Crystal Creek in Southern Oregon

Mitch on left Kurt on right

Location: Crystal Creek Oregon

Date: June 12th 2010



Trip Objective : 



Fish the little-known trophy trout fishery in Southern Oregon called Crystal Creek. Hook one of the monster Klamath run Redband Rainbows. Lodging and Buddies: Fishing partners were Kurt Barats and Mitch Barats often know as 2/3’s of the Cartwright clan (missing brother Greg rounds it out). We stayed and ate  at a clean hotel/restaurant called  “ Malita’s” . They are located right on Highway 97 in Chiloquin Oregon 541-783-2401. This area’s claim to fame is  the Williamson river which is a great fishery for large Klamath run rainbows…so they are use to seeing anglers.

 

Weather & Stream Information

General Weather & Wind: Cool wet spring, partly cloudy skies with air temperature reaching 65 degrees. 

Water Temperature: 56 degrees

Kurt's 17 inch Redband Rainbow

Flow & Clarity:  Uncertain about flow but clarity was very good the stream looked to be running at 600-800cfs but kind of hard to tell as it is a wide spring creek 



Mitch feelin good!



Hatches: We didn’t see any major hatch activity. As such we fished underneath the entire day
Crowds:  No pressure, we did see a couple other boats late in the afternoon but we were quite a ways upstream from them. Pretty nice to have miles of spring creek to yourself…also pretty rare.

 

Results

Fish Caught:  We landed 5 fish with the largest one being ~ 17 inches.  We had quite a few other fish on the line and I jumped a couple that would likely go 19 inches plus .  We did see  some much larger fish…oh yeah…already dreaming  about next year.

Best Flies: Black wooly Bugger with a heavy lead eye, red and black seal bugger, olive streamer

Other: This area is known to fish well with seal bugger flies. We also heard a rumor that green was the color…unfortunately we didn’t have a green seal bugger to test….but next year we will.

 

Chrystal Creek Trip Detail: 

The Barats brothers (Kurt and Mitch) (two thirds of the Cartwright clan—my nickname) invited me to tag along on one of their spring exploration trips to Southern Oregon. Having grown up in the area they have a good feel for the various fishing waters and normally put a trip or two together each year.  The area has the famous Williamson river which is known for monster Redband Rainbows migrating  out of Klamath lake. Maybe more exciting (same fish, smaller stream) and quite a bit less known are several other beautiful streams that also drain into  Klamath Lake. One of these lesser known streams is Chrystal Creek.

Directions:

Chrystal Creek drains the Northern part of the Klamath basin and empties into Pelican Bay in the Upper Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. It is a classic, relatively short,  spring creek that meanders through the Klamath Marsh.  It is perfect for a drift boat with a small motor.  To get there coming from the North Eastern part of the State take highway 97 from Bend to Chiloquin. Go through Chiloquin and take highway 62 which goes to the town of Fort Klamath.  Once you reach Fort Klamath look for Nicholson road/highway 33 .  Follow Nicholson due East for several miles until you reach highway 531. At this point head South until you see the signs for Crystal Creek recreational area.  The recreational area is located on the Northern section of the stream. You can continue to follow 531 South until you see additional access points (there are several). You come to the end of Crystal Creek once you reach Pelican Bay which is where Crystal Creek empties into Klamath Lake.

Our Trip:

After a reasonably comfortable night and a great breakfast at Malita’s we hit the road for a relatively short but anticipatory drive to Crystal Creek.    I really wanted to get going earlier but Mitch is a breakfast person and both needed and thoroughly enjoyed his double stack pancake breakfast…thus the crack of 9 a.m. launch time.  We ended up launching several miles down stream from Crystal Springs at a very nice, semi remote camping site. We were able to drive right up to the creek and quickly get the boat in the water.  From that moment on it was a day of trying to locate monster rainbows and understand new water. We ended up motoring, rowing and drifting to the main Chrystal Springs area ~ 4 or 5 fishing hours upstream.  This area was  both extremely interesting and very difficult water to fish.  These are big smart fish and the water is crystal clear, not a very good combination when you are trying to fool one of them.  Once we hit the spring area (wide and clear) it became obvious that we would have better luck in the more defined channel portion of the stream working the holes and bank undercuts so we headed downstream where we had seen this type of water.  We spent the rest of the day drifting and lightly rowing downstream pounding the bank line with various wholly buggers.  We had our best luck with Olive and black colored wholly buggers…I picked up several nice fish with a black rabbit and lead eye tie…both along the bank and deep in the channel. Mitch did equally as well with a fairly large olive streamer.  Kurt, swears that he caught the biggest fish of the trip but Mitch and I  will let the reader judge through the pictures. Some learning's include: 1) be careful with tippit size these there are some really big fish here. It is a must to have fluorocarbon tippit.  2) Bring some weight green and/or black seal buggers.  3) The west bank seemed to fish the best at least that is Mitch’s assessment. 4) Move relatively quickly through the water until you spot fish and or run into fish…there is a lot of water and places these fish can hide.

 Good Luck & Good Hunting!