Spring is Springing and it is starting to look like IRELAND out here!

There are very few times of the year that the Deschutes hillsides are as emerald green as the rolling hills of Ireland, but the rain we are getting and the sunny 70 degree days forecast next week mean that the greenest time of year is coming. Celebrate St. Patrick’s  Day a few days early out here in the Irish countryside of Maupin.

THIS JUST IN: Yesterday into last night the White River blew out big time. The White is chocolate milk and flowing at 2000 CFS through Tygh Valley. The Deschutes above the White River is absolutely fine, so stay above the White when you come to Maupin. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I spent time on the river and some quality time with Lupine, our Wire Haired Pointing Griffon and shop dog extraordinaire. Lupine had a medical emergency over the past weekend because I left town to go to Arizona to give a fly fishing presentation, and she was not happy about my departure. John called me just after the plane landed to tell me that she was staring into space, acting weird, panting, and it seemed as though she was having a stroke. It got worse from there and she was unable to walk or stand in her weakened state. John would have had her put down on Sunday if there had been a vet that was open, but fortunately there was not. I begged him just to keep her alive so I could say goodbye, changed my flight, gave the presentation and flew home on the last flight out of Phoenix that night. By 3:00 AM Tuesday I was back home and stroking her head for what I thought might be the last time. Bird dogs are tough, and this one is about as stubborn as they get - so with a little TLC she seems to have made a nearly full recovery. Lupine is in her 16th year as a shop dog, and we fully realize what a gift it is to get a big dog to live to 16 years old - so we are enjoying every day. Lupine would love to see any of you in between her naps in the shop and she loves fancy treats. We don’t know how much more time we will have with our little muppet, we take it day by day, but we are spoiling her as much or more than we ever have. She has been a world class dog and an important part of the Deschutes Angler family.

Now let’s talk about what we are seeing on the river and what you can expect for the weekend. 

As many of you know, I am an avid birder, so wherever I go I am always birding - and I am happy to report that some of the migratory birds have begun to return to the river. I saw my first Osprey this week as well as a ton of violet green swallows swooping over the river during the blue winged olive hatch. Tuesday was picture-perfect and in the mid-sixties, but a big from blew in on Wednesday and it got really blustery. The winds continued through Thursday and are still roaring as I write this report, which can make it tough to cast a fly. You have to wait for those brief lulls between the stormy pieces in order to get your fly where you want it to go. Cloudy stormy weather brings out the mayflies, however, and the mild winter that we are having may actually trigger the March Brown (Rhithrogena morrisoni) hatch in March - the bug, ironically, normally hatches out in April. This mayfly is one of the biggest that we get on the Deschutes (just a bit smaller than the Green Drake) and has historically been one of the big kick-off-the-summer bug hatches for the avid dry fly anglers. I will let you know, with pictures, when we see the first March Browns.

Portland and the west side has been getting dumped on all week, which has caused most of the metro rivers and the coastal rivers to flood. A good option for wetting a line would be your good-ol steady-eddie, the Deschutes. Our flows are stable and the water has been very clear and very blue for this time of year - absolutely lovely. The river is open only in the area around Maupin and downstream to the mouth. Any oart of the river that shares a boundary with the Warm Springs Indian Reservation (well above the locked gate) is closed to fishing until the third weekend in April. That means that Warm Springs, Trout Creek, and South Junction access points are closed to fishing right now. The reason for the closure is that anglers seem to be unable to self-regulate and stay off the spawning redds. Trout and steelhead are currently digging in the fine gravel to bury their eggs and they are vulnerable at this stage, as are the eggs that they are laying. Shortsighted and uneducated anglers who target these spawning fish because they are easy pickin’ and because they are sitting in shallow water and easliy spotted - these anglers are ruining the future of the wild trout and steelhead by walking on and crushing the delicate eggs in the gravel, as well as by disrupting and scattering the fish that are in need of sanctuary so that they can complete the one task that they live for. The steelhead have made an epic journey to get to the spawning redds and, because wild steelhead have a threatened status on the endangered species list, it is actually illegal to harass them while they are spawning. If you see something, say something, anglers need to understand the importance of protecting spawning fish. 

