{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Deschutes River Fishing Report

I floated the Deschutes from Warm Springs to Maupin over July 4-6:

Gear: Redington CT 8'6" 5wt rigged w/ Pfleuger 1595 and Airflo DT5F, and my Soyokaze 27SR rigged with a level line.

I've been on this river at the same time of year and caught 40-50 trout, smolt salmon, and whitefish over three days. I've also been totally skunked. This trip featured a relatively light catch, but three of the largest fish I've landed over the 7 years I've floated the river.

It had just been extremely hot, with prolific hatches. The day we got on the river, it was almost 30 degrees cooler than it had been the day before, but the sky was clear. As if it were Thanksgiving night, the trout seemed to be hanging about on the bottom napping and watching football, not interested in eating a morsel if it was placed in front of them.

Mostly I found success by sight-casting at swirls and sippers and being patient, though I coaxed a few strikes by playing the fish where they should be -- looking in seams and pockets and points where either interacted with shade.

The weather remained the same but the fishing started to get better the second day, especially at dusk as the shadows began to crawl across the canyon and give the fish a sense of safety.

I spent about half the time nymphing but only caught fish on dries which is strange -- typically I'll mark at least half my catch up to nymphs.

Two flies were the most productive by far:

1. Olive-body CDC & Elk Caddis (short-haired), sizes 18-20 (daytime)

2. Purple Haze Parachute, size 14-16 (dusk/evening)

I didn't get a chance to find out how the 9-foot Soyokaze would stand up to a Deschutes Redside, but with my CT I landed a 18-incher in about 45 seconds on 6X without giving up any line, so I think if one were casting in soft water they might be OK -- if one connected in a fast-moving riffle they'd have a problem. I've been taken well into my backing by big, strong fish plenty of times on this river. 

In any case, the short, light tenkara-style rod isn't the best tool to cover all situations on the wide, deep, fast-moving Deschutes, but there are plenty of reaches where it could be perfectly satisfactory and it's only a few ounces of easily-stowable gear.

Also: +1 for furled leader. Using a 7' furled leader (yellow 6/0 uni thread) with 3-5 feet of 6X on the end, I caught about the same quantity and quality of fish as my leading float-mates who were all on tapered mono. I also didn't suffer any wind knots and had consistently excellent turnover in a notoriously windy canyon.

Tight lines,

Luke

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Luke Peterson

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http://www.tpfr.org
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