a blast. I've always seen it a milky off color, but tons a great action. Always had good luck on a dropper fly. Favorite dropper is #18 gold bead brassie or #16 bead head flash back pheasant tail. They always seemed to work well in the cloudy water. I need to get back there soon. Great River!

I only used caddis patterns during winter.I tied these 2 many moons ago and never fished any other nymph patterns as these always produced.

Since your hitting the river again tomorrow try milepost 15, there is a curve with a steel guardrail along the river - a HUGE basalt boulder extends from the pool to the guardrail.  The basalt rock has a very deep pool and the head of the pool is a steep gravel drop off.  There are whitefish in the 16-18" range that congregate at the head of the pool where the gravel drops.  You can cross easily just up stream from the guardrail where a little gravel pull out is.  If you drive past the BLM campground (Lower Palisades) and hit the really high cliff segment above the river- you went past.  You will need to have your strike indicator about 3-4 ft above the nymphs- natural drift and hopefully you will get into some pig whitefish.
-Scott

I went back to the Crooked in hopes to explore some new sections of water. The water was murky with lots of debris as I parked at mile marker 18 and hit the water around 11 am. There were a lot of small surface feeders but I found the bigger fish taking midges behind the big boulders. These 10-16 inch trout gave up a good fight and it was nice to switch gears with the fly.

Great pictures! This is such a great fishery. I need to add this to my list of waters to fish this year. Thanks for posting!
-Jammer