After way too long, Mary Ann and I finally got out for a couple of days of fishing on the Crooked River in Central Oregon last week.  The water level was nice but we found fishing success was a little slow.  Some bugs were flying in the afternoon (caddis, BWO, and midges) but very few fish were coming up.  Mary Ann tried swinging streamers with one of my 10′  6″  5 wt bamboo switch rods but the fish didn’t seem to want the larger flies.   I tried an 8′  0″ slow action 5 wt bamboo rod from my Spring Creek Series and had decent success with French nymphing techniques and indicators.  The slow action of this rod cast the lightly weighted nymphs well and the soft tip helped with detecting light strikes.   We both managed to pick up some decent rainbows and whitefish in the 10″ to 12″ range, typical sizes for the Crooked River.  A small #18 black AP nymph or a #8 stonefly nymph fished on the bottom with French style indicators proved to be the most successful. Here are a few photos from our time on the Crooked River last week:

French Nymphing on the Crooked River

A nice rainbow from the Crooked River

Mary Ann and some two-handed casting with a bamboo switch rod.