Crane Prairie Reservoir

Overview

Crane Prairie Reservoir is the first impoundment on the upper Deschutes River, a big shallow lake in the Deschutes National Forest southwest of Bend at roughly 4,450 feet. It was dammed in the 1920s over a forested meadow, and thousands of the drowned trees still stand in the shallows, the Ghost Forest that gives the lake its look and its snags. Average depth is only about 15 feet. In summer the fish hold in the four old creek channels that wind toward the dam, the Deschutes among them, and in spring and fall they spread across the flats among the timber. The reason to come is the rainbows, locally called Cranebows: a mix of wild redband and hatchery fish that grow fast on damsels, Callibaetis, chironomids, leeches, scuds and caddis, and five-pound fish are realistic. Brook trout and kokanee are here too, and largemouth bass have become a genuine summer fishery along the timber edges, though this is a trout lake first. The damselfly migration from late June into July is the marquee event, when big trout chase nymphs a few inches under the surface within casting range of shore. Chironomids under an indicator in the channels fill in the rest of the season, and Callibaetis come off through most of the summer. Boats need to idle through the stumps; a float tube or pram gets into water a prop cannot, and bank access is limited to a few spots such as Rock Creek Campground.