The Crooked River is still okay. Not for much longer though. I think the Bureau of Reclamation is ignoring calls made to not drop the river to 10 cfs next month.
Right now, its PMD’s, Mahogany Duns and Caddis. There is good dry fly action at times throughout the day and into the evening.
My family history on the Crooked dates back to the 60’s when my grandpa called on accounts in Prineville and fished the river in the evenings after work. I started fishing there in the 80’s and it was the very best tailwater fishery you could find in the Pacific NW.
Today, it is treated like an irrigation ditch, and is about ready to practically dry up do to decades of water mismanagement and now climate change induced drought.
Want to read more and know more about the issue> Check out these links https://coinformedangler.org/2020/09/12/the-crooked-river-act-6-years-later/
https://coinformedangler.org/2021/02/28/crooked-river-flows-management/
https://uscode.house.gov/statutes/pl/113/244.pdf
Feel Free to Call the United States Bureau of Reclamation Office in Bend, Oregon at (541)389-6541 and be civil and polite, but firm in your desire to keep the Crooked River flowing at 50 cfs from August 1st until April of next year. 10 cfs is going to kill too many fish and too much of what the fish eat.
We need better Water Infrastructure in Central Oregon and we need it soon! How many of you remember driving over Whychus Creek in the Summer and it would be dry under the bridge here in town? Our irrigation district piped and pressurized the canals and now we have water all year.
EVERY irrigation district in Central and Eastern Oregon needs to find funding to do this. It would solve a lot of water problems that become problems on the farming end of things and catastrophes on the water conservation and fishing side of it. If COID and North Unit in Bend/Redmond/Madras were updated, I’d guess Wickiup would bounce back soon.