I ended  up back in Allegany this weekend. Having only a limited amount of time to explore the area the previous weekend because of the terrible rain storm, I felt obligated to go back. Me and my fishing buddy from Oregon packed up my Subaru monday morning and headed off. We were not dissapointed. Although the watersheds in this area only hold small trout, they are such a blast to catch. Most of this fish were hitting a hopper fly that was a third the size of their bodies. They were found in pools that were no more than 12” deep, at the end of beautiful little streams, meandering through tiny mountain passes. I’m not much of a spiritual person, but being in that forest elicited something in me that made me really appreciate being right there in that spot. Anyways, let’s get back to the fish. Here are a few pictures of some ones I managed to catch. These guys A.) don’t like to pose for pictures, and B.) I don’t like keeping them out of the water for long:

These native brook trout are beautiful fish. I know I am speaking for most of us fly fisherman when I say that catching these tiny little fish can be worlds more fun that the most furious battle put up by a trophy trout. No? Well, maybe not, but the locations these guys are nestled in makes for an unforgettable fishing experience. Here’s another with some awesome colors:

Now I did manage to catch a fish that I would consider pretty sizable for the creek. I came to a nice little pool in between two tiny falls. It seemed to be vacant, you could see straight through the crystal clear water to the nice bed of quartzite down below. I threw down my polarized glasses and managed to spot a lone brook trout hanging out on the far side of the pool. I threw a quick cast and landed my hopper fly about a foot in front of him. He immediately rose to it and pounded it. The hook-set wasn’t clean and the fly came right out of his mouth. Luckily he wasn’t spooked, and settled right back in the same spot. A second pass and a good set of the hook, and he was on. It took some decent work to get the fish in and when I finally did, he was in no mood to hold still for a picture. It took some time to finally get a clear one, but here he is:

As usual of late, it was a good day of fishing. Me and my friend each managed a few dozen fish a piece, all of which were released unharmed back into the creek. A very beautiful spot, a nice sunny day, and a plentiful amount of brook trout is enough to make any day a perfect day for me.

Here’s an idea of what the areas we were fishing look like.

So let me preface this by saying that the Pacific Northwest is by far the most beautiful place in the US that I’ve had the privilege to fish. If any of you have the chance to get out to this beautiful place, I suggest you take advantage of it.

I started this trip off because of a dealer conference in Seattle (I sell Subarus for my full time job) knowing I would have to sneak some fishing in. Growing up my neighbors were like a second family to me, I split an equal amount of time between my home and theirs, so when they moved to Oregon, I knew I would always have a place to stay.

I spent a solid 6 months researching the spot I wanted to fish in the few days I had there. I was after brook trout, and my tireless research pointed me to the Upper Deschutes. I arrived a SEATAC airport on the 12th, tried some fishing in Washington on the route down to my neighbors home, and planned the route. Now, finding this spot was no easy task. Thank god for google maps and the technology we have at our fingertips. After blue-lining a section of the Deschutes National Forest, I found the spot we wanted to go. We set off Friday morning, and the 4 hour drive landed us there later that afternoon.

When we were within 5 minutes of the pin I dropped on google maps, I wasn’t noticing evidence that there was a river even remotely close to us. I’d be lying if I told you I was confident in my navigational skills at that point, but sure enough we pulled up on a bridge, overlooking a narrow access point for the river. My oh my, was it beautiful. I’ve spent a lot of my time on NY streams, spring brooks/creeks, and rivers. Out of all the places I’ve fished, I’ve never seen something quite as wonderful.

I found a nice pool where there had to be 10-15 Brookies lined up feeding on nymphs low in the water column. I tied on a size 14 Hares ear, with a little Sparrow dropper. I sent out my fly on a high stick dead drift, and connected with a little brook trout on the first pass through the pool. The patterns on these fish are breathtaking. I only wish there were more places to catch these fish close to me.

The day was filled with tons of these fish, all varying in sizes from 8-14″, nothing too large, or worth bragging about. We made our way down the river and scoped out some good runs and pools to fish the following day.

We made our way back to the river as soon as we say daylight. We made our way to one of the runs that seemed to be holding a decent amount of large brook trout. I stuck with my hares ear/sparrow dropper as it was producing extremely well for me the first day, and I wasn’t disappointed. I landed a nice healthy brook trout at the location we moved to down stream on my first few casts there of the morning. An absolutely gorgeous fish:

This pool was a spot I kept coming back to throughout the day. It produced quite a few fish over 14″ inches. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have my camera handy for every fish that I had caught. Midway through the day, I was sending my nymph rig along the bank about 20 feet upstream from where I was casting. I watched as my indication submarined beneath the surface. With a quick hookset I could feel that a sizeable fish was on the other end of my line. A female brook trout pushing 20″ was making a run down stream. The battle was pretty intense, she ran me quite a ways down stream, under logs, around rocks, before she finally came to the net. When she did, boy was I happy. A beautiful trout, and my highlight of the day:

Now that’s not to say that there weren’t bigger fish there. We spotted some fish well over 25″ in this section of the deschutes, lurking down in the deeper pools. My only regret was that I wasn’t able to catch them!