Picture of the Day: Family Affair

Orvis Western ELOG Director Tom Evenson and his son Oscar show off a nice Owyhee brown trout that fell for a small grasshopper pattern. photo by Bonnie Evenson

Tom Evenson, director of the Orvis-Endorsed Lodges, Outfitters, & Guides (ELOG) Program for the western U.S., sent us this great picture and a story to go with it:

On our way home after exploring some of Oregon’s more out-of-the way fisheries (where the mosquitoes were doing most of the biting), my wife, Bonnie, and I decided to stop off on the Owyhee River in the eastern part of the state. (Lucky for us, it’s only 30 minutes from our farm in Idaho.) After getting out of the truck, we quickly realized that there were smallish grasshoppers all around, and fish were working the surface of a slow, flat section below the Owyhee Reservoir. 

Though the water was off-color, which it usually is, there were a number of fish actively looking up. We managed, with the help of our 15-month-old son, Oscar, to spot a couple along the edge and presented the grasshopper accordingly. The fly would drift only about 6 inches before a fish was on it, sucking it down like the first pull off a cold beer on a hot day.