Photo Taken on January 1 in the early morning hours looking down from the west end of the Maupin bridge over the Deschutes. Photo by: Taylor Jones

WINTER HOURS: MONDAY - SATURDAY OPEN 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

CLOSED ON SUNDAYS THROUGH THE MONTH OF MARCH

We are back in the shop after our one big break of the year! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a bit of a break from your work to spend time with friends and family. This photo of the river and the railroad tracks covered in snow was taken in the early morning hours of the first day of the year.

The new year has begun with a fresh snowfall and a winter wonderland out here on the banks of the Deschutes.   As with most snow events in this area, we are already seeing the snow melt away as warmer temperatures bring rain on top of the white stuff. The roads are all clear, though the fog in some areas will slow down your trip over the mountain, through the gorge, or coming from the south.  

The river spiked up with our first good dump of rain just after Christmas, but it has settled in to a decent winter flow at this point and reports from the river yesterday were very good.  A lot of the Deschutes closed to fishing on January 1 - any part of the river that is adjacent to the Warm Springs Indian Reservation border (from Two Springs Ranch up river to the Pelton Round Butte Dam) is now closed until April 22, 2025) This means that Warm Springs, Mecca Flats, Dry Creek, Trout Creek, and South Junction access points are all closed to fishing. 

The good news is that the Maupin area is open all year-round from the Locked Gate area all the way to the confluence with the Columbia River. This gives anglers a great big chunk of the river to enjoy all winter when most other trout fisheries in Oregon are closed. If you are fishing the river from your car along the access road going upstream or downstream of Maupin, you are in open waters. You can walk above the locked gate too for a few miles before you reach the Gatekeeper’s house. 

Lots of anglers are calling the shop to ask about the condition of the Deschutes and wondering what the weekend might have in store. Judging by the weather forecast, today we have an 80% chance of rain showers with a high of 36 degrees. On Saturday, the winds are light and variable with temperatures rising to about 41 degrees - which will start the snow melt. On Sunday it is forecast to be even warmer, about mid 40s, which should melt the rest of the snow. 

This photo was taken Friday, Jan 3, at noon. The snow along the river has melted, but there is more snow up top which will melt in the next few days. Photo by: John Hazel

The big rains that we had before and just after Christmas were enough to saturate the desert soils that were thirsty for the much-needed moisture. The rains kept falling and turned to a heavy, wet snow. All of the shallow reservoirs on the farms and ranches around Maupin are full to the brim and overflowing into the Deschutes. We will see more flow by late Saturday as the higher elevation snow really starts to melt off. 

If I had to make an educated guess - I would say that fishing today and most of tomorrow will be good. The river is a bit higher than you are used to seeing it in the summer, but the fish are settled into the back eddies and slower pools and will be found using nymphs or stripped streamer patterns. By Sunday, with the temperatures up to the mid-40s, most of the snow melt will jack the river up for a few days (probably starting on Sunday) into the 10,000 CFS range. It might go higher. These higher water events are completely normal for this time of year and the river needs these flushes to scour a bit of the weeds and algae build up out of the shallows. We would actually LOVE to see a very high water event sometime this winter, say 30,000 to 40,000 CFS, to wash significant weed beds out of the shallows. Any flow over 12,000 CFS will start to move small particulate, and a sustained week of that flow will make a difference in clearing out the nasty weeds that are here due to the changes in the operation of the tower (see my last fishing report of 2024).

Throughout the winter, the best bet for finding trout in good numbers will be to target them with nymphs right down on the bottom where they are hanging out in the slower currents. They will also eat streamers in the winter, which are best fished stripped with good action rather than simply swung. Light a fire under those trout by teasing a sculpin through their winter backeddy water! To effectively fish streamers, you will want to be using a sink tip to get the fly down. We have a huge variety of sink tips available to match the water type you are fishing. 

Euro-nymphing is my go-to method for winter trout fishing when I simply want to “take inventory.” This technique allows the angler to get the nymphs (weighted flies) quickly to the bottom or near the bottom of the river with minimal drag. The nymphs are fished on a very long, very fine diameter fluorocarbon leader without an indicator. The fine leader does not get pushed around by the currents in the upper water column, which are up to three times faster than the currents near the bottom of the river where the trout are holding. 

