There is a book I’ve seen around, Tactics for Fishing Pressured Waters, or something like that. While I am sure it is a good book containing invaluable tips, I have a tactic for pressured waters too–fish somewhere else.
Really, there is no point in rubbing shoulders in Oregon while fishing. On that note, Keith and I fished the North Fork Willamette this weekend for a change of pace, to get away from the crowds and get some new material for the Oregon Fly Fishing Blog.
Part of the Wild and Scenic rivers system, the North Fork has exceptionally clear water and wary trout. I have caught fish to 16″ in there but not this weekend. Fishing in the heat of the day probably didn’t help matters and the one decent fish I did hook, jumped, shook its head and spit my barbless fly easily. This might be the time to ask for help solving this riddle: The North Fork Willamette is managed as a Wild Trout Conservation Zone meaning artificial flies only, barbless hooks and two fish allowed daily with an 8″ minimum length. Meanwhile, the nearby Middle Fork Willamette is also unstocked, no bait is allowed though lures are, barbed hooks are permitted and there is no retention of wild trout permitted. I’ve given up trying to understand the logic.
Though we didn’t pick up anything worth photographing, we caught numerous shakers and larger fish, both cutthroat and rainbow are present. Counter-intuitively, the biggest fish are a little higher in the watershed. The area around the gorge is a good place to start. I like to work upstream hitting the best habitat before moving on. This stream get alot of swimmers and inner-tubers so your best bets for solitude are early in the morning and once the temperature starts to cool in the evening. After Keith lost and then retrieved a box full of flies by taking a cold swim we decided we had worn out our welcome on the North Fork and headed to the Middle Fork near Oakridge in search of some big native fish.
The biggest fish alluded us and most were in the 10-13 inch range:
The hatch was strong, caddis and PED’s were coming off and we picked rainbow up on Parachute Adams, PED patterns, Light Cahill wets and Peacock caddis.–KM
Nice – I agree with your logic of fishing crowded waters. Once my grandpa and I were catching fish like crazy and pretty soon a few people came, then a few more and pretty soon it was flat crowded. I made Grandpa go somewhere else because I didn’t want to fish there anymore despite the fact that we were hauling 18-20 inch cuttbows out of the river pretty regular.
Nice fish. Photo is nice, but when you try that sort of photo next time try a little fill flash, it makes the fish and the face light up and look great.