Deschutes Report: Slow and . . . High.

Typically, my angling keeps me pretty close to home. In fact, I lead a satsfied fishing life in about a 75 mile radius from Eugene-Springfield. My home territory ranges from the Umpqua to the south, the Alsea to the north, the Pacific to the west and the headwaters of some of Oregon’s best trout fishing, the Mckenzie and Middle Fork Willamette to the east. Still, there are those occaisonal outlyer trips and despite the high water on the Dechutes this was one of those.

Thursday, I fished from Warm Springs to Trout Creek with my good buddy, politico Jonathon Manton and State Representative Brian Clem (D-Salem) hoping to catch some good native trout fishing on the tail end of the salmon fly hatch. Unfortunately, the east side wasn’t immune from the pineapple express that has been pummeling the valley.

At least it was fishable despite having risen about 1000 cfs between Wednesday and Thursday. Still, fish were occaisonally rising along the banks and up to about 20 feet from the shoreline. There were still quite a few salmon flies in the upper 3/4 of the float and redsides were willing to eat the Aanes Mojo Stone in size #4. I also had a fish eat an Orange Stimulator.

This was the only fish I got a photo of–I didn’t want to expose the sweet new Dslr to the rain but I promise I caught one big wild trout that savagely crushed the big foam salmonfly that I fished all day. Sadly, I also missed several really big fish or they missed me. Whatever. Random rises were not the ticket. When we found rising fish, we hooked them. I just wish more were rising. Brian and Jonathon experienced a similar level of success, a few good wild trout which when you think about it isn’t horrible on a rapidly rising river. I’ve had worse days of fishing. As Lou notes below, the golden stones are also starting to come off but the fish aren’t on them . . . yet.–KM