Hiker saves drowning steelhead angler on the Deschutes River

Yesterday I fished the Deschutes River for summer steelhead on a jet boat trip with guide Bob Toman, a trip he donated to the Northwest Steelheaders auction at the banquet earlier this year. We camped at the Deschutes-Columbia convergence the night before and headed upriver at 5:30am, easily running Rattlesnake Rapid in his 225 horsepower sled.

We pulled off before the light came over the edge of the canyon and Willie Tiffany hooked up with a nice hatchery steelhead on a swung purple steelhead fly on floating line.

While we’re fishing we hear a boat with a small engine struggling up the river. Toman had seen the boat on this section of river before, a guy alone in a wooden driftboat with a small outboard motor, and decided to take a photo of the guy heading up the river, saying “I want to get a shot of this guy while he’s still alive.”

What happened next is speculation based on what we observed later: The angler had attempted to run Colorado Rapid in the boat, lost control and was thrown into the water. His boat was still running, nose into the bank when we found it (photo below). The angler was swept downriver, and managed to cling to a rock in the middle of the current, his waders filling and then coming down and wrapping around his ankles. I have no idea how long he had to hang onto that rock in the 58-degree water, but a hiker spotted him and ran up the ridge line to call for help with his cell phone. A guide and Oregon State Trooper in a jet boat managed to pull him out of the water, taking him to shore. The guide asked Toman to come help get the guy off the bank and to an ambulance at the mouth. He was in shock, exhausted when we found him and carried him to the boat.

After that, we spent the rest of the day fishing above Colorado Rapid. Lots of fish rolling, but not many biters yesterday. I lost two — one on a Bitch Creek nymph under an indicator, the other on a Purple Peril on a sinking line. Former NW Steelheaders lobbyist Phil Donovan was high hook with two wild steelhead on Toman’s plugs in the second half of the day.

-MS