C6
OUTSIDE
East Oregonian
Saturday, July 27, 2019
CAUGHT OVGARD
Fifteenmile Creek a haven for redband trout
By LUKE OVGARD
For the East Oregonian
DUFUR — Anyone who played
football has lasting memories from
it. Some may have lasting injuries,
too, but I was fortunate.
The sport is more than just
a sport; it’s a brotherhood, and
regardless of the level at which you
strapped on pads, it holds some sort
of emotional weight for every has-
been and never-was. After gradu-
ating, I remained involved with my
program as an assistant coach who
ran statistics. I played at the Class
1A level, which is 8-man football
in Oregon.
Though there are more teams in
Class 1A than any other division
by far, these teams are far-flung,
and you can find yourself traveling
up to six hours for a league game
in parts of the state. For this rea-
son, our team always looked for-
ward to the Dufur Classic, a series
of 8-man football games held in
Dufur, where some of the best
teams in the state could meet for
preseason exhibition games to flex
on other leagues and build iner-
tia. The small town got up for the
event, and it was a pleasant way to
spend a late summer weekend.
My purview was mostly with
statistics, so I really had no respon-
sibilities outside of game time. On
the drive up, we’d look for red fox
bounding through crop rows as we
left the gorge corridor and made
our way south.
Not every game was worth
watching, so when we arrived, I
found myself wandering. It only
took an hour or so to see the entire
town, and in doing so, I noticed a
small stream flowing through the
heart of vintage Americana.
Fifteenmile Creek, a small trib-
utary to the mainstem Columbia
that flows into Oregon’s largest
river just below Cushing Falls, was
calling to me.
I always travel with fishing
gear, so I double-checked the reg-
ulations to confirm my suspicions
that it was open during that time
of year (it’s open May 22 through
Oct. 31) and found the nearest
park. Fishing is restricted to arti-
ficial flies and lures, entirely catch
and release, because there’s no
point keeping the small, wild fish
you’ll find here.
Time capsule
I parked at the Friends of Dufur
Park and began fishing with a
small Blue Fox spinner, my go-to
lure once the treble hook has been
replaced with a single hook to
reduce mortality.
Wet wading a stream in the
summertime is about as good as it
gets. Any fish you happen to catch
are a bonus. The native Colum-
bia redband trout, Oncorhynchus
mykiss gairdnerii, that populated
the stream were plentiful, aggres-
sive and beautiful.
I jumped right into the shallow
water, and as I wet-waded up and
down, I appreciated the unique-
Photos contributed by Luke Ovgard
Columbia basin redband trout aren’t the largest rainbow subspecies, but they’re among the prettiest.
“THE BABBLING
BROOK DROWNED
OUT THE CARS AND
DIN OF HUMANITY,
AND I WAS FISHING
THERE IN A TIME
CAPSULE, ISOLATED
IN A BUBBLE OF
NATURE THAT
WAS RELATIVELY
UNCHANGED FOR
MORE THAN A
HUNDRED YEARS.”
ness of it all. I was fishing right
in town, catching fish at a rate of
about 20 per hour, and though I
was surrounded by civilization, I
was alone.
The babbling brook drowned
out the cars and din of human-
ity, and I was fishing there in a
time capsule, isolated in a bub-
ble of nature that was relatively
unchanged for more than a hun-
dred years.
Fishing
In the reverie of the moment, it
was easy to lose sight of just how
good the fishing was. In a small
The best way to fish Fifteenmile Creek is how you fish any small stream in
the summer: start downstream and wet-wade your way upstream.
stream, time of day isn’t signif-
icant, so as long as the water is
clear enough for fish to see your
bug or fish or crawfish imitation,
they’ll smack it with gusto.
Unfortunately, I quickly lost
my Blue Fox and had to resort to a
Panther Martin. I love these lures,
but they don’t allow you to swap
out the treble hooks, so they aren’t
my favorite.
As I pitched undercut banks,
riffles, pools and current seams
with my spinner and a small
Rapala, the fish cooperated, reaf-
firming why wild native redband
trout are my favorite species to tar-
get. They’re beautiful, aggressive
and hard-fighting for their size —
all character traits in stark contrast
to the forgettable hatchery rainbow
trout so many are familiar with.
