Good Flows and Good Fishing
The river is really mellowing out in regards to the flow and the fish have been spunky as ever this week. I have been on the water the last 4 days and, with the steady drop in flows, wading has gotten much easier and fishing has been really consistent. Dry dropper and nymphing have been my mainstay but we have had some great moments switching to single dry fly when the conditions permit.
River Conditions -
Flows coming out of the dam right now are currently hanging around 4,700 cfs. These flows have been slowly dropped in 100 cfs increments over the last week. This has been a welcome reprieve from the high flows we have dealt with all winter and spring. Flows at the mouth of the river are currently hanging around 5,500 cfs. Our two largest tributaries, the White River and Warm Springs River, have both dropped down to just below the 500 cfs mark and settled in there. Temps coming out of the dam have been ranging between 50 and 53 degrees. Temps at the mouth of the river are ranging between 53 and 58 degrees with a little spike to 60 degrees yesterday in relation to our warmest day yet.
What’s Happening With Trout -
With the temps mentioned above, stoneflies are starting to hatch in the Lower Deschutes. I have witnessed 2 Golden Stones, 3 Salmon Flies, and a couple dozen Yellow Sallies. Of course, this is not enough bugs to get fish fully keyed into dries, though my clients and I have had nice resident trout eat the smaller stonefly dries we use while fishing a dry dropper setup.
Our caddis hatches have been a bit sporadic, but fishing shaded pockets behind trees and along deep grass lines has brought some really nice trout to hand. You will likely find a large number of out-migrating steelhead and salmon smolt while fishing the smaller dries. The slower back ends of pocket water and pools will hold a higher number of small smolt. Focusing on the faster top ends of your fishing zones can thin out the number of smolt found. There’s no way to completely get away from the smolt, but they can be fun to keep things lively in between takes from our larger resident trout.
Mayfly hatches have been sparse this week, largely because of the beautiful sunny spring weather we have had. On Saturday we are supposed to have a bit of overcast and rain and I expect to have some productive sessions fishing Blue Wing Olive, Lesser March Brown, and Pale Morning Dun patterns. There have been some small spinner falls of those flies this week, meaning that they want to hatch but haven’t had the right conditions to really come off in full force. Focusing on classic riffle breaks, or foam lines just a little ways downstream from these riffle breaks, will improve the chances of encountering a pod of fish targeting these flies.
I haven’t put in a lot of time fishing streamers or swinging flies this week. The two days we did fish the streamers we managed to get one legitimate trout on a smaller olive bugger pattern in the faster top end of a riffle. This fish was taken during a time when we had some heavy cloud cover come through. I tend to see more success on streamers when the cloud cover gives them the confidence to chase down some food.
In addition to some great dry dropper fishing the nymphing has been productive as always. I haven’t had much success fishing stonefly nymphs, which is a bit odd as the largest number of those nymphs will be migrating towards the banks for the hatch. Because of that I have stuck with smaller size 16 hotspot nymphs. I still like to try the stonefly nymphs at a couple spots each day—2 to 3 weeks before the bulk of the hatch is typically the best time to fish them on the Deschutes.
Flies That Are Working -
Finfetcher Caddis in Tan and Olive Size 16 and 18
CDC Bullet Head Olive Caddis Size 16
Elk Hair Caddis in Tan, Brown, and Olive Size 14, 16 and 18
CDC Comparadun March Brown Size 12,14,16
Purple Parawulff Size 16
Hi Vis Parachute Adams Size 14 &16
CDC Comparadun PMD Size 16
Galloup’s Tilt Wing PMD Size 16
CDC Blue Wing Olive Cripple Size 16 & 18
Hi Vis Parachute BWO size 16 & 18
CDC Comparadun BWO Size 16 & 18
Purple Haze Parachute Size 14, 16 & 18
Jimmy Legs Stonefly Nymph Size 6, 8 &10
Bead Head Girdle Bug Size 6, 8 &10
Pink Bead Tasmanian Devil Size 16 & 18
Pink Bead Hares Ear Size 16
Pink Bead Green Collar Pheasant Tail Size 16
Silver Bead Pheasant Tail with Hot Orange Collar Size 18 & 20
Silver Bead Blue Glo Brite Perdigon with Hot Orange Collar Size 16
Jigged Mayers Mini Leech in Olive Size 8
Henry’s Fork Foam Stone Size 16, 14, 12 & 10
Chubby Chernobyls in a variety of sizes and colors.
Thanks for tuning in to my fishing report. I’ll be on the water all but 4 days this month, so I may not respond right away, but I’m more than happy to answer any questions you have about hatches as soon as I can. Good luck to all who get out to fish in the coming weeks and I’ll see you on the water!
