Bridges of Canyon County

[BugEye]

Road trips are good. A buddy of mine decided to join me last minute on a combo work trip & fishing adventure in Idahamo. I had to photograph a couple bridges close to Nampa for a civil engineering firm client-o-mine. The plan? Drive up after work Thursday, spend the night off I-84 outside Nampa, get up early to meet the client and shoot two bridges over the Interstate, then head further west and try the Owyhee River in eastern Oregon. Fish as long as we want/can, then red eye drive the 7 hours back to the homestead and arrive o-dark thirty.

After shooting the job, we were off to the races and kept our expectations low. We passed over the Snake and through Nyssa where we came across some very cool photo opps. Daylight was burning so on we went, promising to come back and shoot the hell out of if if there was any light left. Depends on the fishing I thought to myself, depends on the fishing.

The Owyhee runs through some interesting geology. Big black basalt buttresses and few trees reminds you that you're in eastern Oregon. The stream itself was just a little off color and cut an aquamarine sliver of wetness through the parched desert. Very inviting and a great manageable size of around 250 cfs., this little hard to pronounce body of water was a sight for sore eyes. Rigging up took extra concentration.

[BugEye]

Good riffles were separated by some pretty slow lookin' frog water, and combined with a fairly busy Friday showing dude wise, we had to drive to find. Once we settled in and found and empty run it was game on almost immediately. Even better is what started out as a nymph unit Posideon adventure rig day soon turned to dry dropper-o-rama. Greg hooked up as soon as he changed over.

Slab-tastic!

[BugEye]

After a while watching and snappin' pics of ol' Greg, I spotted a nice buck rising across river. I threw on my favorite attractor, a fly that I call simply "the hunter". A bug which has produced literally every place I've tried it; freestone or spring creek, warm or cold water, North or Southern hemisphere. Shit, this bad boy's five and O. I tie it on with a mayfly emerger for good measure strip some line. I make three false casts, a lame half haul heave then a quick mend upstream, two feet of drift and...Kaslam! Auto eat. Zing! Throb! Very cool. Satisfying as hell!
A couple more hours of fishing put us back at the border in Nyssa at golden hour. Oh yeah! Those fantastic buildings. Pull over chief! Wheres my IR camer?! Hell give me all my cameras!

Seven more hours on the road and home by 3am Saturday morning. Worth it? Hell yesss!

We'll be back.

-BugEye

www.nowpicturethis.com

[Curtis Fry]

Excellent shots, Doug. I'm jealous. I recognize a lot of those spots. The power line stretch is one of my favorites. Anyway, I'll be there in June with some PMD's....

[BugEye]

Excellent shots, Doug. I'm jealous. I recognize a lot of those spots. The power line stretch is one of my favorites. Anyway, I'll be there in June with some PMD's....

Thanks Curtis. Like I said, lots of great camp spots. Sounds like the flows have stabilized (according to a fly shop in Boise). A must revisit!

Sorry I didn't stop in, buy some donuts and to see your pop. We had to get our license at the Co-op...

[Fishin' Junkie]

Bugeye,

My wife and I were on the river Friday afternoon/evening as well. It was a good time. She was beating up on me at first, then I got my game face on and pulled ahead in the fish count. Great scenery, and decent fish every now and then.

[Phlyfisher]

Dude, I love the IR shots. Although, it does slightly piss me off that there's no way I can afford to convert my camera to IR as long as I'm a student. Right on. I'm waiting for the next set of pics. Did you do any photoshop coloring to the shots or are those straight out of the camera?

[BugEye]

... Did you do any photoshop coloring to the shots or are those straight out of the camera?

Thanks Phlyfisher. Those came straight out of the camera then a little channel mixing to bring back the blue in the sky. Cheers,-bE

[coreyk]

Fantastic shots, looks like a great trip ... Thanks for the pics!

[mtbbrian]

Looks like you're using a "Lens Baby" too?
Gotta love that "golden hour" light!
Good stuff as always!
What a great day at work, I mean playing!
;-)
Brian

[BugEye]

Looks like you're using a "Lens Baby" too?...Brian

Thanks Brian! No, a Lensbaby would be next to impossible in that situation. Photoshop, all photoshop my man.

-Bug

[mtbbrian]

Thanks Brian! No, a Lensbaby would be next to impossible in that situation. Photoshop, all photoshop my man.

-Bug

Cool!
That last one in the second grouping looked like it to me.
Brian