Fires they are a ragin!

Looks like it has been a while since a good blog post here - things have been very busy for us on the Deschutes which leaves little time for blogging. However, big events recently have prompted a post. Firstly, we have had wildfires raging all around us on the Deschutes as well as on the John Day River. River closures and highway closures have been changing from day to day - yesterday (August 30) the river was closed from Warm Springs to Harpham Flats (Maupin) which means that Trout Creek, South Junction and other points were all closed due to fire. The Highway between Maupin and Bend is open now but can close at any moment due to major fire activity up on the top of the hill where the microwave towers are (Critereon). The fire was caused by a huge lightning storm we had one week ago. For the second year in a row, the small riverside community of Dant was nearly torched but the fire was held at bay and it soon jumped the river. The most dramatic thing that happened was that the old railroad tunnel on the road through the Deschutes Club (near Dant) caught fire - the timbers inside that made up the support for the tunnel were engulfed in flames and the tunnel exploded then collapsed. News from the road is that nobody was stranded above the tunnel, but the Deschutes Club and North Junction guys are going to have to make plan B for getting to their houses. Above you can see some photos of the tunnel burning - courtesy of Rod Woodside who owns Richmond's Service station here in Maupin.

The steelhead fishing has been good this year - fish counts are right at the ten year average, so there are enough steelhead cruising up the Deschutes to keep anglers on their toes. Our camp trips down to the mouth have been doing really well, and our day trips around Maupin have been great one day and tough the next. The steelhead are concentrated from Shearer's Falls downstream but there are a few making it over the falls and up into the downtown corridor of Maupin. The White River has become quite milky in recent days, butt he volume of the White is low, so it is NOT negatively impacting the Deschutes below it's confluence.

As always, with steelhead fishing reports.....it is better to be on the river making the news rather than waiting around to hear a good report. The good report comes out only after the fact and that means that you missed the epic steelhead day....just sayin'

Breaking Out of the Winter Doldrums

This blog has been dormant for over 3 months and the reason is quite simple: I have not gone fishing in the last 3 months because my tyrant boss is punishing me for a much overdue month long vacation to Thailand. What does punishment for vacation entail? Office work!!!! I have been chained to a computer like most working stiffs slowly soaking in the blinding radiation emitted from the computer screen while working on a good case of carpal tunnel from the countless hours of typing. Who wants to read a fishing blog about a dude who doesn't fish and whose only updates consist of the day to day drudgery that most people who frequent blogs are trying escape. Nobody I know which is why it is better to let it sit quietly somewhere out in cyber world collecting radioactive dust.

Fortunately I was given two days off, if you want to call a work trip two days off, to go float the Deschutes from Trout Creek to Maupin with everyone on staff including the boss man. Of course a two day float on this stretch of river during this time of year means you row your ass off to fish a few hours on the first day and then row your ass off the second day to fish about as little. That being said, it was awesome to be back out on the water, soaking in some vitamin D and chasing trout around during a spectacular BWO hatch with not a soul around.

The fishing was fantastic considering the fish are as rusty as I am, rising freely to just about any dry that kind of resembled a blue wing. We had a fantastic camp with venison burgers, a bottle of bushmills and a case of PBR to numb the brain to the point where you don't notice or care about the sideways freezing rain pelting you in the face from every direction. Now that trout season is coming in to full glory fishing is again going to be a priority and with the help of some new staff members I should theoretically be able to keep this blog more up to date with great fish photos, tips and techniques and all other things related to the sport we love.

A Great Season

An update has been long overdue since having skipped two months but I finally have time to play a little catch up. The season on the Deschutes was fantastic and I want to thank everybody that joined us this year. The fishing was certainly not like last year but the quality of fish was far superior. I know I saw more big fish and backing this year then all other years combined and I hope next year can provide more of these magnificient specimens. We are now back to office work with little time to venture out. Although I will be making my annual pilgrimage down to Northern California over the holidays in the hopes of one winter steelhead on my favorite winter fishery. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

We had an amazing season on the South Fork of the Columbia with lots of nice fish and fantastic camp stories that, I am sure, will be shared for years to come. I wish I had the time to recount some of the wild nights we had over some fine scotch, boxes of wine and beer. Good times were had by all even those who went a little too far (We know it was you Johnny). Here are some photos from our November fishing. Happy Holidays to everyone and we will see you on the river.

Precision Steelhead Fishing

It is all to easy to get stuck fishing in auto mode where you cast, mend, swing, step with little regard to how your fly is actually fishing particluarly when the fishing gets tough. But auto-mode is the worst predicament to find yourself in when you are hunting for one fish a day. Tough fishing demands a higher level of concentration to ensure the fly is fished with precision and consistency from one cast to the next. Close attention to detail is what seperates the angler who finds a fish or two from the one that doesn't. So what does it mean to fish with precision and consistencty?

1.) Make sure you are making consistent casts where the leader turns over in a straight line everytime. If your leader lands in a pile don't think you can just mend and make everything come straight. When you are able to watch an anglers fly and swing from the bank you will quickly notice that a bad cast results in a lowsy swing where the fly only covers a fraction of the water it was intended to. When you make a bad cast, simply strip in, roll cast back downstream and make the cast again.

2.) When using a floating line make sure the cast is quartered downstream at 35 to 45 degree angle which will allow the fly to start fishing sooner and will minimize mending. Typically the fly doesn't start cutting through the water at the right speed until 35 degrees. If you have a hard time casting at steeper angles and typically cast more across it is important to not mend the line right away. Let the line drift until the fly is about at a 45 degree angle from you and then mend.

