Friday the 13th? Make this YOUR LUCKY DAY!

Do you believe in superstitious things like Friday the 13th? Most fly anglers that I know hold some superstitious beliefs like... no bananas in the boat, wearing a lucky hat, carrying a lucky rock, seeing a certain animal/bird is a signal of good fishing ahead, etc. etc.  Personally, I don't really care about bananas, I have lots of lucky hats, I carry a lucky piece of rainbow obsidian that looks like a jumping steelhead, I think seeing a porcupine in the morning on the way to the river is a 100% guarantee that you will hook a steelhead, and I feel luckier on the water when the canyon wrens are singing or when I see a golden eagle soaring overhead. I don't feel great about fishing when the cold winds are blowing downriver and the fronts are blowing in, but I keep fishing on those days because the trout and steelhead will turn on whenever there is a lull in the storm. 

Our hot weather has turned to fall weather in the last couple of days and we are thrilled for the weather change. The water should be cooling down a bit and that makes all the fish in the river a lot happier. 

The White River is already very white - muddy and full of glacial silt. However, the flows of the White River are so low that it is not having a negative impact on the Deschutes River below the confluence. I thought that those flows would have bumped up due to rain on the mountain on Wednesday of 1/4" in Government Camp. Fortunately, that was not the case. The soil needed the moisture after a long dry summer, so the White River didn't bump much at all. 

The river is certainly getting busy again - which is 100% due to the better steelhead return this year AND all the anglers talking about it on social media. It is the best we have seen in about eight or nine years, but you still have to work for the fish. You could get lucky and hit a pod of fish, but more likely you will fish for 6-8 hours between steelhead hooked. That is steelhead fishing - even in the good years. The more hyped the return gets, the harder it will get for anyone to hook a steelhead because the river gets so busy that it becomes difficult to find a place to fish. Just remember, when you are posting on social media, you are posting to EVERYONE and that includes anglers who are intent on filling a cooler. 

If you are looking for a steelhead guide, you should have started that process months and months ago. The only guides who still have open dates are first or second year steelhead guides who don't have a lot of steelhead experience - in large part because the last couple years have been so difficult, with so few fish, that they never really had a chance to get any experience. So, before you pay a rookie steelhead guide $700 for a day of guided fishing (same rate charged by guides with 25-40 years of experience), be sure that you interview that guide carefully. They may be good trout guides, but it was impossible to get quality steelhead guiding experience over the past 5-6 years when there were very few steelhead in the river and (just two years ago) when the river was actually closed to steelhead fishing. Yes, I know, the young guides have to learn somehow, but they should take the time to float and learn on their own dime and not yours

On our website, we have listed the best guides on the Deschutes River. This is a courtesy listing that we do for our fellow guides. Unfortunately, most are already booked for steelhead dates because they have a clientele that return each year to fish with them again and again no matter how good or bad the steelhead returns are forecast to be. 

The trout fishing on dry flies is excellent in September. We have solid mayfly hatches like Pale Evening Duns and Blue Winged Olives, great caddis hatches, and aquatic moths. The dry dropper fishing is often better than deep nymphing - now that the hatches are perking back up and the fish are seeing emergers in the mid-water column. With rain and cloudy weather the mayfly hatches will be very good. The hatches are usually stronger in the very middle of the day - from noon on. 

Since most of you visiting the Deschutes in the fall are hoping to get a steelhead, let's talk a little bit about steelhead and how hooking, playing, and landing one will be different from your trout encounters. A lot of steelhead will be far larger than any trout you have encountered, and you should be fishing for these fish with a rod that is appropriate to play these fish and land them without stressing them out. For single-handed rods, a nine foot 7, 8, or 9 weight is appropriate. A nine foot 5 weight is a trout rod and not appropriate for landing large wild steelhead without causing a lot of damage from overplaying the fish. For Spey rods, the lightest Spey I would use on a year like this year (with steelhead average sizes being a bit larger than in some past years), is a 6 weight 12'6" Spey. A seven or eight weight will give you a better chance of landing the steelhead more quickly and will also help you when casting on windy days.