Fish ranged from the tiny,
5-inch fish with eyes bigger than
their stomachs to chunky fish
between 12 and 14 inches long
that hit my Rapala the second I
twitched it in the water column.
The stream was healthy and
supported several willing fish
every few feet. Wild, native trout
fishing this good is hard to come
by this close to Portland. It was
truly a treasure. My outing the first
afternoon yielded 34 fish in about
two hours. Day two brought 31 to
hand. I released every one care-
fully, taking time to appreciate the
surroundings slightly reminiscent
of the Powder River in Baker City
but far more productive.
Fifteenmile Creek is a gem
in the Gorge, and if you haven’t
fished it, you should certainly con-
sider making a trip later this sum-
mer. You may even be able to catch
a football game or two.
———
Order performance fishing
apparel or read more at caughtov-
gard.com; Follow on Instagram
and Fishbrain @lukeovgard; Con-
tact luke.ovgard@gmail.com.
Summer reminds us of the value of urban trees
PENDLETON — It’s deep into
summer in Pendleton, and the
midsummer sun reminds us of one
of the many values of trees: shade.
Try to imagine what life in our
area would be like without shade
trees. In 1902, Colonel William
Parsons wrote a less than pleas-
ant description of the Pendleton
landscape, identifying a fringe
of “ungainly” and “lowly” trees
along the Umatilla River but oth-
erwise found “flanking hills bare
of shrubbery and prolific only
of frowning rocks and worthless
sage-brush”. Add summer tem-
peratures in the 90s and it’s easy to
see why early Pendletonians had a
keen appreciation for the wonder-
ful value of shade.
Fortunately, these early resi-
dents took the time to plant trees.
As current day residents, we are
benefiting from their work, as we
find the shade from large trees in
public and private spaces through-
out the city.
It is said that the best time to
plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the
second best time is now. Whether
you are investing in shade for the
future, or increasing the value of
your property, trees planted now
will be worth plenty in years to
come. A recent series of interna-
tional studies showed a 10-20%
increase in residential property
values from trees.
Commercial districts also ben-
efit from trees, as shoppers report
a more pleasant experience in
GLANCE BOX
Resources:
http://extensionweb.forestry.
oregonstate.edu for an Oregon
Homeowner’s Guide to Tree
Care, including more detail
about proper planting and
pruning
https://pendletonparksandrec.
com for the Right Tree-Right
Place recommendations
Staff photo by E.J. Harris, File
Callery pear trees in full bloom line Main Street in downtown Pendleton.
areas with trees, and have even
been found to spend more. This
gives older business districts with
mature trees an advantage over
outlying box stores, groceries, and
strip malls. How often had you
taken extra time to find a park-
ing spot under a shade tree in the
summer?
And then there is the energy
savings. It is estimated that trees
planted in Sacramento, Califor-
nia, are now responsible for saving
the equivalent of one power plant’s
worth of energy. Sacramento
found that planting the right tree
(height and shape) on the south
or west side of a home resulted
in a 30% savings on summertime
air conditioning costs. And these
energy savings help with climate
change, as less power generation
leads to lower carbon emissions
from power plants; up to 41,000
tons fewer emissions in the case
of Sacramento. Less carbon in the
atmosphere means less climate
change.
Some shade trees can cause
problems, however, as they grow
and begin to block views or
threaten to become intertwined
with overhead utility lines. The
temptation may be to “top” the
tree, a tragic recipe for an ugly,
unhealthy tree with continued
problems. A better idea is to con-
sult a tree-care expert for profes-
sional advice and help thinning the
crown.
Enjoy the shade of trees planted
in the parks, along the streets, and
in the yards, and when you do,
thank those forward-looking early
residents of Pendleton. Planting a
tree now is a perfect example of a
purely altruistic act, one that will
benefit our city for generations to
come.
———
The Pendleton Tree Commis-
sion is appointed by the city coun-
cil and assists in guiding the city’s
tree management program. This
does not include trees on private
property, but the commission is
providing this information to the
public to help keep all of the trees
in the city healthy and happy.