Emil and I went to the Deschutes river just downstream from Warm Springs for the annual salmon fly hatch. Unfortunately, didn't get any pictures of the one fish I caught. My only witness is extremely unreliable and demands extortion to verify my catch. Take my word for it. It was a beautiful rainbow that took my second cast with a fly Emil had just given me to try. I'm keeping the fly.
Pretty peaceful place. We went on Sunday of the Memorial Day weekend so I was worried about crowded conditions. Arriving at 8:00 am, we didn't see anyone else for quite a while.
These are large bugs. When they grow to their final pupal stage, they walk along the river bottom to shore and climb up the stalks of the bushes and grass and then "hatch". Their larva stage look like this:
And the adults look like this:
Both the above photos courtesy of the web. The one below was on Emil's bag.
Then comes the sexy part. They mate and then, in a few weeks, fly back out over the water to lay eggs and die. The eggs will grow into larva that will repeat the cycle in 3 or 4 years.
Of course the trout go crazy and a feeding frenzy ensues. The frenzy appeared to have peaked some few days earlier, as the trout were in the stuffed couch potato mode when we got there. "But you shoulda been here a few days ago."
But the weather was perfect (really) and it was good to walk trout water again.
Meanwhile, the Portland contingent was on the way. Now, of course, it's raining. Weather finally not perfect but forecasted to improve. Louis continues to get faster and has often moved on before grandpa gets the camera out.
I'll have some updated photos of both grand kids for the next blog, promise.
Outside projects finishing up and will soon start looking forward to fishing again.
Weather should be perfect.
