Farewell to Winter

Breaking up with Steelhead, well, for this weekend anyway...

Hanging up the steelhead gear each spring always feels like saying goodbye to a close friend, especially when a long awaited fish was landed the weekend prior. Going into this past weekend, my mind was playing tug of war on what the best fishing move would be. Do I end my winter steelhead season on a high note or chase the high? 

Throughout the week, I kept a close eye on the Deschutes flows and the weather in Maupin. Flows at Madras were 4500, Moody 5500, the forecast called for minimal winds, sunny, and a high of just about 70 degrees. As the clock was ticking closer to decision-making time, it was clear to me that fishing the Deschutes for trout was the obvious answer. 

My longtime fishing partner, James, and I decided to avoid potential crowds in the Warm Springs area as this was the opener in that section of the river. So we headed to Maupin with his raft and decided to float a section of the river that would provide some exciting rapids along with some solitude. When we arrived at the put-in, we found exactly that: zero boats and a long stretch of river to ourselves! 

The day started off with an exciting event. As we went through our first rapid of the day, the left oar caught a wave in such a way that the oar jammed itself in the oar lock so badly that the oar shaft would not pop out or back into the lock. It was stuck halfway between engaged and outside of the lock. And, of course, the blade of the oar was now stuck 90 degrees from normal or parallel to the surface film, which made the blade completely useless. Luckily we were able to spin our way to the bank with the one functional oar and pound the oar lock back into place with a rock. With that behind us, it was now time to fish and hopefully unwind a bit. 

We worked our way through town, and fishing was pleasant, to say the least. We noticed some small hatches of caddis and mayflies but no rising fish so we fished subsurface and that was the ticket for the day. James broke out the trout spey and was doing well-swinging Sculpzillas, Wooly buggers, and soft hackles. Although some nice fish were taken on the swing, most fish gave up to traditional and Euro nymphing techniques. Pat’s rubber legs in black/tan and Rib Roast stone flies in black or brown provided about 70% of our fish. The other 30% were taken with tungsten jig Peacock nymphs, Perdigons, and Drag queens, all in size 14 or 16. There are a ton of 6-8” steelhead smolts in this section of the river, so be prepared to deal with these feisty guys. I found the best way to release these fish quickly was to give them some slack in my line, and they would wiggle themselves free in no time. These smolts are the key to our future memorable days on the Deschutes, so it is best to handle them as little as possible. 

I am also happy to report that the White River was tame and flowing clear, well a couple of days ago it was anyways. As I am writing this the river has dropped even more into shape and is 3970 at Madras, 5200 at Moody. In sum, the crowds are minimal, the river is in great shape, the fishing is excellent!