Gorge Fly Shop Blog: Columbia Gorge Fishing Report (3.14.16)

Fish More!

Fishing Report

Not much has changed this week from last as far as the fishing goes. The Hood River is still fishing fairly for winter steelhead. The river is quite crowded, especially on the weekends, but there are fish being caught. The Sandy and Clackamas have been kicking out fish consistently and the reports are suggesting that there are a lot of big fish around the local rivers. Winter Steelhead are now fully in any river where they typically exist. These shots of rain are really helping us keep the rivers up, which helps to continue bringing new fish in. If rivers get too high, then they are too hard to fish, too low and the fish get really lock-jawed and hard to find.

Rainbow Trout fishing was not so hot on the Deschutes last week. Flows out of Pelton Dam increased and caused some dirty water and moved fish around. Trout take a few days to get comfortable after a change in water level like that. If flows stay steady, fishing will improve, but if flows continue to fluctuate, then it is going to be spotty for a little while.

Ryan and I found ourselves in Bend on Saturday casting all of the Sage and Redington Spey and Switch rods that we could get our hands on. It was a great time. More on that later, but we did fish a little trout stream in the snowy afternoon. Fishing was tough, but the scenery couldn’t be beat.

Smallmouth Bass are still waiting for a nice warm spell to get active. Any day now…

Flows: We look at two sites. The USGS sites give us real-time flows, while the NOAA site shows us predictions based on weather patterns. Both are invaluable tools.

Hood River:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/or/nwis/uv?site_no=14120000

http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/river/station/flowplot/flowplot.cgi?id=HODO3

Sandy: The NOAA prediction site is way upriver from where most of us fish. It tells us when the river will rise and drop, but does not reflect the flows that we see down below the Bull Run River. For real-time conditions, we use the USGS site.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?site_no=14142500

http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/river/station/flowplot/flowplot.cgi?lid=SRMO3

Clackamas:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?site_no=14210000

http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/river/station/flowplot/flowplot.cgi?lid=ESTO3

Wilson:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/or/nwis/uv?site_no=14301500

http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/river/station/flowplot/flowplot.cgi?TLMO3

Deschutes near Madras:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/or/nwis/uv?site_no=14092500

Deschutes at the mouth:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/or/nwis/uv?site_no=14103000

http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/station/flowplot/hydroPlot.php?id=MODO3&pe=HG&v=1457894024

Columbia River water temperatures going through Bonneville Dam:

http://www.fpc.org/tempgraphsnet/NETtempgraph.aspx

As always, we are happy to talk fishing any time. Give us a call if you have any specific questions on local rivers, gear, and tactics, or if you just want some encouragement to get out of the office. 541.386.6977