Fishing the McKenzie River, Oregon

My old friend, Bill, and I enjoyed a guided drift boat trip down the lower McKenzie River today.

The weather was perfect, cool and mostly overcast all morning.

What luxury to have a guide teach us the fundamentals of fly fishing as well as deliver us to places where the fish hang out.

We ogled the sumptuous beauty of the McKenzie, caught (and missed) lots of rainbow trout, and stopped along the way to cook up five of them for lunch.

After lunch our most able guide negotiated some tricky areas of the river, and let us each take a turn as oarsman.

Floating and fishing our way to the take-out made for an awesome afternoon.

We brought four fish home for Kathy… I cleaned them of course (maybe flowers would have been a better plan). ;-)

Our guide was very personable and the three of us enjoyed sharing the trip down the lower McKenzie River immensely.

Full frame: Look carefully for the fly in the trout's lip.