Fishing Reports

The Salmonfly hatch has been early the last few years and this year looks to repeat that patern. We floated the Warm Springs to Maupin stretch over three days last week and the big bugs are already starting to hatch. We spotted both salmonflies and golden stones on the banks and a few are already flying. Not too many above Whitehorse but OK numbers on the last half of the float. We caught fish all the way up above South Junction on the big dries, but it was sporadic at best and it's clear that the majority of the fish are not looking for them yet. The ones that are looking for them however, are really interested! There were also fair mid-morning PMD hatches and a good number of caddis flying about as well. We caught fish on both. The smolts are a lot more aggressive than the big resident fish and still pretty thick, but they should thin out over the next week or two. The big fish all seemed to be fat and healthy coming off their winter break. It's time to exercise them a bit...

Steelhead fishing is still OK on the D at the moment. Pressure is lighter, in fact there aren't that many fishermen out at all most days. Conditions are pretty good even with the river coming up as the irrigators have been cut off. Flows are around 5000 CFS right now. We've seen plenty of cloud cover and a decent number of rainy days too. The floating line is still working great in low light so don't be so quick to put on the sink tip or bobber...

Steelhead fishing has been solid but nowhere near great on the Deschutes as of late. We are having a good number of encounters with really big fish this season! This is helping make up for lower than average numbers of fish. The river flow is stable around 4000 cfs which is a user friendly level and water temps are just about perfect. A little cloud cover would be a great big help for those swinging flies. Nymphing has been much more productive under these bright high pressure conditions and cooler overnight temps. Keep the fly in the water and keep the faith.

Salmonfly Hatch Wrap-Up:

 

   We finished our spring season on the Deschutes this last week and wanted to offer a short summary of the action here.  We started May 12th and ended on June 14th and can honestly say we saw adult salmonflies and golden stones out and flying on every single trip. We did experience one slow trip in terms of fishing due to fluctuations in both the river levels and the barometric pressure but besides that trip I can only describe the fishing as good to great. A few trips hit the hatch just about perfect and great would begin to describe the fishing we had. On the days when we saw rain or heavy cloud cover pale morning duns and blue winged olives brought the fish to the surface with regularity. We also were fortunate enough  to catch some great green drake hatches along the way and if you have ever been in the right place at the right time for this hatch you know how incredible it can be.

   We are now off in Idaho guiding on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River for  Helfrich River Outfitters and will be back on the Deschutes starting in early October for what looks to be an above average steelhead season. We still have a few openings in the latter part of October so drop us a line if you are interested in fishing with us this fall.

The Deschutes is on fire right now! The salmonfly hatch is early again this year and the float from Trout Creek down to Maupin is fishing extremely well!  We started catching fish on the big dry flies almost two weeks ago but the catching was hit and miss. That's not the case any longer. The last four days have been great just about everywhere we have cast a fly. The weather cooled a bit and we saw rain yesterday, but nothing has slowed down the bite. The river is around  4700 cfs and that is a really friendly level for the wading angler. There also continues to be a solid PMD hatch with BWO's also coming off on the wet days. You can switch to these smaller bugs and catch fish or just keep throwing the big stuff. You will catch fish either way. We still have room for two anglers on May 27th, 28th, and 29th. Give Drake a call if you are interested.

After a great winter of steelheading at the coast we are back on the Deschutes. We floated this last week from Warm Springs on down to Maupin City park. The weather was a bit breezy, but otherwise spectacular with highs in the 80's most days. The river flows dropped a bit this week and are now down to a stable 4350 cfs. The salmonflies and even a fair number of golden stones are already out especially lower down in the float but we saw a few out as far up as Trout Creek. It will take some time until all the fish are looking for the big bugs but a good number were willing to pounce on our dry flies. We also had good surface action in the afternoons due to a strong PMD hatch. Nymphing also produced well in the mornings when surface action was slow. The fish are in great shape and the smolts seem to be thinning out. We still have an opening at the end of May for a guided three day trip so give us a call if you are interested.