When fighting a steelhead you want to get that rod sideways, parallel to the river, to get the most pressure and pull on the fish. Standing on one place with a Spey rod pointed straight to the sky with a bend in the tip section is not an efficient or effective way to fight steelhead. I have often rowed my boat past a Spey angler with a fish on and said to my clients (quietly), "See how the rod is straight up? This puts very little pressure on the fish because the lifting power of a Spey rod is far less than the pulling power, This angler is going to lose this steelhead in 3.....2.....1.....tink! Fish off." Try this experiment with a buddy if you want to see what I mean, wrap the leader from your spey rod around your buddy's hand and lift your Spey rod straight up. The hand barely moves. Your buddy feels nothing. NOW, same hand, same wrapped leader, bend your Spey rod with the rod parallel to the ground/water and your buddy's hand will MOVE. This demonstrates the power of the rod when used correctly.

When you are landing a steelhead the worst thing you can do to the fish is to drag it into the gravel/rocks/mud/grass to thrash around and beat itself up. Steelhead panic when dragged into the shallows and it becomes way harder to land them. Here's a tip, stay in waist deep water when landing your fish. The steelhead will be less panicked in deeper water and they won't bash their head against rocks. Holding the rod with the rod tip pointed upstream, guide the steelhead line and leader towards your hand and grab the line when you can. The reason every guide on the river uses 10 lb Maxima tippet is that it is nearly unbreakable. Steelhead are not leader shy - so don't wirry about trying to be stealth. Grab the line and leader with your non-dominant hand and tail the steelhead with your dominant hand. When you tail a steelhead you want to use just your thumb and index finger when you shake hands with the fish. If you use your whole hand, the tail will collapse and your hand will slide right off.  The wrist of the tail has a tendon on top and a tendon on the bottom and you will feel those tendons when you get your thumb and index finger on the wrist.

Better yet, if you have a buddy fishing with you, have your buddy come down to help you land the fish. That way, you can keep the fish in the water for a quick photo. Getting a photo of your fish is only a bonus. If you compromise the well-bieng of a wild steelhead for your hero shot, that will not go unnoticed by other anglers on the river nor will it go unnoticed on social media. If you leave a wild steelhead gasping on the bank while you set up your damn camera, I hope someone comes along and kicks your camera into the river. 

The lower access road down to Mack's Canyon is a really rough drive. Please take it slowly because we don't want to see a fatality down there. If you are going over 20 mph on some of the washboarded sections you have ZERO control of your steering and you are in danger of drifting into an oncoming vehicle or into the river. I have seen 4 cars go off the road over the years. The first one I found was submerged in the river with a dead body inside. That was in 1999 or 2000. We had to call the police and the coroner to retrieve the truck and body. 

I am still getting ten calls a day about the fire. The fire has been out for over a week. No worries about fire or road closure, everything is open. 

One of the greatest things that has happened this week is that I have talked to a half-dozen anglers who finally put on a skater and BOOM! hooked steelhead on the surface. We have always said, "You want to catch steelhead on a skater? Put one on and don't cut it off." A Scandi line, floating leader, a skater, and a little low light is all you need to make that skater steelhead dream come true. They are so surface oriented right now that Brian Silvey showed me a photo of an eight-pound steelhead that his trout angler landed while fishing a Chubby Chernobyl (stonefly dry). 

If fishing a skater requires just too much confidence, then go about 1-2" deep and swing a wet fly - the old traditional hair wing flies are absolute MONEY on the Deschutes. Have confidence, let the steelhead set the hook by coming to your fly to grab it hard, and hang on for the time of your life!!

Size 5 Green Butt Lum Plum tied by Ruby

We have all the lines, leaders, flies and such that you will need to fish the Deschutes for either trout or steelhead. We are here on the edge of the river to serve visiting anglers, so come on in and we can chat about your day. If you need a mid-trip pep talk, we are here for that as well. 

I leave you today with a great fish story. Ruby, who has worked here all spring and summer, is really getting into the steelhead game. One of her earned rewards for working at Deschutes Angler was her choice of any Spey rod and she chose a CF Burkheimer. She has been casting it like a champ and hitting that water on her days off and before work. Last weekend, Ruby went fishing with her dad, Ron, and was a little late for work because of a pesky steelhead. Ron hooked it, and since he has been steelhead fishing for a long time, he wanted Ruby to experience the fight. That's love! So, the opening photo of this report showcases RUBY!!! Way to go Ruby and Ron!!