No Secret

Well, this may or may not come as a surprise to those in the North West, but the Owyhee River is not a secret stream! The river has been talked about by many for years but its location may have kept it out of reach from most. With the exception of those in the Boise area which is roughly an hour away ours happened to be roughly 5 hours. Idaho plates outnumbered Oregon about 4 to 1 and on a Friday afternoon at least 30 anglers in the 5 miles below the dam came as quite a surprise.

This fabled river holds some really big brown trout that will not just roll over for anything that comes their way. This water is really technical as well as the climate that surrounds the area. We had everything from mid 50s to snow showers. On our final day, beginning in the middle of the night, winds seemingly approaching 40-50mph easily. My goal for the trip was to turn some big fish on some big dry flies (Skwalas). It seemed a more likely approach to use the small stuff, and we did with success. However, the bigger bugs was the objective even without them flying around in numbers. my persistence finally paid off in the in the first hour and a half. That seemed kinda quick, I thought to my self, as my friend was pounding the water into the afternoon the second day before he hooked up.

By this time he had chosen the smaller bug (DD) route while I was constantly sticking with the (big) dry dropper game. We were both using this rig with similar results, some on the top fly and some on the drop. It was a wonderful trip with some nice fish brought to hand and even more that had gotten away. For me, Mission Skwala, can be check off for the Owyhee until next year, unless another recent opportunity comes soon.

Thank you to those who have contributed to my previous inquiries for information and patterns to tie for Skwalas. The pattern that turned the most fish was something I hadn't found on any response, but is something that wouldn't come as much a surprise but kinda unique.

Cheers
-Jake
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Looks like you had fun! The fish are always the final judges to which patterns work.

Wayne

My favorite spot on the Owyhee...but not for fishing.

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