DESCHUTES RIVER FLY-FISHING FOR TROUT
The Deschutes River is an amazing fishery full of riffles and runs and custom built for trout fishing. Fish density is around 1500 adults per river mile. From Pelton dam to the mouth at Heritage Landing is 100 miles. The most popular section during trout season is Segment 1, Warm Spring to Trout Creek, Trout Creek to Maupin. Segment 2 has some great trout fishing and good road access but is best known for white water rafting. Segment 3 offers excellent access for anglers of every type thanks to the Deschutes River access road. Segment four is the lower lower Deschutes, Macks Canyon to the mouth, Heritage Landing, This is best accessed with a jet boat.
The Deschutes has good trout fishing year round! Known for its’ Salmon Fly hatch most anglers miss out on some of the best trout fishing of the year. We run guided trips year round on the Deschutes but peak season is April-June.
Wintertime January-March Winter fishing is a mid-day event, sleep in, have an extra cup of coffee and a full breakfast. Most of the action is mid-day in the winter. The water is cold and the fish are hungry. With a winter diet of midges and blue winged olives you’d be hungry too. Deschutes “resides” will smash anything that looks like calories. No respectable trout angler should be without a Pats’ Stone …especially in the winter. One Stonefly Fly nymph outweighs a lot of midges and BWO’s, that’s calories. For the same reason these fish will chase down a streamer. It turns out the majority of what trout eat in the winter are big things but that doesn’t keep us from keeping a watchful eye. Wind-free days when the sun is muted out you may see fish feeding on adult BWO or even midges. When the wind is up try emergers or soft hackles, adult wings dry too fast to keep them on the water for long.
Springtime…April Sometimes we refer to this as pre-hatch, pre stoneflies. This time of year can produce epic days with big fish. My favorite days are when March Browns pop off. I don’t know what it is about MB’s but trout will not hesitate to eat them when they are around. I routinely step into a fish heavy spot tossing a March Brown pattern in the complete absence of adults, this is how you catch bruisers. These early hot spring fish can be a handful…a soft rod is recommended. Swinging soft hackles though these areas often elicits massive grabs. Of course you should nymph behind yourself as well. If you do not yet euro nymph you should try it, you will be surprised how well you do fishing behind yourself.
Nymph Migration Stonefly nymphs live on the bottom and move and crawl around a lot. Some people think they migrate all along the river at time throughout the day. What I do know is they make their way to shore when it’s time to hatch. During this migration the bugs lose their grip and are carried away by the current, this is when the fish eat them, in fact they gorge on them. As the season moves along these bugs make it to shore, crawl out of their exoskeletons and become adults. This cycle last 2-4 weeks depending on weather and water temperature. On the lower river closer to the mouth we can find bugs the first few days of May. The hatch moves upriver a day at a time and by late May, bugs are present in large numbers at Mecca Flats.
THE DESCHUTES RIVER SALMON FLY HATCH This is the most explosive dry fly fishing of the year. The draw is the size of the bugs and the willingness of even the wiliest fish to crush dry flies on the surface. Salmon flies begin to make their migration from water to land about the same time as the golden stones and the yellow stones, it’s a bug smorgasbord. As the Salmon fly hatch fades off the river comes alive with caddis and mayflies and trout fishing remains consistent into the summer.