3.) Mending the line is a crucial part of setting the swing up and it needs to be done with control to maintain tension on the line. Ideally you want to make no more then one mend after the cast lifting only the part of the line that needs to be mended and moving it upstream. After you make the cast DON'T just automatically throw a huge mend. Let the line settle on the water take a good look at how the line is layed out and mend only the portion of line that needs to be mended. Sometimes you don't have to mend at all and other times you will have to mend all the way to the fly. To mend and maintain tension, lift the portion of line that needs mending and slowly move the rod tip upstream then slowly lower the rod to back down to the water. It is important to think of your leader as part of the fly line so if the fly and leader make a u-turn upstream during the cast be sure to mend all the way to the fly. If you mend only to the line-leader junction the fly will be racing across the current to catch up with the line at least through the first half of your swing.

4.)The rod tips position in relation to the fly dictactes the speed and consistency the fly will swing with, so it is important to pay attention to your rod tip during the swing. After you make your mend leave the rod tip pointing across the river perpendicular to the line until the line and fly are fairly straight then slowly begin bringing the rod tip across the current. For the most part you want the rod to stay with the fly rather then leading or lagging behind the fly. Of course different river currents will dictate where you want the tip throughout the swing. If it looks like a current is going to cause the fly the stop its swing, try to anticipate the current and start leading the fly before it reaches that particular current. If a current looks like it is going to cause the fly to accelerate, again try to anticipate the current and lag behind the fly before it enters that particular current. Once the fly has passed through one of these currents return to staying with the fly through the rest of the swing.

5.) The last critical point is to let the fly swing all the way in until it is straight downstream of you. It is so easy to overlook this part of the swing and yet it can make a huge difference between having a fishless day or a multiple fish day. Most people are fishing 15 to 20 ft. leaders on there floating line set ups and it is important to think of that leader as an exstension of the fly line. In order to let the fly swing all the way in you have to give the leader time to come around. So when you see the end of your fly line come straight down stream of you wait an additional 5 to 10 seconds to allow the leader and fly catch up. I can't tell you how many fish I see missed because the angler thinks he or she as finished his or her swing and begins making another cast while a steelhead is following the fly.

If you put all of these points together and stay focused on fishing while avoiding auto-mode you will ultimately be hooking more fish on a more regular basis. It is hard to maintain this level of concentration all day so when find yourself drifting into auto-mode just take a break and pick it up after a good snooze (maybe the best part of summer steelhead fishing).

Two Salts on the Deschutes

The fishing on the Deschutes has been run of the mill steelheading with a few magic days thrown in the mix. That being said the quality of fish this year has been superb. We have been seeing a lot of fish in the 10-12 lb. range and several larger. These fish are mean, taking most anglers into their backing and cartwheeling from one end of the river to other without hesitation. Some battles have gone up to 15 minutes with multiple runs into the backing after having brought the fish all the way to your feet. Hopefully this trend continues for the remainder of the season. Here are a few photos to fuel the fire. I wish there were more but these babies are hard to land.

Deschutes Steelhead

Well the steelhead fishing has picked up a little but still continues to be tougher then usual for this time of year. We have been finding about 1 fish a day with a few of our guide trips running into a couple a day. The quality of fish has been superb with a lot of two salt fish moving into the system. The photo shows the fish Harley got this morning which was screaming hot. Travis' girlfriend picked up a 12 pounder today and a customer of ours got one around that size a couple nights ago stating "it was the best fish he has ever caught out here." Hopefully the water temperature begins to change soon so more fish will move up into the system. I know that ODFW has received a lot of complaints about the water temperatures and they are currently working with PGE and Oregon DEQ to try to resolve the problem. This does not mean a dramatic change but anything would help at this point.

Lower Deschutes Camp Trip

We have been doing some personal camp trips down to mouth the last couple weeks and the fishing has been super tough. B.J., Rich and I headed down this last weekend in the hopes of bumping into a few fresh fish and like my June trip we fished are asses off combing every good piece of water we got without so much as a sniff for the first two days. We tried floating lines, sink-tips, big flies, small flies and everything in between and we couldn't even buy a light grab. It didn't help that the wind during most of the trip was sustained 25 mph with gusts to 40 mph making good casts near impossible. With the dam counts the way they have been you would think we would at least see fish moving through the river but we saw no signs of life. Rich managed to pick one fish up on the last day right before the wind shut us down thus saving the trip. The fish was a beautiful thick shouldered wild hen that went staight into the backing and then proceeded to cartwheel from one end of the river to other. A spectacular fish for Rich's first Deschutes experience and he was impressed. It was as hot if not hotter than many of the fish Rich guides his clients into on the North Umpqua. You can tell by his shit eating grin in the photo below. The row out was hellacious with the wind never letting up. My shoulders are aching.

Amy and Harley launched on Sunday and experienced about the same thing with each them hooking one fish on the last day of the trip without a sign of life anywhere else. The wind was also a challenge for them.

My guess to why the fishing has been so slow is that the water temps in the Deschutes river are really warm. We were getting morning temps between 63 and 67 with evening temps between 67 and 70. The water certainly got warmer towards the mouth. The Columbia is still running at about 64 degrees, thus there is no incentive for fish to move into the Deschutes when they can stay nice and cool in the Columbia. All we can hope for is the Columbia warms up and the Deschutes cools down so the fish start seeking refuge in the Deschutes. Here are a few pics from my camp trip.