09-23 REELLIFE digital - Flipbook - Page 21
Of Drinking Towns and Fishing Problems
By Gary Lewis
I picked up a pair of hitchhikers on 3rd Street in Bend (I'm not talking about ticks this
time), and neither of them seemed to know the other. The guy asked what I knew about
panning for gold and the girl wanted to tell me she had read The River Why. And isn't
that like all the people that come to Central Oregon?
One of the funny things I've
noticed is on places like East Lake
or Paulina or on Crane Prairie or
Lava Lake, the fishermen stream
back to the launch for happy hour.
It's not because they caught so
many fish, it's because they have
dinner reservations at a brewpub
in Bend. They leave the lake at
the exact moment the fishing
is getting good. Nothing wrong
with not catching fish, except not
catching fish.
I made a list of fishing towns in our
part of the world, and it seems I
could make the same list and call
them drinking towns. Perhaps
this is the core of the problem.
Tourists come to a drinking town
for vacation, but they have a
fishing problem.
They fish in the toughest part of
the day and then want a beer
because the fishing was bad.
Here's a thought: drink a beer
in the middle of the day and go
fishing when the fishing is good!
I spoke to a fly-fishing club from
Bellingham, Wash., and they
wanted to hear about Central
Oregon rivers. They knew about
the big four - the Deschutes,
Crooked, Fall, and Metolius. To fish
them well, an angler is probably
going to base out of Bend,
Sunriver, Prineville, or Sisters, all
towns with great restaurants and
more than a few brewpubs. And
also cone-lickers.
trout can get big. Or the John Day
where an angler can catch 100
bass on the fly on any day in July
or August. Or fish the McKenzie
where the trout chase caddis
above the surface! The North Fork
Santiam above Detroit Lake can
deliver great dry fly action. The Ana
River fishes almost all year long
with reliable hatches and a lake
nearby (Ana Reservoir) with trophy
trout. The Williamson can turn
out wild trout that tip the scales in
the teens and they take dry flies!
The Upper Klamath Keno Reach
can turn out crawdad-eating
six-pound rainbows any day in
October. How about the Wood?
What about the White River?
There are sections of the White
that never get fished and the
The Upper Willamette? The
East Fork of the Hood? The
Chewaucan?
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