Metolius
River
Oh, Why Did I Wait So
Long?
For more than 20 years,
whenever I would be talking about Oregon rivers, someone
would say "Have you fished the Metolius?" Of course, I
hadn't, but I assure them that I would put it on the list
of places I must visit. Well, that list is very long and it
took me until August of 2004 to finally make that
visit.
The
Metolius River is one of the most beautiful that I have
ever visited. Rising from a number of large springs in the
midst of a pine forest it flows clear and cold into the
Billy Chinook reservoir on the Deschutes River in Central
Oregon. For one long stretch the river's path is confined
to a deep basalt crack in the earth. Since the watershed is
small and most of the river's flow is from springs the
height of the stream varies little from season to season.
With no spring freshet downed logs find a semi-permanent
home in the river channel and become homes to riparian
gardens.
The
river is also home to healthy trout and char populations
thanks to the wise move to end hatchery "put and take"
fishing and to institute fly and artificial lure fishing on
a catch and release basis. Now there are fish to match the
superlatives of the scenery. Here's a big bull trout
(salvelinus confluentus) caught by my fishing companion,
Les, on a recent trip.