Queue Up the PERFECT Weather Weekend!
Wow, I just looked at the forecast for this weekend. I don’t think you could dream up a better weather scenario than what we have in store for us on Saturday and Sunday. Friday night also looks perfect, but it does look to be a bit breezy during the day today.
We are just coming off a full moon and this sometimes has an impact on the trout fishing, because they have the ability to feed all night if the moon is bright enough. Fortunately, our caddis hatches have been quite strong mid-week, perhaps due to the brief changes in the management of the water flowing out of the Pelton-Round Butte dam complex.
The water flows were bumped a little bit this week during the hot spell, which is usually because the reservoir is expecting a rise in tributary flows from melting snowpack. In this graph, you can see that the bump in water flows over the past seven days:
However, after they bumped the water a bit they did drop it back down and the water is now flowing out of the dam just under 4200 CFS. A more interesting set of data popping out of the Madras dam, is the temperature data:
Over the past week, as the flows increased the water temperatures dropped significantly. On the evening of June 7, the dam managers were releasing water from the dam that measured 56.3°F, which was reaching the mouth of the Deschutes 24-30 hours later measuring 69.1°F at the Moody Gauge. Here is a simple graph showing Maximum, Minimum, and Median water temperatures for this week:
On June 8, for some unknown reason, the dam managers suddenly bumped the flow and dropped the temperature, releasing water as cool as 54.1°F, which could only be that cool coming from the bottom of the reservoir. Before we pat them on the back, refer to the above graph and you will see that these “cool” temperatures are still well above the mean temperatures for this time of year.
You know what those few days of “cool” temperatures did for the river? They caused an explosion of caddis hatches. The trout went nuts in the evenings as adult caddis clouded the river banks and caddis pupa skittered across the river. It was almost like the pre-tower days of incredible caddis hatches when our Coleman lanterns would fill to the burning wicks with dead caddis bodies, producing that sickly sweet smell of caddis cremation.
The Evening Caddis Hatch went crazy this week! Photo: Ruby Selis
The fishing got really good with the cooler temperatures and the increased insect activity. We expect to see these great caddis hatches all weekend, so you need to hit the river prepared to play the caddis game.
In the mornings, the trout should still be sipping on dead caddis, which are sprinkled like confetti on the river as the sun first illuminates the river. Trout feeding on dead caddis are not in a rush, they know that their prey is not going to escape (or even move) so they steadily eat each dead caddis that flows down their personal foam line. Some of the steadiest feeding we see on caddis takes place in the mornings. As the sun gets more intense, the trout will typically retreat to a shady place on the river, a deep spot in the river, or a highly oxygenated riffle pocket.
If you can’t find shady pockets to fish during the mid-day, your best bet is to fish heavy riffles and deep water using either nymphs, dry-droppers, or dry flies. I chatted with Brian Silvey yesterday after his day of guiding, and he reported that the trout were grabbing droppers on a dry-dropper rig in the morning, but they were completely ignoring the bead head droppers in the afternoon and were only eating the dry flies. If that little piece of information does make you start packing your trout gear into the truck for a trip to the Deschutes, maybe the weather pattern to which I alluded early, will get you out here.
If you do get out here in the evening, expect the fishing to be incredible just after the sun dips behind the rim of the canyon. Trout will be jumping to intercept caddis emerging from the river .hey will also be just below the surface of the river chasing down caddis pupa that skitter towards the bank. The best way to enjoy your trout Spey rod in the evenings is to tie on a caddis pupa, cast across the river, do not mend, and swing that tiny pupa at mock speed in the surface film. Be ready to hook a lot of trout in this manner. You can also employ this technique with a standard 9 foot 4 or 5 weight rod, using a roll cast to avoid hooking the trees behind you.
Winds on Saturday and Sunday are forecast to be no stronger than 10 mph. Air temperatures are forecast to be at a high of 79°F on Saturday and barely over 80°F on Sunday. Evening sleeping temperatures are dipping down to 44°F on Saturday night - snuggle in your sleeping bag after a long evening session of dry fly fishing and get the best night’s sleep of your life!
