Howdy,
It's been a while I know and I apologize. It's been a crazy May and June is looking very busy also. I hope everyone had an excellent spring and is enjoying the early summer. June brings with it the greatly anticipated and much over hyped salmon fly hatch. The Deschutes has been very crowded as of late. A problem much of our own making. It is definitely possible to love something to death and we may well be doing it with the popularity of the salmon fly hatch. I was very fortunate to have had several trips on the McKenzie during the same period and I was very pleased with the results. The Mac actually had as much water flowing down it as the D on a few dates and on one in particular even more according to the gauges. With Flows just above 5000 cfs I thought the fishing would be a bit challenging but as it turns out now it was actually quite beneficial. The high water pushed fish to the edges and my clients and I enjoyed several days of classic from the boat dry fly fishing. Casting under trees and looking for the soft seems between flows it was challenging enough to demand good casts but also rewarding enough to be satisfying. I didn't take a lot of photos as I was usually too busy rowing and such, but there were some real denizens hiding out along the edges. More than once some 3x tippet got snapped like sewing thread. More importantly for me was that we were often the only boat on the water. Something to keep in mind next year if you want to avoid the crowds.
As the salmon fly fascination wanes the Deschutes will return to it's remarkable self. Hopefully with a lot less people. My July schedule has open dates ( check availability ) Caddis flies will become the go to patterns along with PMD's . Tight line nymphing techniques will also be productive as will swinging small streamers in the am and evening. Give the shop a call at ( 541) 549 3474 to schedule an outing. I'd love to have you in my boat.
Steelhead. -
Believe it or not it is not too early to think of summer run fish. There are some indications that this year may be a more robust return than last. Let's hope so. This is a time to hone your spey casting techniques and I would really love to help you do that. I'm available for lessons but why not just incorporate a lesson into a trip and we will do a little trout spey fishing. A great way to get into your rhythm and train for the summer run. It's never too early !
That's about it for now. Stay tuned for more frequent updates and goings on.
Tight lines.