Owyhee River, OR

Regular Hole - riffles leading into pool

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Outing Information

Date
Start/End Time
1:00pm to 4:30pm
Best Fishing Time
-
Rating
Good
Classification
Public
Water Temp
40.0°F
Water Clarity
Murky - <1' visibility
Water Level
38cfs
User
Jason Hansen

Fish Caught

Brown Trout

Caught Avg Size Pattern Optional Fields
1 18½" #16 Mahogany Comparadun
1 17" #16 BWO Poly Spinner
2 17¾"

Rainbow Trout

Caught Avg Size Pattern Optional Fields
1 18½" #16 Mahogany Comparadun
1 18½"
Total: 3 fish Top Patterns: Comparadun (2) Poly Spinner (1)

Weather

SkiesMorningAfternoonEvening
Sunny X
Precipitation
None X
Wind
None X
Very Light - <5 knots X
Light - 5 to 10 knots X
Air Temp High/Low
40.0°F / 35.0°F
Wind Direction
-
Weather Front
-
Barometer
-
Moon Phase
74% Full (Waxing gibbous)

Other Patterns Tried

  • #18 Pheasant Tail
  • #14 Orange Glue Egg
  • #6 Brown California Leech
  • #18 BWO CDC Striving Dun
  • #18 BWO Parachute
  • #20 BWO CDC Biot Thorax Dun
  • #16 Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear BH

Hatches

  • #16,#18 Blue-Winged Olive Ephemeroptera Baetis

Insect Seining

No seining information for this outing.

Fishing Partners

Karl Sloth

Waypoints

No waypoints were saved with this outing.

Notes

I was skeptical of fishing when Karl and I first drove past some of the lower pools and they were frozen over. As we drove further towards the dam there was less ice as the water warmed up. We started around 1pm and there were only very sporadic hatches. I focused on the riffles leading into the long pool while Karl walked upstream a ways.

Shortly after I started fishing BWOs began rising. I had a mahogany comparadun/bwo cdc biot thorax tandem on and caught the rainbow pretty quickly on the comparadun. The rises were increasing and soon I missed a fish on the comparadun. Awhile later I caught an 18.5" brown. Then, things went pretty dead for me. Fish were rising consistently everywhere and there was a great BWO hatch occuring. And the BWOs that were hatching were BIG - probably #16s and some #18s. I was surprised. I tried several different adult BWO patterns and one emerger and could not get ANY fish to rise. Frustrating. Towards the end of the hatch I put on a bwo poly spinner and caught one of the last risers, a guy that was rising about 5' out from me for close to an hour.

I think the fish were keying in on the large wings and also maybe keying in on knocked-down duns. None of my patterns fit that description, plus they were all a little undersized. With the light wind, I saw lots of BWOs struggling in the surface where they would lay on one side, flutter to get stood up, then get blown back down.

Karl caught 1 17", but said fish were rising like mad up around the bend.