I’ve been busy fishing around Oregon, working on my boats, preparing for my next extended trip in a couple of days, and have fallen behind on posts, so here are a couple of things: Deschutes steelhead and USFW’s Crooked River flow request for irrigation season.

You’ve probably already seen this announcement from ODFW that steelhead season on the Deschutes will be open this season. The release states that the run above Bonneville Dam is “the highest in nearly 10 years”, which a lot of folks have keyed on. Of course, they also acknowledge that returns the past 10 years have been “very low”. If you look at the actual numbers they are modest at best when compared to what many of us remember. See this recent post for more, look for the link to the ODFW presentation. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to be able to fish for steelhead, but we’re a long way from abundance. BTW, summer steelhead returns all over Oregon have been “the highest in nearly 10 years”, I hooked a really nice one on the Willamette last week.

Here’s the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s request for releases from Bowman Dam into the Crooked River for the upcoming irrigation season. It’s good news for the Crooked. The summary is that the Crooked should have flows of 100 cfs October 15 through April 14th (irrigation season starts April 15th). Even if Ochoco Irrigation District reduces flows to their patrons prior to October 15, the river will be no lower than 60 cfs until then.