A little rain, but mostly clouds are in the forecast for Saturday and Sunday, and the wind is supposed to die off after today - which will be great for the mayfly hatches. Now that the violet green swallows are back, you can use these birds as an alert to the hatch in action. They typically line up on the wires along the railroad tracks in the morning, patiently waiting for the bugs to start emerging from the riffles and rapids on the Deschutes. Once the mayflies rise into the skies, they will be swooping and diving all over the river catching small mayflies that your eye may not be able to see. If we get a march brown hatch, you will certainly be able to see them and the birds will be going nuts. 

Another bird buddy on the Deschutes who has returned for spring is the red-winged blackbird. He is belting out his raspy song on the river’s edge and hopping aroubng the grass and sage snatching up the rather large caddis that appear this time of year. Try a size 14 brown elk hair or X-caddis with a tiny zebra midge dropper or small pheasant tail dropper in a brass rather than tungsten bead. The tungsten bead might be too heavy and would drown your size 14 dry caddis. 

Speaking of flies - wait until you see the fly displays and all the new killer patterns that we have brought in. Taylor has been working hard on getting new labels on all the fly bins and she is the one to ask about the location of your favorite patterns. We did a full count inventory this winter and I can confidently tell you that our fly selection is second to none in both variety and depth. We never have fewer than a quarter of a million flies in the shop, some patterns have over 500 flies in stock in just one size/one color.  We beefed up the zebra midge selection significantly, because we always heard that request and only had a few sizes and colors on hand. Now we have every color and every size of tungsten Zebra midge from Montana Fly Company. We only buy flies from reputable companies who use high-quality Japanese tempered steel hooks. You do not want to take a shortcut buying 50 cent flies only to have the hook bend out or break on the best trout of your lifetime. Cheap hooks from China bend and break and cheap flies are only available on cheap hooks. If the 50 cent fly lasts through a day of casting it without unraveling (which they often do because they are not finished with head cement), that fly will surely straighten out and long-distance-release the first time you encounter a 16” Deschutes Redside. 

The river is quite clear, which indicates that they are releasing more bottom water than top water, or, maybe the reservoir is at its cleanest during the colder weather. By summer the green algae will blanket the reservoir and warnings will be out about swimming in or allowing your dog to drink the water in Lake Billy Chinook. Blue-green algae can kill dogs and make humans quite ill, and that is what is pouring into the lower Deschutes instead of the cold clean water that PGE could choose to release from the bottom of the reservoir. PGE’s power production is not impacted by releasing water from the bottom - but PGE’s fairy tale that they have been telling about restoring anadromous fish runs above the dam complex does entail creating artificial flows through the reservoir to help migratory fish navigate. To create these currents, they suck the surface water into their Selective Water Withdrawal tower and dump the toxic algae-laden water directly into the lower Deschutes. Despite their creation of these currents - the migratory fish have been largely unsuccessful in their journey through the reservoir, and no wonder - given the toxicity of the reservoir water with high PH, high water temperatures, and low dissolved oxygen. In recent years, the only shadow of success that PGE has had with the reintroduction of hatchery salmon and steelhead above the reservoir was when they trucked the fish (all of these fish have to be transported in trucks) completely around the entire toxic reservoir to drop them into the tributaries (Deschutes, Metolious, and Crooked Rivers). Their tiny bit of success was a flat out admission that the poisonous water in the reservoir is too lethal for salmonids to navigate. So why continue on with the charade of the SWW tower? Why continue harming the lower Deschutes with surface water that is too polluted to even meet the lowest water quality standards set by the State of Oregon and the Clean Water Act? If they admit that the SWW tower isn’t working (newsflash: it is not working) then PGE may lose the license granted to them by FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Committee) because that license was granted based on their plan to restore anadromous fish above the dam complex. PGE is not a friend to the Deschutes River. They have continued to polluted the lower Deschutes for the past 14 years despite the science (their own science as well as the data gathered by monitoring stations installed by Deschutes River Alliance) in front of them that shows the harm of their water management. For more information about the situation on the Deschutes, go to the Deschutes River Alliance website and watch the movie called The Last 100 Miles.