Waiting on the Rain

Fly fishing in the winter is hard. We do everything we can to be prepared for the factors that are within our control. Tying flies and organizing boxes, setting up rods with the best line for the water we plan on fishing that day, wearing the best configuration of jackets and base layers to make standing in a fridge river for hours as comfortable as possible while trying to stay focused for the moment when our fly finds that elusive target. We do our best to set ourselves up for success, but the most significant factors in this game we have to contend with are the ones that are completely out of our control. Those being the weather and the river. As of late, those factors have not been working in our favor. It’s been cold and dry, and the rivers are low and clear.

 

 January started as good as anyone could have hoped for. Steady rain mixed with moderate temperatures made for excellent river conditions and brought a good number of fish into the river systems. Things changed rather dramatically during the second week of the month when the rains suddenly came to a stop, and the temperatures dropped. With daytime temperatures hanging around the high 30s and the nights dropping down into the 20s, the rivers began to drop quickly and consistently, leaving the Sandy at 990 CFS (8.67 Ft.) and the Clackamas at 1,760 CFS (24.4 Ft.) at the start of this week which are well below the historical averages for this time of year. These low water conditions have been even more challenging, with water temperatures hanging around 38 degrees most days. The good news is, there appears to be rain clouds on the horizon. The forecast calls for rain to begin Thursday night leading into Friday, where we could see over an inch of rain throughout the day. Showers and overcast skies are projected to continue through Wednesday of next week, which would go a long way to get our rivers back up to a normal flow and wake some fish from the hibernation they have been in. 

 

 A difficult time of year to fish has been made even more challenging by the conditions we have been experiencing the last couple of weeks. It has been educational to see what the bottom of these rivers look like, but I am more than ready for them to fill back up with water, get some fish moving, and spread out in them again. Fortunately, I think we will have some very good fishing days ahead of us.