Still Swinging

Last week was my 51st birthday, and as usual, I had my annual birthday float planned for the weekend after. Unfortunately, that lined up perfectly with the steelhead closure on the Deschutes.

One of my favorite things in the world is steelhead fishing. So not being able to fish it for my birthday was heartbreaking. Now there are a lot of people just canceling their trips to the Deschutes because steelheading is closed. But every closed door is another opportunity. I’m not saying shifting gears would be better, but maybe it would help us refocus and see other things that are important.

I’m fortunate because my birthday typically falls on the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. So maybe we’d stay up later looking for shooting stars. I mean, we don’t have to get up pre-dawn for a first-light steelhead session. Another thing is that since we don’t need to bail out of camp in the dark, we can sleep in a little and actually enjoy a slow morning in camp.  Not to mention, the boat traffic will probably be down a bit.

And please don’t confuse what I’m saying with me not fishing. I just grabbed a different boat box and a different stack of rods, because trout fishing is still open. The whole 100 miles of the Lower Deschutes offers good trout fishing. I suspect that if you’ve spent any amount of time swinging flies for steelhead in the Deschutes, you’ve probably caught a bunch of trout. When they aren’t the target species, you have a tendency to almost be annoyed by their presence. But why not grab a trout Spey and target those guys? With the right gear, they're a lot of fun!  Not to mention they eat dry flies and nymphs down there too. Not to mention, that could be an excuse to buy another rod if you don’t already have a trout Spey  

We did pretty well with all three of those techniques. With the trout Spey, we swung light Scandi lines and longer leaders with small soft hackles; we also swung sink tips and slightly larger, bugier flies, and had great success with both. People have been swinging wet flies and soft hackles for trout for a long, long time, and it continues to work. Bryan Cohen ties quite a few larger (like size 10/12) soft hackles for the shop. We also have a pretty good selection of larger trout streamers for the trout Spey. I have always felt that targeting Deschutes trout with streamers works better with smaller flies, like 1”-2” long; forget those giant streamers everyone ties. As for the dry fly, we had great success with caddis. There were hatches all day long.  As usual, smaller sizes worked better. A size 18 dark-bodied caddis seemed to be the best. Nymphs were also very successful, but it seemed like you really needed to change up quite a bit. But mostly the hot spot girdle bug with a dropper was the best. Silvey’s BH pupa was great at times.

So if you have a trip booked on the lower Deschutes, you might actually enjoy the change of pace. Sam Sickles is still doing jet boat trips swinging for trout.

Standard trout fishing on the Deschutes is going to get better as we move into fall. The dry fly fishing is going to get better and better. Brian Silvey is continuing to guide around Maupin, and I can assure you he’s catching plenty of fish.

Marty and Mia of Little Creek Outfitters will still be running trips, and if you’re a little adventurous, you could join them in Alaska at their lodge and fish the Kasilof for steelhead.

If you are looking to switch gears completely, there are plenty of options.

The McKenzie is also fishing great. And our good friends at Water Time Outfitter are doing trips over there. They are also doing trips on the Willamette for bass. And that is a blast too. With a lot of bigs being boated every trip.

The Crooked, Fall, and Metolius are all fishing well. Soon the Metolius will be getting its fall Flav hatch, basically a second, smaller Green Drake.

Don’t forget about our local opportunities like the upper Clackamas for trout. And soon we will have Coho throughout the Willamette and its tributaries.

If you’re looking for something else a little different, you could take a dory trip with Rob Perkins of Connect Outfitters in Pacific City, or get a day in on the Rogue come October.

Remember, steelheading on the Deschutes is just one of the many fishing opportunities in our amazing state. Grab your fly rod and get out there!