Fall River life

[lilnorthfork]

The kill was from a couple miles below the hatchery down to the falls as I understand it. Fished it mid-March and saw no signs of life (unless you count the yahoo with the $40K Audi and the 10wt. rod beating the water to a froth). BUT (get ready all you politically-minded ifishers), a Sunriver fly shop guy said, I quote, "that stretch is the local's best kept secret". He said browns moved upstream right after the kill and plenty of fish were being caught. Asked why the Fisheries biologist I spoke with that morning would say the river was dead and would take years to recover (and should be closed in his opinion), the fly guy felt they had to stand behind their initial report, or else up and tell everybody they were wrrrrrrong. There you have it.
For what its worth, I hit the hatch at the hatchery and lucked into 8 fish in about an hour. It was snowing pretty hard while I fished above the falls but warm and sunny while at the hatchery... gotta love central Oregon in March. [img]graemlins/program.gif[/img]

[lost_sailor]

For FallRiverGuy or anyone else who keeps an eye on the stream -

What's the status of aquatic life in the wake of last summer's boo-boo?

Remind me at what point the fire-retardant was dumped (above hatchery? below falls? etc.)

[greenbuttskunk]

I belive it was just above the hatchery. Killed from there down to the deschutes, then some of that too. Such a tragedy! I was wondering if anything is showing up either. A guy I fished with from Lapine last weekend said things are coming around, whatever that means?