Back from my excursion to the John Day River.

[plumbertom]

Back from my excursion to the John Day River.
I drove there Monday and launched the boat to go up river to Philipi Park, a boat in only park and campground.
I got set up in the park with my tent and other limited camp gear.
Now before I went, I attempted to find out about fees for camp use. Nowhere can I find that information.
Now I know why.
They are on what they call a donation system.
They suggest a donation of $3o pre night for dock space and camp ground.
Now I'll be the first to say it's a nice camp with brand new docks. But as I was intending to stay for 3 nights, $90 is way out of my range.
So I talked to the camp host (just on the job a couple days) and we agreed to $10 a night. She kept telling me she was gonna bring the registration card down so I could pay but she was also gone into town for the next two days. She left before I got up and came back after I was abed. Still hauling her gear up river to get set up, then she had to haul A ton of ice for the big weekend crowd. So as it turned out, I never paid for the stay. She never came back to my camp after unloading the ice and the rest of her supplies. But payment is voluntary so I guess she decided I wasn't the rich crowd she expecting.
I'm sure the park will be full of rich boaters if the ones who arrived as I was loading my boat to leave is any indication.
Anyway, Tuesday morning I was on the water early and headed up river as far as I could to sample the catfishing.
I wanted to try in a number of places to see where the bite seemed best so I changed spots often.
I caught 4 Channel Cats Tuesday and decided to stop on the way up river at a spot that produce two of them Wednesday Morning.
But the wind started up and after a couple hours, One bite I missed, I was afraid I was gonna be unable to navigate the river in the wind and swell so I went back to camp with the wind growing all the way back I believe it was a wise decision because it didn't lay down all night and into my packing up this morning.
So for all my effort, I got 4 fish in the 3 to 5 lb range, which I consider the best eating size and the trip cost me about $100 overall.
I did enjoy the camping but it's getting to be a lot of work to go alone.

[S Radke]

How far up were you fishing? Was there current there or reasonably slack water? Depth? Thanks.

[team anarchy]

Fished just below the narrows yesterday. There is just the amount of current i Iike but the wind was so strong it was trying to blow the boat upriver even with 3 socks out. The fish I caught were all 3 to 4 lbs. Very clean looking.

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[plumbertom]

Originally Posted by S Radke

How far up were you fishing? Was there current there or reasonably slack water? Depth? Thanks.

I was maybe 6 miles from the launch I fished from about 10 ft. of water along the channel edges to the one deep hole I found of about 35 ft.
I did the best on the upper end of the hole where the water eddied. Most likely the reason for that hole being there.
It was the only place I found that a small point stuck out into the current to create an eddy. I was gonna fish closer to the Narrows but the water got pretty shallow, like 3 ft., with no deeper channel I could find too many rocks poking out of the water.
So either the area below the narrows is shallow and not safe to navigate even in a smaller boat or my sonar wasn't telling me the truth.
I did see a pontoon boat very far up the narrows that apparently fished overnight. But I wasn't gonna rish damage to my thin aluminum hull trying to get there.