Central Oregon report

[ripnlips]

Boy, was I humbled this past week. Went to our Sunriver base and fished high lakes and Crooked River. Got knocked down a notch or two. Strong storm front was in and my buddie and I couldn't get their interest no matter what. Fished Lava, Crane Prairie with a guide (who really knows his stuff) virtually no action. Crooked River had a lot of fish showing. But between us we only landed about 10. Should have been closer to 30 each but they were taking something I couldn't find in my boxes. Never saw the bug so it was sub-surface. Tried tiny midge pupa as well as everything but salmon flies. Came to the conclusion that the Lord was not impressed with my sense of self importance.
Good luck to others.

[Two Fister]

The weather has been really unstable around Central Oregon this year. Crane has really crashed with all of the illegal introductions and they think it's just going to get worse. It's a shame that ODFW and OSP didn't do something about it when the bass first showed up. Instead they gave them better protection than the native trout and that just opened the door for illegal introductions of bluegills, brown bullheads, diseased Black Crappie, and worst to date Stickleback Minnows. There's a rumor that someone put Northern Pike in Crane as well. I've spoken to the ODFW Biologist out of Bend and he said that he had heard that as well, but noboy has been able to bring him proof. The bass have started leaking through into Wickiup. It's really sad. :hoboy:

[Hardware]

TwoFister, as an EX fisher of crane prairie, I agree, it really is sad. We used to go in there and catch HUGE trout that fought harder than any steelhead I've ever caught. It was so much fun.... Now it's just a bunch of bass fishing, and trout that eat a feeder fish full of tapeworms...
And now even the bass are feeling the hit.

This explains why I'm only on the Deschutes and Columbia anymore. It's too bad for Central Oregon, the fishing atmosphere is sort of dwindling in importance with the folks I know.

[Two Fister]

Hardware,
It's true. There's illegal introductions of bass, tui chubs, brown bullheads, bluegills, black crappie, and sticklebacks in almost all of the high cascade lakes. There hasn't been a damselfly hatch of any size at Crane in about 10 years. They think that a lot of the blue green algae problems that they've had in the lakes (Paulina, Crane, Lava, Diamond, and others I think) have been from the chubs eating the zooplankton which keeps the algae in check. Makes it hard to get really thrilled to go fishing when they're not certain if contact with the water may kill you, or especially, your kids. :noway: