I just got back from 3 days of fly fishing on the Upper Williamson River in Southern Oregon with my good friend and fishing buddy Bill. We stayed a great place, Yamsi Ranch, which has 8 miles of spring creek water flowing through the ranch. Ranch guests are the only ones who have access to the river so there is plenty of water to get out and fish. John, Gerry, Dayton, and Sally are fantastic hosts at the ranch, which has been around for over 100 years. Fishing is for native brookies and rainbows on miles of beautiful spring creek water. Fishing in the river was non-stop action for Bill and I…small bead head leaches in the mornings, mahogany dun dries mid-day, and hoppers in the afternoons. Bill and I lost track of how many fish we caught. I fished most of the time with my 8′ 0″ 5 wt Signature Series medium action bamboo fly rod, but went to my 8′ 0″ 6 wt medium fast action Freestone Series rod for the afternoon hopper sessions. We also got the chance to fish for a few hours in Hyde Lake on the ranch. It was loaded with huge rainbows…nothing was under 21″. Again, leaches worked great for these big rainbows, as well as callibaetis nymphs stripped slowly along the weed beds. What a great trip we had. Here are a few photos:
Bill and Dave’s excellent adventure at Yamsi Ranch
A beautiful 14″ brookie…we caught A LOT of these guys.
Bill working a nice bend in the river.
Stripping bead head leaches.
A nice rainbow I picked up our last morning.
A big rainbow from the ranch’s lake.
