Heat Blast Ahead!

Temperatures are climbing once again here in Maupin - so this weekend looks to be typical for August, which is HOT. Triple digit heat over the weekend will bring the last hoorah of rafting to the Maupin area and will likely slow down the steelhead fishing. Water temperatures down around the mouth of the Deschutes are getting up to 68 degrees each day and are likely to climb even higher as the air temperatures climb. With such warm temperatures at the mouth, the influx of steelhead is likely to slow. Numbers of steelhead being counted passing over Bonneville Dam spiked a bit early this year. We are hoping to see a second spike or at least hoping that the steelhead keep coming. Here is a look at that graph:

All of the graphs and data that I share on this fishing report are easy to access through the quick links section of our website. You can really do a good bit of poking around on those links to find water temperatures, water flows, fish counts, etc. Those anglers with high anxiety about the condition of the White River can click right to the page that shows the flow in real time - it looks like this:

As you can see from the graph above, the volume of the White River is very very low. The median flow line is on display on the above graph (it is the straight line), last year’s flow is the brown line, and the current flow is the blue line and is well below what that river should be at this time of year. No matter how muddy the water in the White may look, at these flows it will have ZERO impact on the Deschutes. If you see a dramatic spike in the flow of the White River, that is usually cause for concern in terms of the clarity of the lower 40 miles of the Deschutes. 

The Deschutestrout fishing is pretty much the same as it has been over the last few reports. They are down deep eating nymphs and streamers. They will often be sipping caddis in the early morning light tight to the banks, but down in the depths by mid-morning. Most people on the river right now have their minds on finding steelhead, so much of the best trout water will be yours for the taking. 

The steelhead reports from the river are that the lower river has cooled off a bit - not temperature of the water, but the steelhead fishing. I believe that the big surges of steelhead are already well up river and spread out. Do I think you could hook steelhead anywhere in the Deschutes right now? You absolutely could. Your chances are going to be quite slim if you are way up in the Warm Springs to Trout Creek section, but it would not be out of the realm of possibility to find a few steelhead that far up seeking the cooler water. Naturally, the water warms as it flows through the hot canyon, so the steelhead feel that as they move further into the river and they are always going to seek the coolest water they can find. 

Lots and lots of boats put on the water yesterday and the day before at Mack’s Canyon headed to the mouth of the Deschutes. Jet boats are not allowed to operate every other Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday on the Deschutes through September and many floaters choose to see that section of the canyon without the jet boats there. I think it is nice to give people a chance to experience the river without the wakes and the noise and the traffic that comes with the jet boat anglers. The long-time guides who have been guiding with jet boats for decades have always been very respectful towards drift boat guides, slowing down to give us space and not dropping people off below our fishing clients. Unfortunately, I saw a comment posted on my fishing report last week about jet boat guides dropping people off below anglers who have hiked in to some of the well-known and well-loved runs in the lower river. That is disappointing - especially since the jet boats have the ability to go to other places.On the flip side of that statement, however, is the fact that all boats in the lower couple of miles of the Deschutes (from Rattlesnake Rapid down to the mouth) must observe the pass through zone. This means that boats are not allowed to stop and fish for the last mile and a half of river in order to give the walk-in anglers some water that they know will not be occupied by boat-in anglers. So anglers don’t necessarily have to walk up into the water that the boaters are in, but boaters should still respect the angler who is in the water fishing and should not drop anglers off in a manner that low holes or cuts off their fishing stretch. 

The rules of the river are sometimes not clear, and it is in these murky areas that the misunderstandings can happen. Here is an example of how someone may think they are getting “low holed” but may be incorrect. There are runs on this river that have stretches that are wadable for 20-30 yards but at some point in the run the river becomes too deep to wade and you have to go in to the bank to avoid swimming. That is the point where that particular run ends. If you have to walk onto the land to get to the next area downstream that is of a depth that can be waded, then that is likely considered a completely different piece of water. You do not reserve the entire left bank because you are fishing one piece of water. There are beginnings and endings of steelhead fishing spots and those have been traditionally defined as the head of the run and the tail out of the run. The head of the run might be a spot where the shallow riffle water deepens and fans out or it might be a place where a deep pool or back eddy begins to shallow up to form a current that moves down river. The tail out of a run is the place where a run goes from 3-6 feet deep for a consistent flow into a fast moving rocky riffle 1-2 feet deep. Think of the tail out like the long hallway leading to a set of stairs that go down to the next floor. The top of the stairs is a new run and it is absolutely fine to start fishing at the top of the riffle break even if someone is in the tail out of the run above you. Now, it is polite to chat with the angler before stepping into the tail out, but it is not mandatory to do so when you are clearly at the start of a new piece of steelhead water. 

