The Rain is Here

November has rolled in, and with it the rain has come too. We had some fairly heavy showers this morning (Friday) and now it is just sprinkling. The dry side doesn't get all that much rain, on average the Maupin area only gets 13 inches of rain per calendar year. That's a third of what you get in Portland, so don't assume that rain in Portland means that it is raining in the desert - it probably isn't. 

This small amount of rain should not have any impact on the color of the water or on water levels. The river is in good shape and fishing well for all 100 miles of the lower river. 

The White River probably won't be a big factor from this point forward through the month of November, It may bring water and bigger flows in the lower river, but the White shouldn't have any blow outs this late in the year. It is snowing up on the mountain now, so that river isn't anything to worry about. 

I had a fun time on the river last week when I took Ruby and Gwynn fishing as a final hurrah to our summer. The girls are moving to Bellingham for the winter to have some new adventures with a bunch of their friends from the summer in Maupin. Their friend and fellow angler, Taylor, will be here this winter learning the ropes in the fly shop. She has been here now for two weeks and she is picking up new skills after having her best summer yet of fly fishing the Deschutes.

While out on the water last week with the gals, we saw an amazing display by three big horn sheep rams chasing one hard-to-get big horn ewe. We were right across the river from all of the excitement - head butting, horns crashing, and a bit of "big horn porn". The way those critters can run full speed up and down the sheer rock faces on the Deschutes will never cease to amaze me. 

Winter time for us makes us itchy for saltwater fishing in a warm destination. John is on a plane to Mexico as I am typing up this fishing report - he will be down there tarpon fishing for a few days this week, soaking up some sun and hanging out with his buddies. I hope fishing in the mangroves for tarpon is as fun as it was the last couple of times that he went. I am here and holding down the fort this week. 

Most of the guide services are winding down their season - some are moving on to guide on other rivers, and some are taking a break before the winter steelhead season starts up on the Oregon and Washington coastal rivers. This means that the river is a bit less crowded during November, and the steelhead fishing remains good. 

I had a fun trip earlier this week with some friends of the Deschutes River Alliance - and I actually got to be the guided client on this trip from Trout Creek to Maupin. Water temperatures were in the low 50s, so I stuck with my floating line and a size 5 Lum Plum (unweighted hairwing pattern) on a floating leader. With this combo, I hooked and lost a couple of steelhead over the two days that I fished, they were still eager to eat off the surface. 

The second of the two steelhead was my favorite grab of the trip. It was the first run of the morning, and I stepped into the water and flipped my leader out to "start short" in the run. It is important to start short and to fish all of the short casts very carefully because a steelhead can come to the fly at any time and at any place in the run. The steelhead came up on the second swing - I only had about a foot of fly line out of the tip of the rod when the water 20 feet off the tip of my rod swirled. The steelhead left a hole in the water the size of my kitchen sink and made off across river with my fly. After I kept it on through one monster jump, and I thought I had it pretty well-hooked, but the barbless fly slipped out when the steelhead went for a roll. No big deal, I got to see it when it jumped. 

I think the other anglers on our trip were fishing sink tips and bigger flies. They hooked fish too, but the water temps allowed me to be equally as successful as the sink tip anglers while using the floating line and small fly. I will stick with my favortie way of fishing until water temps drop into the mid-40s, at which point I will put on a sink tip. 

The Deschutes should continue to fish well through the month of November for steelhead. The trout fishing remains pretty darn strong through the winter months too. As steelhead fishing tapers off by the end of the year, trout anglers will once again have the river to themselves. The Maupin area remains open all year long but the river closes to fishing on December 31 from Two Springs Ranch (above the locked gate) South to the Pelton dam. This means the Warm Springs, Mecca, Trout Creek, and South Junction areas are all closed to fishing after the end of the year until some time in April.

Steelhead are not as linear as we humans. They do not travel directly from Point A (the ocean) to Point B (their spawning grounds). There is a lot of exploring, straying, and general wandering around during their months in the freshwater. When I get asked the questions, "Are the steelhead above Mack's Canyon yet?" or "Are any steelhead still in the river below Sherar's Falls?" or "Are any steelhead still in the Maupin area?" I am astounded that the anglers in pursuit of a species as special as our steelhead have failed to do even the most basic study of the life history of their quarry. Hatchery steelhead are more linear than their wild relatives. The wild steelhead tend to take their time moving up the river, they move down, they might nose into a few other rivers during their journey home, and they may even do a little pioneering by spawning elsewhere.

On the Deschutes, many of the spawning tributaries are below Sherar's Falls, which means that many of the steelhead don't bother to go all that far upstream and many may not even jump up Sherar's Falls or over the ladder at the falls. A good portion of Deschutes steelhead also spawn in the main stem of the river, bypassing the tributaries all together. So, just know that the steelhead tend to spread well out once they enter the Deschutes and they are available to be caught in any section of the river for the next two months. Enjoy the magic of the morning fog rising off the water - this will continue to happen as long as air temperatures are colder than the water. 

While steelhead fishing, I observed the following hatches - blue winged olives, size 99 midges, October Caddis, regular size 14 caddis with grey bodies, and a few flightless stones. I saw quite a few trout feeding in the mornings and evenings on the surface, but I was swinging flies for steelhead so I can't really tell you what patterns to use. Have a variety of small dries in your fly box and be ready to do some nymph fishing if you cannot get them to come up for dries. Euro (tungsten-head) nymphs with pink beads continue to be a great option, as do the firestarter jig, the blue magic fly, and any type of pheasant tail. Get those flies down deep and target the slower water this time of year - you will find trout. 

Have a great weekend!