What does Herbert Hoover and Ice Cube have in common? Give up? They both fished the McKenzie River. The McKenzie has always attracted celebrities. Danny Kaye, Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable, Orlando Bloom, Willie Nelson are just a few of the people who have come to fish the McKenzie over the years.

It’s the watershed that makes up the McKenzie so unique. The watershed is made up of 13,000 square miles of some of the coldest and purest water on planet Earth. 13,000 square miles is twice the size of the island of Oahu, and it runs through lava chambers under the Sisters of the Cascade Mountain Range that peak at 13,400 feet and then runs into a river, down the western slope and down into the valley for ninety miles before merging with the Willamette just southwest of Coburg at 504 feet elevation. This winding river is filled with 22 native species of fish and seven non-native fish, and more than that, it is filled with a fun life experiences in a world class river that has been fished in ever since people first lived in the area.