The Deschutes is HIGHER than Willie Nelson!

I originally posted this fishing report on Thursday, March 27 and updated it with photos and more info on Friday the 28th. 

With the rain this week and the super warm temperatures, our river looks like it has been at a Grateful Dead show - it is spinning and dancing and pretty high. I drove over the White River at about 1:30 PM today and it is flowing brown and about 5 times its normal size. The latest gauge reading was 2450 CFS (normal flow for this time of year is 500 cfs). So, floating or fishing below the confluence with the White River is not going to be a good choice for at least a week or ten days. The color and the volume both have to improve to make the fishing decent down on the gravel access road to Mack's Canyon. The rest of the river is also high but with slightly better clarity. When we had nearly 80 degree days earlier this week, the low elevation snow colored up a lot of the tributaries coming off Mt. Hood. This put a bit of color into the Deschutes. 

The river is pushing into the banks and trees are underwater.

Despite the high water and a little bit of color, the spring breakers who have been out here this week have been catching some nice rainbow trout. The trick is to fish really really tight to the bank, avoid wading into the water, and also look for backeddies and softer water when the fish can relax and not have to fight the current to hold their position. 

The Wapinitia boat launch will require less trailer backing.

We have been getting rain all day today (Thursday) and last night, so this could change things. I normally post this fishing report on Friday, with pictures, but I knew that people would be "shopping" for a place to fish and that a Thursday report from someone who lives right on the river is better than a report full of guesses from any number of the fly shops in Portland or Bend - they may not have seen the river this week. They do read my fishing report, so NOW they will be better informed.

In this photo you can see that, although the water is high, the clarity is okay.

Last night we had a massive downpour followed by sunshine. The rainbows were beautiful! This reminds us to have hope for what will follow the tough times. As this relates to our fishing on the Deschutes, late March and a lot of April can be quite challenging because it is one of the few times of the year that the Deschutes has "runoff." The number of tributaries that feed this river is very very small compared to most western rivers - in fact, the majority of the Deschutes flow comes from springs and underground lava tubes that bring water to the drainage. This is why the Deschutes is a very peculiar river with one of the steadiest flows year-round. We have to endure a few weeks of high water and it, thankfully, typically happens before the big headliner hatch - salmonflies/stoneflies in May.

The promise of better things to come! 

Ever notice how most rivers have piles of river rocks leading down to the water? This is called the flood plain. The Deschutes, on the other hand, has trees growing right to the water's edge and no flood plain at all. This makes it more difficult to navigate on foot because there are not flat rocky stretches along the banks, much trickier to wade due to the large blocky basalt rocks, and more difficult for the fly angler to fish due to limited back casting room. The challenges of the Deschutes however, lead to the rewards of spectacular wild trout and big brawling sea-run steelhead and salmon.

We are probably going to have fairly high water through the next couple of weeks as the operators of the Pelton Dam complex will be releasing large volumes of water as the snow melts off of the Central Oregon mountains. Let's hope that the river shapes up in time for the much anticipated annual salmonfly hatch! That kicks off at the end of April/early May. 

Currently we do have several insect hatches happening on the Deschutes - Blue Winged Olives, the March Brown Mayflies have just started popping, there are a few Skwala stones, and we have large hydropsyche caddis - size 12-14 brown wings speckled with white. The fish are still eating daily, despite high water, and they are close to the banks. Look before you leap and fish the water before you wade into it.

One more insect species that is THRIVING on the Deschutes right now is one of my least favorite - TICKS. If you fish the river, be sure to do a tick check afterwards. If you bring a dog to the river, expect to spend an hour or more picking dozens of ticks off your dog.  We have dog ticks, lone star ticks, and very tiny blacklegged ticks on the Deschutes and amongst this crew, they have the potential for infecting you with Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and other really bad long-term illnesses. Doing a tick check after fishing can catch these little crawlers before they sink into your flesh. Burn them with a lighter to kill them and enjoy the little POP they make as they explode. 

We are here to help you get the flies you need to be successful this weekend. Stop on into the shop and check out our great fly selection.