This steelhead return, in terms of the numbers of fish being counted at the dams in the Columbia, is one of the better we have seen in the past decade. It pales in comparison to runs that I have experienced on the Deschutes over the past 30 or so years that I have been fishing here, but it is exciting to see the uptick in numbers. What we really see on the slightly better steelhead years is a huge increase in the number of anglers fishing for steelhead. Many are new to the game and, understandably, excited to have encountered their very first summer steelhead. We get to hear everyone’s fish stories as they come into the shop, but we also get to hear the down side of steelhead fishing - the stories of bad behavior on the water and the grumbling complaints about fishing “all day” without hooking a steelhead. When I hear a couple of new-to-steelhead anglers bitching about not hooking a steelhead I know that there is a pretty large possibility that those anglers will wash out. Steelhead fishing for the long term is a true dedication and not many anglers have the fortitude to endure the number of fishless days that will inevitably come with the pursuit of steelhead.

I think that one of the worst things that can happen to an angler learning to steelhead fish is to have a lot of success early on. That sounds weird, but the hardest core steelhead anglers that I know had to work for their first steelhead. Some fished 50 days or more before their first hook up, and some even longer. These anglers did not quit. They stuck with it through rain, cold weather, hot days, windy days, and bad water conditions. They woke up early, stayed out late, waded the hard wades, slipped on rocks, went over their waders, fell down hills, and kept returning to the river for more punishment. The anglers that spent a lot of days working for their first steelhead really had the opportunity to understand what steelhead fishing is all about for so many of us. Standing in the river, methodically working a fly through the run, making hundreds of Spey casts, and swinging the fly over and over again until your mind is hypnotized by the river. The zen of the whole steelhead fishing experience allows your mind to go to places that it cannot go to in our normal noisy chaotic lives. It is a meditation and a medication. The primal connection to the outdoors and the primitive pursuit of hunting a fish gets to the core of what we are as human beings. We were not meant to sit in front of computer screens. We are wired to be immersed in the outdoors. For many of us, the act of wading the river and casting for steelhead goes beyond how many fish we hook and land - it is an act of revitalizing our soul and our being.  That connection to the river breathes new life into us and becomes necessary to our survival.

Steelhead don’t care how much money you spent getting to the river, how fancy your fly rod is, or how much time you put into tying your fly. When they grab your swinging fly they are not pissed off by it, nor are they hungry. Steelhead grab your fly for the same reason that a cat will jump on a purple ball of yarn. If it is moving at a seductive speed, and it happens to be within the window of the steelhead’s vision, and the steelhead happen to be in the mood to check out the object that is seductively passing by, then the steelhead will follow your fly and (if you are lucky) they will grab that fly with their mouth. Hooking a steelhead doesn’t make you a hero (though you will certainly feel like one) - it just means that you were in the right place at the right time, and you had a bit of luck on your side. Being in the right place at the right time will happen to you more and more often as you learn the patterns of steelhead and learn to read the river to know where a steelhead is going to feel comfortable holding. 

Does the fly really matter? Well, yes and no. The most important job of a fly is to impart confidence to the angler who is fishing it. If you have a lot of confidence in a Steelhead Coachman, or a Green Butt Skunk fly pattern, then you should fish one of those patterns. Having confidence that your fly will entice a steelhead means that you will fish that fly as if every swing is going to result in a grab. When steelhead fishing with the fly you are focused, on point, you are wading and casting with purpose, and every swing of the fly is one swing closer to your next hook up. The more variety of flies you fish, the more confident you will become as a steelhead angler. Newer steelhead anglers believe that the fly is the difference maker and the reason that they hooked a fish and their buddy did not. It was that special fly that made that steelhead grab. The more time you spend steelhead fishing and sitting around with other steelhead anglers discussing your adventures on the water, the more you will come to realize that the fly matters more to you than it matters to the steelhead. That being said, I have never had as much confidence in the huge intruder patterns as I have in the smaller hairwing patterns. So my confidence flies are typically size 5 or 7 (Alec Jackson hooks) or size 6 and 8 white winged hairwing flies with a little flash over the top of the white wing. The body color, tail color, hackle color, ribbing color, and hook color can really be any color - as long as I feel excited to fish the fly as I tie it onto the end of my leader. I have seen hundreds of patterns hook steelhead, some more than others because I have fished some patterns far more than others. 

Well, I have rambled long enough about steelhead. If you have a chance to get into the water to wade and cast over the next few days, just take steelhead for what they are - the reason that you are in a beautiful place, doing a fun activity, seeing wild things, and meeting other people who also like this pursuit.