Weneha River in NE Oregon

Chris Jones...Explorer

General Trip Summary

Date:  9/8 /2010 thru 9/12/2010

Location:  Wenaha River…trail head at Troy..~6.5 miles into Crooked Creek

Trip Objective :  Investigate Wenaha, find the elusive Oregon Bull Trout

Lodging and Buddies:  I went on this trip with Chris Jones the famous backpacker and Sawtooth explorer.  We camped along the river in various spots. There are several nice spots ~ 5 miles in.  The first spot is a black walnut tree across the river.  Approx. ½ mile further you will see a trail that leads to a nice camp on the beach next to a very cool basalt wall nick named the weeping wall (Chris Jones 9/9/2010)

Weather

Air Temperature:  First couple of days were cool (60’s) with plenty of rain it began to clear at the end of day 3 and we got good fall type weather

Moon Phase: full moon

Wind Speed:  Winds were light

Stream Information

Water Temperature:  Stream temperature was good…cool to wade but not too cold to wade wet. The lower section of the river was cold enough to hold some nice trout.

Flow & Clarity:  Very clear

Oregon Bull Trout

Hatches:  Observed some hatches coming off in the morning (pale yellow crane fly #16, some brown caddis #16 or possibly #18, also observed lots of stone fly shucks on rocks and caddis larva. Some very large encased larva…huge #10?  Not sure what the larva is (large October Caddis?)

Crowds:  We saw quite a few people…several groups of fishermen plus backpackers every day

Results

Fish Caught:  We caught fish every day…lots of small rainbows in the fast water, plus some very nice bull trout and mountain white fish.
Best Flies:  The larger fish seemed to like large black streamers…I used heavily weighted ones to get down in the holes.  Even the smaller trout smacked them hard.  The white fish seemed to like the combination of a Yellow Sallie trailing a # 16 Peasant Tail nymph.  

 

Detailed Trip Notes: