Trout
Deschutes River:
The lower Deschutes continues to fish well early and late in the day due to the hot weather we are seeing in the canyon. Best times to throw dries are early in the morning and the last few hours of daylight. Caddis are the main topic of discussion for the surface game. There are strong caddis hatches most everyday but this doesn’t mean that fish are feeding on them on top at all times during the hatch. Fishing a caddis pupa deep or swinging small caddis soft hackles during a caddis hatch can be lights out if they aren’t totally keyed on top.
Contrary to my last fishing report, I brought the trout spey stick with me on my last outing, and the streamer bite was great. I got quite a few nice trout to eat the streamer on the swing which was awesome to see this time of year. Fishing back eddies in the evening is a great way to find some nicer trout sipping small caddis or mayflies like PMD’s right before dark.
Lake Fishing:
Lake fishing around Mt Hood in the summer can sometimes be a struggle to find some open water away from the crowds of people on inner tubes or kayaks but the fishing remains strong up there. The Hex hatch is winding down, though there are still a few bugs around and fish that will still eat a Hex dry or cripple. Fishing sub surface will be your most productive method on the lakes now. Trolling or slow stripping small balanced leeches or wooly buggers with a small bead head nymph trailing 20 inches behind is one of my most productive lake methods in terms of numbers.
Using a full intermediate lake line like the RIO Camolux fly line will help your flies sink down into the zone where the fish are. For stillwater nymphing, using a regular floating line works great, and running two nymphs separated by 20 inches of fluorocarbon tippet is a good way to go. Ice cream cone chironomids in red and black are highly effective patterns to use when fishing under a strike indicator.
Summer Steelhead
Deschutes River:
The lower sections of the Deschutes continue to reward the anglers who are persistent and putting in the time and effort to find a steelhead. While steelhead are by no means easy to catch on a fly, they are a fish that will show themselves and reward the angler who puts in the time and hard work needed to hook one.
Being up at the crack of dawn and standing in the run swinging your fly, bushwacking through miles and miles of river, switching up your shooting heads, tips and flies, etc etc, are all necessary steps to finding success on these early summer steelhead. The fish generally shoot up the Deschutes pretty fast from the mouth as the water temps are pretty warm down there and get cooler the higher up you go. Keep an eye on the temps and try to stop fishing when the water temps are closing in on 70 Fahrenheit. Playing a steelhead in this warm of water is often fatal to the fish. It may swim off and seem like it is fine, but will likely go belly up later on. Fishpond makes a cool little river thermometer that can quickly take an accurate reading of the temps or you can look online to see what they are. Looks like it’s going to be another hot week with temps hitting the 100’s.
Hood River:
The Hood River has been pretty colored up recently with this warm water making it tough to fish. The Hood comes right off Mt Hood so when it gets super hot, it gets very colored up making it unfishable at times. When color is off, fish bigger and darker flies, something the fish can see. There are quite a few steelhead in the whole Columbia system so there are likely some in the lower sections of the Hood.
There is decent trout fishing in the Hood but most people aren’t targeting them in the mainstem. The east and west fork of the Hood offer some cool small stream trout fishing with pretty good access up by Parkdale. Fish aren’t too selective up there and can be caught on basic dry dropper rigs in the pools and pocket water.
Smallmouth Bass/Carp
Smallmouth fishing has continued to be consistent since the last report. Finding areas with some depth and rocky structure is important. Carp fishing is good as usual as long as the sun’s high to make spotting fish easier.
"The Gorge"
Gorge Fly Shop Team - 541.386.6977
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How come you don't talk about the Klickita in your reports anymore?
ReplyDeleteSorry, I mean Klicitat
ReplyDeleteWe strive to give actual accounts of reporting and steer away from making up content. No reports this time of year from the Klickitat is not really abnormal. In general with hot summer weather the Klickitat usually goes pretty off color from glacial melt and most anglers seek better options. As weather cools down we'll get back to the Klick. Thanks for inquiring.
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