Streamer fishing is another option for anglers wishing to explore the depths to see how big the meat-eating trout of the Deschutes can get. Fishing streamers isn’t just a matter of swinging flies as described above when using caddis pupa. You will sometimes hook trout using a down and across swinging method with a streamer pattern, but the more productive way to fish streamers is to cast a streamer on a sinking tip upstream, allow it to sink for a few seconds, get a downstream belly in your line, and strip that fly line like a maniac. This puts tremendous action into your streamers - use flies that imitate sculpins, leaches, small shiny baitfish, or crayfish. Big trout will chase down a fleeing critter.
We have a very well-stocked streamer selection in the shop, and we are happy to help you get set up for streamer fishing with your trout Spey rod or with a single-handed rod. This method of fishing is really interactive and really fun, once you develop the skills to cast these big streamers into the right water types.
In addition to the caddis and streamer opportunities on the Deschutes this weekend, we still have the last vestiges of the stonefly hatches to enjoy. Using a chubby as your dry in the dry-dropper game will still elicit the greedy grab of as trout looking for one last cheeseburger before the party is over. Yellow sally stones will be hanging around and hatching out well into July, so we recently restocked our yellow sally bins to keep your fly boxes at the ready with those bright yellow bugs.
Yellow is a great general color to fish at this time of year because PMDs and PEDs (pale morning duns and pale evening duns) are still popping off daily and quite thickly whenever the clouds cover the sun. The PMD has a brighter yellow body overall, and the PED has a light yellow/whiteish belly with a darker brown top. Both of these mayfly species will provide anglers with very exciting fishing in the mid-day when they hatch and in the evening when they lay eggs on the water. Although the clouds are not in the forecast, there are several fires in the area (to the north, south, and east) which are NOT impacting our air quality noticeably (not a whiff of smoke) but they are giving us a slight haze in the upper atmosphere and that is making the sunshine less intense. This false cloud cover is enough to trigger mayfly hatches in the mid-day.
Pale Evening Dun popping off on a sunny day. Photo: Ruby Selis
I think our window on Green Drakes may be closed for the year - though I hope they prove me wrong, because that hatch is mind-blowing. The drakes are the largest mayfly that we see on the Deschutes and we had a few short windows (measured in minutes, not hours) where we enjoyed green drake fishing this spring.
Indicator nymphing and Euro nymphing are always effective throughout the summer months, and we have a huge selection of the very best tungsten nymphs for the Deschutes. Lots of people have fallen in love with nymphing the river, especially since the tower went in and the insect hatches have been negatively impacted. Many guides on the river never knew the river before the changes in dam releases, never knew the river with a non-stop buffet of dry flies for the trout. Nymph fishing is an easier way to find a bunch of trout and certainly the easier route to take if you are teaching people to fly fish. However, it is easy to get trapped into the hypnotic, repetitive, motions of nymph fishing and staring at an indicator or sighter tippet. It is almost a shame to see nymphing become the only way that many guides approach the river. We still have a great dry fly fishery throughout the year, and NOT just during the salmonfly hatch. Simple observation on the river can reveal some great dry fly opportunities and a chance for the angler (and particularly for a young guide) to grow in his/her knowledge of insect behavior. Keep a dry fly rod handy if you can, because hatches only last so long, and you might very well miss one if you don’t take your eyes off your nymphing rig.
We hope that the operators of the dam (Portland General Electric and their partners, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs) understand how vital the cooler water is to the health of the river. That little bit of cooling helped so much this week. Not only do the insects thrive when water temperatures are cool, the trout do as well. Trout feeding is optimal when river temperatures are between 52°F and 64°F and feeding can shut off when water temperatures start to stress rainbow trout at 68°F.
Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss):
- Thrive in temperatures between 55°F to 68°F (12°C to 20°C).
- Considered a cold-water fish and very sensitive to temperature changes.
- Experience stress response when water temperatures exceed 64.4°F (18°C) .
- Appetite decreases and growth slows above 68°F (20°C).
- Stop eating and life activities decline above 75.2°F (24°C), potentially leading to death.
The trout and steelhead (same species) are the reason that we are fighting for the dam managers to keep the river as cool as possible by releasing water out of the bottom of the dam. If you want to know more about the fight for a cooler cleaner Deschutes River, check out the movie below:
Have a great weekend! John and I are celebrating 22 years of marriage this weekend and will not be in the shop on Saturday. Tight lines!!
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