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Fishing and Family in Central Oregon

Trip Report 
2K views 14 replies 14 participants last post by  The Drifter 
#1 · (Edited)
#4 ·
I spent the last week in one of my favorite places in Oregon with my wife and kid.
Per usual, this was a family trip with a side of fishing (well this time, a very large side).

The drill was: wake up at 5:30 and be on the water at 6:15 with a sunrise at ~6:30. Fished for Bulls in the morning while being back at 7:30 (I know, this is only an hour, but if I picked my spot carefully, it was productive because I was the first on the water) when the family wakes up and either get ready for a day of hiking, or just a day around the valley. If it was a day around the valley, the kiddo went to nap around 12:30 and so I fished for Bulls again until about 3. If we went on of the various hikes we did, we would skip nap (and fishing) and be out as a family all day. Then we'd come back, eat dinner, and I'd be back on the water at about 6:30 until I couldn't see chasing redsides up top.

Over the course of the week, probably caught about 12 Bulls, countless red sides and a few white fish. I was one brown away from the grand slam. We also hiked about 30 miles and ate a ton of milk shakes and brownies.

Highlights were:

Seeing my kid rage as hard as she ever does.
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Watching her get more and more interested in fishing.
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Some really good hiking
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Being able to still wear and hike with my kid. I feel like this will be the last year we'll be able to, which makes me bummed (as is, wearing her is about 40lbs with her, the pack and water).
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Some more good views.
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One evening, out of the blue my wife asked my girl if she wanted to watch me fish. So we went down to the river for an hour thinking I was just going to get some "casting practice" in. And within 10 minutes, I hooked into a big Bull and my wife filmed my daughters reaction as I was bringing it in, and you can hear her cackling the whole time. I remember looking back and her mouth was wide open. It was pretty cool. The only thing she's ever really see me catch are hatchery brats at Timothy Lake and some some natives in some small alpine streams. It was really neat for her to see a big fish. It was also nice to prove to my wife that "I'm not just going to the bar" when I go fishing :)

Then there was the 2 big fish of the trip. I hooked into a massive fish. Fought it all the way to my buddy with the net, but unfortunately the net was too small. It went in, and immediately ejected out, and spit the hook. All things considered, I'm ok with it. The net would have been too small and would have stressed it out. Our average fish up until this point was 24-26" so our guess was 30-34". That night, my buddy went and bought a new net and the next day, he got this 34" Bull to eat and I had the pleasure of netting it. It was HEAVY. With that all being said, I actually prefer the 24" and below Bulls--they fight and run a lot harder than the bigger ones. The big ones just use their weight and just sit there at the bottom.

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Really great trip. Already trying to get back there in the next week or so.

a couple other fish I caught with their accompanying flies.

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Doesn't get much better than that, family, fishing, and location, location, location. Great report!!

cheers
 
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