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News -
Central Oregon Fishing Reports
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Written by Tom Wolf
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Monday, October 11 2010 08:39 |
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 by Tom Wolf - TU State Council Chair Oregon
One of the most interesting native wild trout found in Oregon is the Great Basin redband trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss newberri. It is found almost entirely in Oregon with very small populations in Nevada and Northern California. It is as close to being an entirely Oregon wild, native salmonid as we have. It is found in 6 basins-Fort Rock,Harney/Malheur,Catlow,Warner Lakes,Goose Lake,Chewaucan-plus Robert Behnke claims the Upper Klamath Lake trout are also Great Basin redbands.
These fish live in very harsh high desert environments with low temperatures in the winter, high turbid spring runoffs,high summer water temperatures and low summer flows. Yet somehow they survive and if we give them a chance, do very well. They are also very beautiful trout with bright redbands on the side and subtle coloring reminiscent of Impressionistic painters like Monet or Renoir.
In 1999, ODFW with input from myself representing Trout Unlimited, decided to stop stocking the Chewaucan River with hatchery trout. Since then , I have been very interested with how the wild fish were doing on the Chewaucan but didn't have a chance to go down there to fish for them.
 Last week, that changed . On Oct. 1-5 Oct. 5 , I was down fishing on the Chewaucan river fishing with my friend John Scherner. Over 3 1/2 days of hard fishing in terrain that varied from deep canyon to meadows and pocket water to large deep pools, we hooked and landed a large number of fish , a few of them in 16-18 inch range. The wild population seemed to be doing well with a wide range of sizes plus the Chewaucan Watershed Council, ODFW and US Forest Service are doing some great restoration work on the river.
So the fishing was great, the weather good, the scenery beautiful and the fish gorgeous - it was a very memorable trip. What was particularly satisfying to me is my involvement in stopping the stocking of hatchery trout. It makes all all I do worthwhile to know that I had a very small part in restoring wild native trout to this basin. That's why I am involved with Trout Unlimited.
So if you want to enjoy fishing for beautiful wild native redband trout in a wonderful high desert area, go down and fish the Chewaucan river and enjoy a victory that Trout Unlimited had in restoring a very important native trout population. Tom
Tom Wolf, Chair
Oregon Council Trout Unlimited
tmilowolf@msn.com
 A great comment was brought to my email from this article by Lou Duncan. "After reading Wild Great Basin redbands by Thomas Wolf it reminded of NATIVE TROUT OF NORTH AMERICA by Robert H. SMITH. The book was published in 1984 and many changes have been made since then.The book is about native trout and charr-what they look like,where they live,and the authors experiences in fishing for them.Chapter 12: Redband Trout and chapter 22: Dolly Varden Charr and the Bull Trout both talk about eastern Oregon and have color pictures of these native fish from Big Creek, Oregon(Malheur River drainage)." You can get a copy of this book by clicking here and I have posted a picture of the cover. - Deschutes TU Webmaster
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Last Updated on Sunday, November 21 2010 10:19 |
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