Deschutes Salmonfly report May 20th

It’s May 20th, and I've just finished a three-day Salmonfly trip with Watertime Outfitters. Our guests have been on this trip with us many times, and we all have a pretty good routine, knowing their habits, abilities, and the types of water they want to fish. 

We picked them up in Maupin early and headed for Trout Creek. The whole lower 100 miles of the Deschutes gets a Salmonfly hatch, but for a camp trip with lots of bugs, big fish, and top water action, this is the place to be.

Historically, the hatch starts at the mouth of the Deschutes and works its way up, finishing in Warm Springs. Some years it starts at the beginning of May and sometimes a little later, typically finishing up in the beginning of June. This year seems to be a bit early and not a huge hatch. But the thing is, the hatch is slow and sporadic, so often it happens in pockets around the river.

When we pushed away from the boat launch, I made a beeline for my favorite jump-off point. I typically tell people this spot is the barometer for the trip. If this spot is good, then the rest of the trip will be good. Meaning that they are eating the big bugs.

We pulled down a long, steep riprap bank under the railroad. About 6’ off the bank is a giant flat boulder that I can pull the boat up to and let someone off on. The angler then has a pretty good, wide-open cast to a big bushy alder that overhangs maybe 20’ out into the river. Because the boulder is so far off the steep bank, this spot really isn’t accessible to an angler on foot. 

I dropped a new-to-the-group angler off on the rock and explained to him how I saw this playing out. The cast is about 40 and needs to be placed accurately so as not to end up in the tree. About 5 casts later, he was into his first fish. Not a giant by any stretch of the imagination, but big enough that he got the impression of what these fish are capable of.

A few more casts and we were into our second fish. All signs pointed to this fish looking up, with an appetite for Salmonflies.

Our top producing flies ended up being MFFR’s, Norm Woods, Size 8 Gold Chubby’s, and for droppers the TNT PMD, Mic Drop, and Czech Princess in olive or natural  

I would guess that we’ve got 10-12 more days of good, good fishing with the big bugs. If you haven’t, now’s the time to get out and go!