I always keep a dry fly rod rigged and ready when I am out winter fishing because I want to be ready at all times for the mid-day Blue Winged Olive mayfly hatch. The BWO hatch is our most consistent winter hatch from December through March and can offer the angler a mind-blowing dry fly fishing experience during the snowiest chilliest days. 

Blue Winged Olives are miniscule little mayflies that emerge from the depths in the mid-day. As they pop their bodies through the surface film, their vertical sailboat-shaped wings must dry before they can take off to fly to shore. Nearly anybody who has fished the river in the winter months has surely seen these tiny delicate blue/grey/olive insects stuck in riverside cobwebs, or clinging to their windshield. They have a slender olive body with two long, thin tails that wiggle back and forth. The wings tower upright over their bodies, and their large reddish-brown eyes look ridiculously oversized on their itty bitty heads. On certain winter days, the BWO hatch will blanket the river and bring the trout to the surface to slurp and feast upon them before they take to the air.   

Blue Winged olive Mayfly - Baetis            Photo by: Gabor Gardonyi

Overcast, rainy days are usually the best days for the BWO hatch, though we do see them on cold sunny days too. It is not unusual to see these tiny insects peppered all over the snow in the dead of winter – they thrive in cold weather. No matter how nasty the winter day on the water might seem, there is always the promise of an epic BWO hatch hanging in the frigid air.

Encountering a large emergence of Blue Winged Olives is one of the gifts that the Deschutes can give the angler in the cold winter months. But they are not everywhere all at once every day - their emergence can be strong in one area and practically non-existent five miles up or down river. Typically you need some broken water (riffles or rapids) just upstream of a nice big slick. The broken water assists the bugs in emerging and the slick water is where they can dry their newly unfurled wings before taking flight. If you ever experience this hatch in a certain area, be sure to make a mental note or record in your fishing journal, because it will happen in that spot again. 

Camping along the river is a great option in the winter. Bring your firewood or grab some at  one of the stores in Maupin to enjoy a nice riverside fire in one of the campsites where fire rings are established. If you are not in a campsite with a metal fire ring, you are required to have a fire pan elevated slightly off the ground to prevent scarring the ground. Please do not cut down trees along the river to make your fire. We have so few trees, they take so long to grow to size here in the desert, and those that we have provide really important shade for all river users during our super hot summer. 

Hotels in Maupin have discounted rates in the winter - so you can always grab a room if tenting it stream side is too chilly for you. 

If the river becomes very high and unfishable by Sunday, have a plan B in place. With the melting snow coming off the high country, there will be dozens of waterfalls to be viewed and photographed all up and down the river. You know all those watermarked canyon walls that are dry in the summer? This is the time of year when they get to shine! A nice leisurely drive down the access road to Mack’s Canyon will give you lots of photo opportunities with waterfalls as well as wildlife. Look for the bighorn sheep on the hillsides, Bald Eagles perched on the dead trees along the river, wild turkeys and chukar scooping gravel from the road, and potentially a bobcat or cougar sighting along the river’s edge. 

Rockhounding is fun in the small canyons along the river. You have a good chance of finding a cool piece of petrified wood if you keep your eyes open. Some folks stopped into the shop just before Christmas and reported seeing steelhead moving into the tiny intermittent creeks that feed the Deschutes. These are the adult fish that came into the Deschutes in the summer and are now about to get some important business done before returning to the ocean. All of these tributaries are CLOSED to fishing, to you can fish only with your eyes, but it is really special to see these large steelhead in tiny creeks fighting and jostling for position on the spawning beds. 

It is best to leave the steelhead alone at this time of year to let them dig their redds and lay eggs. Please be careful when wading in any shallow area - avoid the gravel because each step you take in that gravel may snuff out your future fishing opportunities if eggs are being crushed below your boots. It is up to us to protect the future of our wild native fish. 

We will be open on Saturday but closed on Sundays throughout the winter months. Please stop in for a chat or just to tell a fishing story. Visiting anglers are the reason that our doors are open year-round and things are very quiet out here all week. This is a fantastic time of year to get away from the crowds and enjoy some fishing solitude on the Deschutes River.

Tight lines!