Fishing Reports

I floated the ever popular Warm Springs to Trout Creek section of the Deschutes yesterday hoping to hit the salmonfly hatch. The bugs were all over the bushes the fish just didn't seem totally keyed on them, with most of our fish being caught in tough to reach spots or quite a ways off the bank. We fished golden stone patters in size 8 through 12 and did fairly well, with the Clarks Stone and the Rogue Stone producing the most hits.
Ira

      I floated Warm Springs to Trout Creek on Sunday and found a few fish although fishing was still a little tough. The big bugs must be moving as Possie Buggers and giant stonefly nymphs were the big producers with a smaller Copper John on the drop getting a little love. Water level is low for this time of year which could help speed things up for the salmonfly hatch.
      On Monday I fished the D down below town and got into a bunch of fish, mostly on Possie Buggers with the big fish of the day being a 12" brightly colored brown.

Ira Miller

            I fished the Lower Deschutes in the Maupin area again a couple of days ago. The water had dropped down to a respectable 5200cfs, so I thought I would give it another shot. It’s been a tough year on the Deschutes as far as the steelhead are concerned, and it’s not getting any easier. The only good thing is that there are very few anglers on the water, so you can take your time and fish wherever you want.

            After fishing most of the day without a pull, I was working my way through a run down near Beavertail swinging a heavy sink tip and a string rabbit leech. I was hanging up on the bottom on a regular basis and I’m a stickler for sharpening my hook after hanging up, so after a while it was more like I was sharpening a hook nub instead of a hook point. My better judgment told me to change to a new fly with an actual point on the hook, but my cold frozen hands put up a stronger argument telling my brain that I should wait until later when I was warmed up to change flies, and after I don’t know how many casts without a fish, my confidence in hooking a fish was low. So I fished on with my nub, and sure enough, a few casts later my line came tight, followed by a big head shake and then line ripping off my reel as a really nice steelhead jumped from the river and landed with a big splash and yes, it came unbuttoned. Who knows if changing my fly would have made a difference, but I sure would have felt better about losing such a nice fish if I had.

            I did manage to catch a small bright wild Deschutes fish a little later in the day as I fished my way down to Macks Canyon. He was a feisty little thing that fought much bigger than he was. He never came out of the water, so his size was a surprise when I finally got a look at him and brought him to hand for a quick release.

            After hooking a couple of fish on my first day, I was excited about the possibility that there were more fish around than I had thought and was looking forward to the next day on the water. As it turned out, those would be the only fish I would find as I fished throughout the next day without a touch.

            It was late afternoon and the temperature was dropping, the snow was falling and I thought there was no time like the present to head home and warm up.

 

The Patient Angler

Peter Bowers

I picked up a new drift boat last week and figured I had the lowest shot at sinking it on the Warm Springs to Trout Creek float so a couple friends and I headed down Saturday morning hoping to break it in with a few steelhead. We ended up hooking two fish, this hatchery that my friend Jason landed and a smaller native that gave me a great first run before coming to hand. There was quite a bit of traffic on the river but we still found plenty of open water to fish and from talking to other anglers it seemed like most people were finding at least a fish or two. After a long hot dry summer it is finally starting to feel like steelhead weather and the fishing seems to be improving.

Ira

 

            I’ve hit the Maupin area of the Lower Deschutes a couple of times in the last week or so and have had pretty good luck finding fish. The reports have been kind of all over the board with some anglers catching fish and some that have not. I was in the “have not” group the first trip down with Thu. She was able to hook three fish and the only fish I caught was a trout.

            I decided after the verbal beating I took on the way home, that I would try to redeem myself and go back down in a couple of days and try again.  I left Bend at 4:00 am and made to the first run I wanted to fish just before daylight.

            The river has been clear and running around 5,000cfs, with a cool temperature of 44 degrees. I geared up with a 15’ T-10 sink-tip & a Craft Fur Stinger fly and stepped in at the top of the run.  I was only in the water about 15 minutes before I had my first solid take by a small, but chrome bright wild fish that ran around like crazy before I could land her and take a quick picture. Just 10 casts later I got my second take, but after just catching one a few moments before and being all jacked-up, I lifted the rod on the take and he came unbuttoned after a little thrashing. YES, I Farmed Him! I can make a mental mistake just as easy as you can! Anyway I pushed on and hooked a third fish in the bottom of the run, which turned out to be another wild hen of about 5 or 6 pounds. I fished two more long runs before I ran out of daylight (and charged battery packs for my electric socks), and had the grace of the steelhead gods to hook 3 more steelhead. I only landed one of those but it was a really nice size buck that was all colored up and put up a heck of a fight before I was able to bring him to hand for a quick picture and release.

            It’s a long day to drive to Maupin at 4:00am, fish hard all day and then drive home after dark, but the tiring day is a lot more bearable when you catch some fish.

 

The Patient Angler                 patientangler.com

Peter Bowers

Walked into the Lower Deschutes River from Mecca Flats with a friend of mine the other day, to see if we could find a few steelhead. After a stormy night the evening before, I was surprised to find a very mild day when we arrived at the river.

The river is running about 4800cfs from the dam, clear and with a temperature of 45 degrees. The best part was there was nobody there! In fact, we didn’t even see another angler until after noon.

            Jimmy and I worked our way down river fishing some likely spots without a pull until we stopped at one of my favorite pieces of water. Jimmy fished the top of the run and I fished the bottom and again we came up empty. After a short break for lunch, we decided to fish through again with Jimmy taking the bottom this time and I walked up to fish the top of the run. I was the first to hook-up, with a big colored-up hatchery buck that grabbed my fly and took off, ripping line from my reel when he realized he was hooked. This fish put up one heck of a fight, taking two long runs on me before I could work him back upriver and land him. Jimmy had heard my cry of “FISH ON!” and came to take a picture for me. After releasing my hard fighting fish, Jimmy didn’t waste any time getting back into the water and soon hooked and landed a nice wild fish of his own.

We were both fishing spey rods on the swing with type 8 sink-tips and rabbit leech patterns, which over the years, has proven to be the most productive way to go this time of year.

There are still a lot of Salmon around, so if you like to nymph for steelhead, make sure you have a good supply of egg patterns in your box because everything in the river is eating them.

 

 

The Patient Angler                     patientangler.com

Peter Bowers