The title of this entry for the unknowing is a line from my favorite movie of all times "Raiders of the Lost Ark"
So I'm walking along the gravel road above the locked gate on the Deschutes. I figured well it is fall after all and so shouldn't these rattlers be hibernating or something? Nope! My little poisonous friend comes slithering across the road in from of me and not used to seeing a lot of snakes it comes as a shock to the senses. It was fascinating seeing him crawl across the road and never taking his eyes off of me.So off he went into the brush. I think the fact that you can encounter such creatures as rattlesnakes adds to the charm of the river. I've seen snakes, porcupines, beavers, coyotes,deer,eagles,heron,ospreys along my favorite river and it never gets old. The Deschutes is truly a wild western river in every sense of the word and it's hard to pull myself away from it.
The trout were as active yesterday as I have ever seen them feeding on what looked like mahogany duns but I'm no entomologist so them may have been something else. I was pursuing steelhead so I wasn't equipped to go after trout but watching them work the foam line and slurping mayflies was a real learning experience.
A good day on the river nonetheless.
stew, when i first moved to OR a few years ago i tried the famed deschutes river. caught tons of trout, and right before magic hour i stepped on a rattler. didn't get bit, but hightailed it for portland in a hurry! i didn't go back and fish the river until midwinter, despite an outstanding first day! i still make sure to fish with turner and have him walk first to the water!
ReplyDeleteRattlesnakes, very dangerous... you go first.
ReplyDeleteThis poor little guy was pretty small and just wanted to get the hell out of my way.I was more than happy to let him.
ReplyDeleteI once saw a sidewinder rattler in Arizona when I was young and MY GOD I still see that son of a bitch in my dreams decades later.