The eight miles under Prineville Reservoir
Bowman Dam, 245 feet high, was finished by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1961 and is run by the Ochoco Irrigation District, which means the river below it follows the farm calendar. The part anglers mean when they say the Crooked is the stretch Confluence Fly Shop in Bend describes as the 8-mile segment below the dam, followed the whole way by Highway 27, a National Back Country Byway. ODFW's own advice is that the best fishing runs from Castle Rock Campground up to the dam, with pullouts and BLM campsites all along the road.
From a quarter mile below the dam down to Dry Creek the river is part of a Wild and Scenic designation from 1988, modified in 2014, and the Chimney Rock trail climbs 2.6 miles round trip above it if the fish are off. The water is colored most of the summer; Confluence says it runs off-color at irrigation flows and clears when releases drop in winter, which is part of why this is a nymphing river more than a sight-fishing one.
This gauge is not the tailwater
Read the number on this page with care. USGS 14087380 is far downstream, below Osborne Canyon near Opal City, after the river has passed Prineville and its irrigation diversions and returns. The gauge anglers use for the tailwater is Oregon Water Resources Department station 14080500, Crooked River near Prineville, or Reclamation's Hydromet feed, which ODFW links from its Central Zone report. On September 24, 2026 the OWRD gauge read 97.1 cfs while the Osborne Canyon gauge read 172.
Confluence gives the release numbers worth knowing: 60 to 100 cfs in winter still fishes well, normal summer flow is around 250, and the river is fishable up to about 500. When releases fell to 76 cfs in February 2026 it said anything lower would be a reason to fish elsewhere. The 140 to 240 cfs on this page is the Osborne Canyon gauge's own summer-to-winter band of monthly means since 2010, from about 143 in July to 239 in June, because no one publishes a range for it. In June 2026 Confluence noted the release bumping from 180 to 250 with the reservoir only about half full, and by September 18 it was down to 119.
Nothing over 20 inches, and no limit on whitefish
The Crooked is in ODFW's Central Zone, not the Southeast. Under the 2026 regulations the river below Bowman Dam is open all year, and while the zone limit of 2 trout a day with an 8-inch minimum applies, no rainbow over 20 inches may be kept. The zone's stream rule of artificial flies and lures only also applies. Mountain whitefish have no bag limit in Central Zone streams, and they are open whenever trout season is, which below Bowman is all year. As of September 24, 2026 ODFW listed no in-season changes for the Crooked.
There is one new wrinkle. With fish passage now open at Opal Springs downstream, ODFW's September 3 report said bull trout may start turning up and asked anglers to report them to crookedbulltrout@fws.gov. Confluence adds that stray steelhead are caught now and then but cannot be targeted.
Scuds and midges, every day
Confluence's line is that scuds and midges will work any day of the year on the Crooked, and ODFW's September report agrees, naming small midge, scud and mayfly nymphs. Around that base the year runs like this in Confluence's 2026 reports: a Mother's Day caddis in mid-May, taken on anything with a green butt; PMDs from late May into September, best in 16 to 18 on Hackle Stackers, Sparkle Duns and Last Chance Cripples; black and tan caddis in 14 to 18 through July and August; and by mid-September Blue-Winged Olives in size 20 on overcast mornings, with October Caddis starting to show in the brush.
Below the surface its nymph list rarely changes: midges in 20 to 22, Split Case PMDs, small perdigons, Pheasant Tails in 12 to 18, small stoneflies around 12, eggs and leeches. Leeches in 12 to 14, swung or dead-drifted, are the one pattern the shop keeps telling people they are missing fish without. A 3-weight trout spey with orange soft hackles is its fall suggestion for anyone who misses swinging on the Deschutes, and it says the swing should keep producing as more October Caddis hatch. In the heat of July the same shop ranked the Crooked the most fishable river in the area, with water temperatures holding up and flows normal.