Oak Grove Fork June 28, 2014

Summer is finally here! After a long winter with little fishing, it is once again time to wet one's line on the sparkling waters of the Mt. Hood area! This trip wasn't my first of the new summer, though. I had done some fishing on the small meadow ponds that dot the area with good catches of small Brook Trout, and had also gotten skunked on Timothy Lake. However, today was the first legitimate Mt. Hood fishing trip, and I decided to spend it at the Oak Grove Fork, one of my favorite trout streams in the area. Draining for around seven miles out of Timothy Lake, it has great fishing for a variety of species.

I woke up at about 5:30 a.m. to find a dreary mist of fog and drizzling rain shrouding the woods outside our cabin in Government Camp. I groaned. I had just gotten back from fishing in sunny Southern California and was once again reminded of where I lived. Digging out some long johns that I had put away for the supposed summer, I got dressed and went to load the car. It was cold and miserable, and I had second thoughts about fishing in these conditions. However, I decided to simply deal with the dreariness and soon found myself driving to the river with my father.

Upon arriving, I was greeted by a man in his fifties or sixties. He was holding an old, beat up spinning rod and told us that he caught several trout. I politely grimaced. This river is tiny, and there's little room to share. However, this  guy looked like an old-timer who had I fished here forever, so I didn't mind. Were he in his twenties with expensive gear and store-bought flies, I might have thought differently. He was done and heading back to his car, so I went down to my favorite spot in the river, a short distance beneath the hydroelectric dam.

I was using a size 14 Bead Head Pheasant Tail, the standard used here. This river has large numbers of BWO mayflies, and the Pheasant Tail is the best pattern to imitate them with. I got a bite on my first cast, but missed it. A few casts later, another fish struck and I hooked into a pretty little native Cutthroat Trout.

I gently released it, and kept fishing. Now that I had caught a fish on a nymph, I decided to switch to a dry fly because I like dry flies. My strike rates actually increased. The little seams between the calm and fast areas of the river held the most trout.

I caught several more fish but didn't want to stress them out through handling. Most were fairly small, but fun to catch on light tackle. After thoroughly fishing the riffles and logjams, I headed back towards the hydroelectric plant itself. 

With the continuous vortex of swirling water, the plant is a place that most fishermen ignore and walk past. However, I wasn't in a hurry and decided to give it a few casts. I was immediately surprised by a nice fish, and several more followed.

I even tried my hand at making fishing videos, but that is another story entirely. Below is a frame I took out of one.

Trust me, you don't want to see the video. I messed around a while longer before giving up and heading back to the car. Although it was a short fishing trip, it was still a great start to summer  and an awesome day catching fish in the Mt. Hood area.