Feather Benders - You Are Going to Go Crazy!

The sun rises behind Mt Hood Wednesday morning as my plane heads east.

Starting in the month of December, we will be closed on Sundays through the winter. We will also be closed December 21-January 1. The reopening in 2026 will be on the 2nd of January. During our closed time, we will be shipping orders but the shipping will take place every couple of days.

John and I were in Portland on Tuesday night doing a fundraiser for the Deschutes River Alliance - which went well and our fight to help the Deschutes River continues on. As this is the time of year end giving, if you love the Deschutes and want to see the river’s health improve you should consider a donation of any size to the Deschutes River Alliance. This is the only non-profit with a focus entirely on protecting the lower Deschutes River. Every little bit helps in our fight for water. I took off early Wednesday morning for a buying trip which I will tell you about at the end of this report.

Here’s the fishing report:

This is time of year when regulations are changing on the Lower Deschutes and it can be confusing for anglers. Let me spell it out for you because the regulations are complex and there are different rules for the east and west banks in certain sections.

LOWER DESCHUTES REGULATIONS: Lower Deschutes is defined as the 100 free-flowing miles of the Deschutes below the Pelton/Round Butte Dam Complex.

November 1, 2025 to April 22, 2026 - The tribal waters are CLOSED to fishing. This is the west bank of the river from Dry Creek to Trout Creek (a section that is on the reservation but available for non-tribal members to fish with a permit). Permits available at www.tribalpermit.com.

January 1, 2026 to April 22, 2026 - The Deschutes River (both east and west banks) is CLOSED to fishing from the border of the Warm Springs Reservation upstream to the PRB Dam Complex. This means that the following popular fishing areas along the Deschutes are closed to all fishing: Warm Springs, Mecca Flats, Trout Creek, and South Junction. The boundary that designates the closed area is miles upstream of the locked gate and anglers are not allowed to walk that far above the locked gate.

Year round - The Deschutes River from the northern border of the Warm Springs Reservation to the confluence of the Columbia River (both east and west banks) is OPEN to trout and steelhead fishing. Refer to MYODFW for specific regulations regarding salmon, trout, and steelhead. Regulations are subject to change at any time - know before you go. It is the responsibility of every angler to know the regulations on the waters they are fishing. 

DO NOT FORGET TO PURCHASE A NEW FISHING LICENSE ON JANUARY 1, 2026

Winter can be a great time for trout anglers willing to brave the colder temperatures. If the river is in shape, and it usually is for most of the winter, the trout will normally be on the bite. Methods such as indicator nymphing, Euro nymphing, and stripping streamers fished on a sink tip line (this is where trout Spey rods come in quite handy) are all effective in hooking up with nice redsides all winter long. This may come as no surprise to most anglers, but the winter time can be one of the best times to catch massive dry fly hatches. Blue Winged Olive Mayflies, Caddis, and some Stonefly species can provide electrifying surface action in the dead of winter, so have a dry fly set-up ready and waiting on days that you are primarily fishing sub-surface. The hatch windows are usually short, but if you are ready and standing in a productive spot, you can have incredible dry fly eats in the winter. 

Steelhead fishing is winding down now. The Deschutes does not get a winter run of steelhead, which means that all of the fish in the Deschutes are getting old and tired by this time of year and just hanging on to spawn and get out of the river. The most sporting thing to do is to leave the steelhead alone after the first of the year. These fish are conserving just enough energy to spawn and out-migrate. If you really need to catch a steelhead in January -April there are dozens and dozens of great steelhead rivers to the west of the Deschutes that have chrome-bright winter fish. 

As for conditions of the river, the Deschutes typically is a very steady and consistently-flowing river, even in the winter. Some years, we get a snowpack that melts suddenly and that can give us some high water conditions and/or muddy water. If the river conditions get too tough to fish, we will let you know through this fishing report. Check here first because we live on this river and see it with our own eyes every day. 

I am currently away from the shop on a bit of a mission to get our fly shop stocked with the absolute best fly tying materials for the long cold winter ahead. As many of you know, natural materials have been more and more difficult to source - particularly feathers. So, I have travelled halfway across the country to bring home some of the highest quality materials which we will be packaging and selling at Deschutes Angler throughout the winter. There are some things that we will have to dye, and others that we will have to sort and package, but I know that our avid fly tiers will be thrilled to see some of these rare materials available once again. 

Today I spent several hours hand selecting the finest Blue Eared Pheasant, Golden Pheasant, Ringneck Pheasant, Peacock, Finn raccoon, Arctic Fox, Skunk, Badger, Silver Fox, Turkey, Mallard, Gadwall, Teal, Pintail, Wood Duck, Guinea Fowl, Jungle Cock, Argus Pheasant and more.  If you have been struggling to find HIGH QUALITY materials such as Bronze Mallard, Wood Duck Flank, Lemon Wood Duck, Dyed Ringneck Rump patches, Jungle Cock Nails (the real deal), and so much more….I will be coming home with the goods!  We will work diligently to get these materials on the shelves so you can get your paws on them. 

Here are some pictures from the selection process: 

Looking at an Argus Pheasant skin while holding a matched set of Argus wing quills in my left hand. If you want this very rare product, we can get it.

I bought a grocery bag of loose Wood Duck Flank and Lemon Wood Duck  - I will sort and bag this when I return. It has been years since we could get this!

This is a full Blue Eared Pheasant skin - these feathers are excellent legal substitutes for Great Blue Heron. I will be plucking the birds and selling the feathers packaged for steelhead and salmon fly tying. 

Ringneck Rump patches like this one will be a big dying project for our team this winter. Our colors will be unique and excellent for use in both trout and steelhead flies. We have not been able to get these rump patches for years! Beautiful!

You will want to get SKUNKED when you see the quality of this hair! The white hair is incredible on our white-winged steelhead flies and the black hair is truly BLACK. Easy to work with, shimmers in the light, flows in the water, and has no stink!

Picking through hundreds of Golden Pheasant heads to get the best crests. Above my head, tails of all kinds, from Finn Raccoon to Silver Fox to Arctic Fox to Marble Fox to Coyote. So  many beautiful tails.   No, I did not buy that Jackalope!

Peacock Wing Quills - you need a left and a right to make the perfect tent wing. A steelhead muddler just isn’t a steelhead muddler without this feather. The wing quills pictured are second quality - I bought the top quality large matched pairs.

I had a great time with these salt-of-the-earth folks. John and I visited once before and drove home with a truckload of feathers and furs for the shop many years ago. It was nice to re-establish our relationship with this wholesaler. We will be buying a lot more from them in the future. If you want something really special for your tying project - give us a call and we will see what we can get you. Don’t buy fake plastic jungle cock eyes when you can get the real deal!

Be patient my fly tying friends, this stuff will be on the shelves as soon as possible. The dying process will be time-consuming, but we should be able to bag feathers in a timely manner and get these to your tying bench in early January.