Oak Grove Fork Septermber 6, 2015

With the end of summer and the beginning of rainy drudgery rapidly approaching, I wanted to make one more trip to the Oak Grove Fork. I hadn't been able to fish this river very much this year, and I was intent on getting one more good day out of this small but productive stream. Although the water had been extremely low the last time I visited the stream, since then there had been numerous influxes of rain that helped to quench the parched river. However, it was still a little bit low.

I headed over to a few of my usual spots and began casting a bead head Pheasant tail nymph into the riffles and pools. Blue Winged Olives are generally the main food source at this time of year, and I knew that the nymph would produce. Hatches here are usually subtle and can go unnoticed to the untrained eye, but there seemed to be an unusual number of the small, pale mayflies today. Prior to my departure that morning, I came to the unfortunate realization that I had used up my supply of Pheasant tail nymphs. However, I was able to sprint back upstairs to the vise and churn out a few before leaving. These sloppily tied nymphs fell apart rather quickly, but were still able to produce fish in their bedraggled states. As usual, native Cutthroats were the most abundant species.

I've spent years trying to find streams in the Mt. Hood area quite like the Oak Grove Fork, but have never succeeded. Most of the other streams in the area are largely barren in insect and plant life and tend to have poor fishing. I've caught trout in many of them, but they tend to be in smaller numbers and in smaller sizes. I believe that the success of the Oak Grove Fork lies largely in it being a tailwater that drains out of Timothy Lake, a characteristic shared by few other streams in the area. There are also sections of the Oak Grove Fork that drain into Timothy Lake, and these can have productive fishing as well. In fact, when most people hear "Oak Grove Fork" they are thinking of the lazy meadow stream that meanders its way through the forest surrounding Timothy Lake.

However, my favorite section of the river is obviously the area below Timothy Lake. It's secluded, free from the crowds and drunken speedboaters of the nearby lakes, and is an ideal place to explore and unwind. There are also numerous characteristics of the river that make it undesirable to most other anglers, and it keeps the place from getting crowded. The fish also tend to be on the small side, and getting to them can require work. The terrain can be treacherous, with icy cold water, slippery boulders, heavy shoreline vegetation, and giant dead logs that crisscross the stream (I always pack a spare rod in the likely event that one will break. Yes, it has happened). The trails are poorly maintained and overgrown, and there are no nearby restrooms or similar services. However, all of these factors only increase the stream's appeal for me, and like-minded individuals should definitely give it a try.

The fishing here is also really good, and seldom mentioned by most fishing books and websites. Even the recently published book Fishing Mt. Hood Country gives only a scant mention of this particular section of the stream, focusing more attention on the less-productive meadow section. In some ways, this is fine, because I don't want this spot to be overrun with people. I even feel a little apprehensive about extolling the virtues of this area on this blog (even though nobody probably reads it anyways). Still, it's worth mentioning that this stream is one of the few, if not the only place in the Mt. Hood area where it's possible to catch Cutthroat, Brook, Rainbow, and Brown trout in the same stream. Although I've never been able to get all four in a day, I've come pretty close several times.

I've never personally bought into that whole deal about certain species being institutionally more difficult to catch than others. I think that the environment is the biggest determining factor in a fish's catchability. In the Oak Grove Fork, I've caught all four of the trout species present on the exact same techniques. I catch certain species more than others, but I believe this has more to do with their naturally occurring numbers than some other factor. For all I know, there could be untold numbers of monster Brown Trout casually watching me pull in the small Cutthroats, but it's better not to think about that. 

Orvis better have been serious about their lifetime warranty policy.

Kamran Walsh