Devan S.

For Ham…first time on the Yellowstone this year. Mary and I were just floating, planning to stop here and there to fish good looking riffles. This is the first riffle we stopped:
Fourth cast:
River is still high, not many places to wade and fish yet. Caught a bigger whitefish at the first spot and a half dozen at one more spot. Caught one rainbow.

Now that we are home here are my post trip feelings.
Overall it was a good trip. Wayyyyy too many miles. I think we were nearing 23-2400 miles from Wednesday till Monday. Far more driving than fishing. Outside of Bulls it was 1-3 fish per stop. 
This is the first big miss on a species trip but it works out in the end I think. It was aggressive but if I would have just combined pyramid lake and eagle lake to begin with I would have likely never got McCloud river and Goose lake redbands.  
Oregon feels huge and empty. Portland is literally a cess pool of homeless camps. If I had to do over again I might fly into say Redmond, Bend, or Eugene and stay in that general vicinity. 
I feel like we fished Washington but also feel there is more there to explore especially with Puget sound and the peninsula.  
Idaho is the same way....I may go back someday to "chase" bulls there but it sounds like Canada is really the place to go so who knows. 
From a species standpoint the only thing that stands out is the bulls. Coastals and the redbands check a box but honestly I can get that similar fix elsewhere. 
Bulls-So incredibly aggressive.  That one pool yielded 5-6 bulls to hand and multiple times we had chasers slashing 3/4 times at our lures. Toss right back in and they kept going even with us standing right there in the water and totally visible. Big line too 6-8lb test so not line shy in the least. The Bull @Prifish caught at the Met chased me casting and him prior to finally hooking up. We didn't jack with getting good pictures and other than my bull at the Met our Bull pictures don't show the fish well. Its unfortunate but really no regrets there. Its the memory that counts. 
I would have really liked to fish our first location for Bulls more but it was just too hot. Its definitely the kind of place you could spend multiple days packing around or as I have seen on some blogs pack in and float out. 
Another note: I didn't see a single firework tent out west.
 

Looking upstream into the hole we fished.
Our first cast at the tail yielded a small bull that pulled off prior to netting.
We moved up to the end of the run into head of the pool abd found them. First cast was a hookup with multiple chasers. 1 good chaser that would ultimately make a mistake on the next cast.


note: these fish were all out of the water less than 5 seconds. We used spinning rods with heavy line and kept them in the net while unhooking. We did everything possible to minimize handling issues while still snapping a picture.
We probably each caught 3-4 bulls here and @Prifish caught a nice redband.

Did I mention it was hot? Things went so well we celebrated with herd bull cheeseburgers at the Wenaha Bar and Grill that were 5 star before deciding our next move.

Now that we are home here are my post trip feelings.
Overall it was a good trip. Wayyyyy too many miles. I think we were nearing 23-2400 miles from Wednesday till Monday. Far more driving than fishing. Outside of Bulls it was 1-3 fish per stop. 
This is the first big miss on a species trip but it works out in the end I think. It was aggressive but if I would have just combined pyramid lake and eagle lake to begin with I would have likely never got McCloud river and Goose lake redbands.  
Oregon feels huge and empty. Portland is literally a cess pool of homeless camps. If I had to do over again I might fly into say Redmond, Bend, or Eugene and stay in that general vicinity. 
I feel like we fished Washington but also feel there is more there to explore especially with Puget sound and the peninsula.  
Idaho is the same way....I may go back someday to "chase" bulls there but it sounds like Canada is really the place to go so who knows. 
From a species standpoint the only thing that stands out is the bulls. Coastals and the redbands check a box but honestly I can get that similar fix elsewhere. 
Bulls-So incredibly aggressive.  That one pool yielded 5-6 bulls to hand and multiple times we had chasers slashing 3/4 times at our lures. Toss right back in and they kept going even with us standing right there in the water and totally visible. Big line too 6-8lb test so not line shy in the least. The Bull @Prifish caught at the Met chased me casting and him prior to finally hooking up. We didn't jack with getting good pictures and other than my bull at the Met our Bull pictures don't show the fish well. Its unfortunate but really no regrets there. Its the memory that counts. 
I would have really liked to fish our first location for Bulls more but it was just too hot. Its definitely the kind of place you could spend multiple days packing around or as I have seen on some blogs pack in and float out. 
Another note: I didn't see a single firework tent out west.
 

The best part is we still found bulls.


and even a nice redband.

Our second to last day finished up here.

Rumor has it that anyone can catch fish here. We did so I believe it. Nothing of size, small redbands. The water is much murkier than we are use too. The trout were rising but they wouldn't hit larger caddis flies. We had to downsize significantly and realistical we don't have a lot of small flies. We also caught fish on midges under a bobber.
This area is really a nice place and if I was going to travel back to Oregon I'd use sisters as a home base and stay within a couple hours of there.


Lots of access and camping right on the river here. My makeshift wading boots had a blowout here. Thankfully near the end of our time fishing.
For @Ham Google says crooked river is full of mountain whitefish. Google also says they are easy and some would say a nuisance fish. We found the exact opposite. We stayed longer here in hopes of finding some. We had planned on stopping into the fly shop to get a better idea of the how, where, and what but they were closed so onto our next stop.

For me:
I had 4 fish/states off the western native trout challenge. Originally I had planned on UT/WY/MT/ID. However it ended up with WA/CA/ID/OR no slams per se but state complete and fish caught. 
I also hoped for 2 more Arkansas Master Anglers. I caught a white bass at Beaver TW that went 3.54lbs which was master angler. I caught a crappie that went 2.36 which is dangerously close. 
Ill take 1 of 2 at the midway point.

Now that we are home here are my post trip feelings.
Overall it was a good trip. Wayyyyy too many miles. I think we were nearing 23-2400 miles from Wednesday till Monday. Far more driving than fishing. Outside of Bulls it was 1-3 fish per stop. 
This is the first big miss on a species trip but it works out in the end I think. It was aggressive but if I would have just combined pyramid lake and eagle lake to begin with I would have likely never got McCloud river and Goose lake redbands.  
Oregon feels huge and empty. Portland is literally a cess pool of homeless camps. If I had to do over again I might fly into say Redmond, Bend, or Eugene and stay in that general vicinity. 
I feel like we fished Washington but also feel there is more there to explore especially with Puget sound and the peninsula.  
Idaho is the same way....I may go back someday to "chase" bulls there but it sounds like Canada is really the place to go so who knows. 
From a species standpoint the only thing that stands out is the bulls. Coastals and the redbands check a box but honestly I can get that similar fix elsewhere. 
Bulls-So incredibly aggressive.  That one pool yielded 5-6 bulls to hand and multiple times we had chasers slashing 3/4 times at our lures. Toss right back in and they kept going even with us standing right there in the water and totally visible. Big line too 6-8lb test so not line shy in the least. The Bull @Prifish caught at the Met chased me casting and him prior to finally hooking up. We didn't jack with getting good pictures and other than my bull at the Met our Bull pictures don't show the fish well. Its unfortunate but really no regrets there. Its the memory that counts. 
I would have really liked to fish our first location for Bulls more but it was just too hot. Its definitely the kind of place you could spend multiple days packing around or as I have seen on some blogs pack in and float out. 
Another note: I didn't see a single firework tent out west.
 

For me:
I had 4 fish/states off the western native trout challenge. Originally I had planned on UT/WY/MT/ID. However it ended up with WA/CA/ID/OR no slams per se but state complete and fish caught. 
I also hoped for 2 more Arkansas Master Anglers. I caught a white bass at Beaver TW that went 3.54lbs which was master angler. I caught a crappie that went 2.36 which is dangerously close. 
Ill take 1 of 2 at the midway point.

Now that we are home here are my post trip feelings.
Overall it was a good trip. Wayyyyy too many miles. I think we were nearing 23-2400 miles from Wednesday till Monday. Far more driving than fishing. Outside of Bulls it was 1-3 fish per stop. 
This is the first big miss on a species trip but it works out in the end I think. It was aggressive but if I would have just combined pyramid lake and eagle lake to begin with I would have likely never got McCloud river and Goose lake redbands.  
Oregon feels huge and empty. Portland is literally a cess pool of homeless camps. If I had to do over again I might fly into say Redmond, Bend, or Eugene and stay in that general vicinity. 
I feel like we fished Washington but also feel there is more there to explore especially with Puget sound and the peninsula.  
Idaho is the same way....I may go back someday to "chase" bulls there but it sounds like Canada is really the place to go so who knows. 
From a species standpoint the only thing that stands out is the bulls. Coastals and the redbands check a box but honestly I can get that similar fix elsewhere. 
Bulls-So incredibly aggressive.  That one pool yielded 5-6 bulls to hand and multiple times we had chasers slashing 3/4 times at our lures. Toss right back in and they kept going even with us standing right there in the water and totally visible. Big line too 6-8lb test so not line shy in the least. The Bull @Prifish caught at the Met chased me casting and him prior to finally hooking up. We didn't jack with getting good pictures and other than my bull at the Met our Bull pictures don't show the fish well. Its unfortunate but really no regrets there. Its the memory that counts. 
I would have really liked to fish our first location for Bulls more but it was just too hot. Its definitely the kind of place you could spend multiple days packing around or as I have seen on some blogs pack in and float out. 
Another note: I didn't see a single firework tent out west.
 

at the midpole, 
1) Goal was to get all 5 North American Gar Species on fly:  I have Florida Gar, Spotted Gar, and Shortnose Gar. Longnose Gar will happen soon and then the pressure ratches WAY up to go to Texas or Louisiana Coast for an Alligator Gar. 
2) Goal was Get Lifer List to 225:   Done! Gonna see if I can push this further along. 
3) stated goal was 75 species on fly and 150 on hook and line:  sitting at 62 / 111. Still grinding. 
4) Goal was to get Lifetime on Fly to 100 species: Making very good progress here. Thanks Florida! Sitting at 88. This should get done, but I have to go make it happen. 
5) Goal was to catch a fish in 7 "new" Arkansas counties. Sad Face. No progress here at all. Zeroed the one time I went to new counties. 
6) Goal was to catch a Snakehead on Fly : I freaking did it! and I have learned more about Snakehead and plan on getting @FishnDave one added to his Life List with the next 365 days
I was surprised to see that I didn't set a number of fish caught which is cool since I am Waaaaaayyyy down on numbers. 51 trips and 1059 fish caught so far. The multispecies ting takes a toll. 

Now that we are home here are my post trip feelings.
Overall it was a good trip. Wayyyyy too many miles. I think we were nearing 23-2400 miles from Wednesday till Monday. Far more driving than fishing. Outside of Bulls it was 1-3 fish per stop. 
This is the first big miss on a species trip but it works out in the end I think. It was aggressive but if I would have just combined pyramid lake and eagle lake to begin with I would have likely never got McCloud river and Goose lake redbands.  
Oregon feels huge and empty. Portland is literally a cess pool of homeless camps. If I had to do over again I might fly into say Redmond, Bend, or Eugene and stay in that general vicinity. 
I feel like we fished Washington but also feel there is more there to explore especially with Puget sound and the peninsula.  
Idaho is the same way....I may go back someday to "chase" bulls there but it sounds like Canada is really the place to go so who knows. 
From a species standpoint the only thing that stands out is the bulls. Coastals and the redbands check a box but honestly I can get that similar fix elsewhere. 
Bulls-So incredibly aggressive.  That one pool yielded 5-6 bulls to hand and multiple times we had chasers slashing 3/4 times at our lures. Toss right back in and they kept going even with us standing right there in the water and totally visible. Big line too 6-8lb test so not line shy in the least. The Bull @Prifish caught at the Met chased me casting and him prior to finally hooking up. We didn't jack with getting good pictures and other than my bull at the Met our Bull pictures don't show the fish well. Its unfortunate but really no regrets there. Its the memory that counts. 
I would have really liked to fish our first location for Bulls more but it was just too hot. Its definitely the kind of place you could spend multiple days packing around or as I have seen on some blogs pack in and float out. 
Another note: I didn't see a single firework tent out west.
 

Looking upstream into the hole we fished.
Our first cast at the tail yielded a small bull that pulled off prior to netting.
We moved up to the end of the run into head of the pool abd found them. First cast was a hookup with multiple chasers. 1 good chaser that would ultimately make a mistake on the next cast.


note: these fish were all out of the water less than 5 seconds. We used spinning rods with heavy line and kept them in the net while unhooking. We did everything possible to minimize handling issues while still snapping a picture.
We probably each caught 3-4 bulls here and @Prifish caught a nice redband.

Did I mention it was hot? Things went so well we celebrated with herd bull cheeseburgers at the Wenaha Bar and Grill that were 5 star before deciding our next move.

View from the trail looking at the river. The cub was spotted on river Bank on left side if picture. Right side is the bushwack berry patch.

Day 4-Bears, Bulls, and Burgers
We arrived at our next stop late into the night. Didn't even setup camp. Slept in the car....this stop is way, way, way out in the middle of nowhere. Lots of slow dirt road and elevation drop to get here. Good thing it's dark and we can't see.
We packed up for a full, hot day and head off at daylight. No intent to camp; day hike in, fish, and pack out. Did I mention the 95 degree forecast high?

Rumor has it this place is rattlesnake and bear paradise. No rattlesnakes, although I could easily see it being a snake pit.

We stopped and fished a hole or two going in. Caught some redbands but yet to see a bull. Along the ridge, we spot THE PERFECT HOLE. getting there proved to be a nice bushwack through a berry patch downhill. We had been hoot'n'hollering to spook bears but got complacent. We spooked something big in the patch. We never saw it, assumed it was maybe an elk at the time. Got down and started rigging up to fish. As we're about to cross the river I see the worlds largest groundhog on the other side. @Prifish confirms it is in fact a bear cub. We spook it off. Cross the river to get to THE PERFECT SPOT that's how good it looked
 

Day 3- Long roads and another Redband
After failing at Eagle lake, we headed North to trek across the Oregon desert to the far Northeast part of Oregon. Along the Oregon/California is a another California redband. Goose lake is dry per Google maps. I can tell you it has water in it now. Lassen Creek was the target at the campground. Thought to head up stream. Ran into some gentleman from Washington doing a redband run trying to bag them all. We took off upstream. Only to run into a nice herd of red angus cows. We just kept lightly pushing them upstream in front of us.

Honestly we did it. They are fish, pretty and checked a box and moving on.

Lots of lonely desert miles between here and the next stop. 
As you may recall sometime back, I asked for places for Oregon Bulls besides the Metolius. Boy did I get a dandy.

Day 2/3 continued- Eagle Lake
Pump the brakes. The train was just getting rolling when it ran off the tracks.
That's a slight exaggeration. I had concerns. Eagle lake is just a big bath tub. It's a one stop shop. No other spot to catch Eagle lake rainbows. Gotta have em.
We brought jigs. Figured long casts for deeper fish. I had planned we would rent a boat at the marina. 2 weeks prior to leaving I learned the marina wasn't renting boats and the trout had moved out to deeper water. 
We fished until dark. Ran into a guide at the boat ramp. He said even boats were having a tough time. Said we should get there at daylight. We did. Fished until 9am Friday with 1 single bite and one fish seen. Just could not get out deep enough. We considered buying pool floats to get out there. Instead we decided to move onto our real targets.

The good news is Eagle lake is close to Reno, NV which is also close to another lake I want to fish.....

Did I mention it's hot out here? Not alot of shade as you can tell.

Day 2- California concerns
Day 2 starts with 4 hours if driving.
Warning: If flying across the country to drive 2100 miles isn't for you then look away now.
At the last minute, I found we would be dangerously close to the native range of McCloud river redbands with a bit of detour on the way to Eagle Lake. No major desire to get the California Hertiage Trout Challenge but considering we need 4 species for the Western Native Challenge we had a chance at 2 additional additions along the route.
On the east side of Mt Shasta is mutlple small streams. All headwaters feeding upper McCloud river. Several streams are closed to fishing but there is a stream aptly named for its residents. A small stream with lots of brush but at the campground, there was a short section open with plenty of fish eager to feed.



The best part was this stop was short. Maybe 2 hour drive out of our way. It look us longer to get rigged up than catch fish. We didn't see any other people around and had a couple mule deer visiting us at the campground.

Day 1-flights and drive time.
The plan for day 1 on this trip was mostly travel. Wheels up from Springfield @ 6am makes for an early start from Cassville. Goal was to arrive into Portland and drive north to Washington. 

My Google searching indicated July wasn't the best time for sea run coastals and I had concerns we would struggle to stumble into fish in Puget Sound. It just doesn't fit our way of fishing. I got some tips from a Washington resident off a native Facebook group directing me to a small stream with resident coastals. Like literally gave me GPS coordinates. His information was a slam dunk. We each caught multiple 6-8" coastals. Wheels up and headed south for Northern California.

Pictures don't do pure redbands justice.

Our second to last day finished up here.

Rumor has it that anyone can catch fish here. We did so I believe it. Nothing of size, small redbands. The water is much murkier than we are use too. The trout were rising but they wouldn't hit larger caddis flies. We had to downsize significantly and realistical we don't have a lot of small flies. We also caught fish on midges under a bobber.
This area is really a nice place and if I was going to travel back to Oregon I'd use sisters as a home base and stay within a couple hours of there.


Lots of access and camping right on the river here. My makeshift wading boots had a blowout here. Thankfully near the end of our time fishing.
For @Ham Google says crooked river is full of mountain whitefish. Google also says they are easy and some would say a nuisance fish. We found the exact opposite. We stayed longer here in hopes of finding some. We had planned on stopping into the fly shop to get a better idea of the how, where, and what but they were closed so onto our next stop.

The hike out was rough. We had water but by midday it was hot. The area is burn scar and offers very little shade. Once we got cooled off, we formulated a new plan. If we hadn't caught bulls we would have gone up river but all the access involves good hikes again in the heat. Just didn't seem nearly as fun.
Therefore we decided to head to Idaho and chase native redbands in the Boise National Forest. 
Again pretty small creek and really pocket water style fishing. Lots of dipping and cussing bushes.

Once we both caught fish we raced back across towards Sisters, Or in search of more fishing and less hiking and driving.