Bend Paddle Trip - Day 4

Not having any luck yesterday fishing on Crane Prairie Reservoir, I decide to forego riding my mountain bike along the Deschutes River in downtown Bend this morning in favor of dropping a fishing line in one of my favorite fishing lakes—Clear Lake in the central Oregon Cascades. Clear Lake is the headwaters of the McKenzie River.

Fishing starts off rather slowly. It doesn't help that the wind has started to blow and I have no anchor since losing my last one two weeks ago. I kind of drift at the mercy of the wind, but the wind blows me over a hole and a half hour later I finally hook a rainbow trout. An hour goes by before I hook another trout.

Because I have so much camping gear to clean up, not to mention my canoe, I set a time limit for how long I can fish on Clear Lake. I must wrap my fishing up by 3 p.m.

Ten minutes before three, I hook a good-sized rainbow.

I still have 10 minutes left before I have to stop. The odds of me catching another fish within those 10 minutes seem rather large, but what the heck. I cast my line in the vicinity of where I hooked the previous fish. Within five minutes I am reeling in my fourth trout.

Do I dare try to limit out by catching my fifth? I could extend out the stopping point a little. In the end, I decide to wrap it up for the day. I am satisfied with the four I caught and head home. It's been a great four days of paddling.