An Excellent Scouting Trip

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Back home again from Oregon. The camp has changed its wireless setup so I was unable to get online while there. Their bandwidth is capped now, and I was told that the camp dog chewed off one of the antennas on the router, so no signal where I was set up.

Then again, there wasn't much to report on the fishing front. The retreat was good; the fishing was a bust.

The camp and the entire region was sodden with wet snow melting under a cold, steady drizzle.

The rivers had been raging a week ago, but though they were going down they were still high and dirty. This is Myrtle Creek, a trib of the Coquille, where it runs through the camp.

This is the Middle Fork of the Coquille. I fished this whole stretch last year. I also saw the North Fork, the South Fork, and the main river. All the same.

And this is the Umpqua. I also saw the North and South Forks of the Umpqua. And Elk Creek, Dean Creek, the Sandy River, the McKenzie, and a plethora of small tribs. Seen one you've seen them all.

The camp manager, who has lived here for a long time, recommended the Elk River. He thought since it was shorter and flows through forest rather than farmland that it might be fishable. I never did check it out. But on the way home I talked to a friend who had been at the retreat. He had talked to a guy who told him the Elk had fished well early last week but then had gone cold.

Pun intended.

So a bad fishing trip, but an excellent scouting trip. I saw a lot of rivers I'd never seen before, and even through all that muddy water I saw some stretches that I'm eager to get into.

One day.