Gorge Fly Shop Blog: Columbia Gorge Fishing Report 8/14/2020

Trout

Deschutes River:

The trout fishing has been strong lately. I spoke with a friend of the shop, Tucker, who had a productive day trout fishing down by the mouth recently. He reported strong caddis hatches in the evenings and the majority of his fish came on black pats rubber legs and prince nymphs.

Mainly a nymphing game in the mornings and throughout much of the day. Later in the evenings fish are eating spent and emerging bugs in back eddies which will be your best shot at fishing near the surface. Fishing a spent caddis in the mornings is another good tactic in late summer as the fish key into caddis that hatch the previous night and die overnight and float downriver the next morning.

Late in the summer, these trout become much more wary of artificial flies and have seen most all fly patterns in your box before. This is when using more uncommon patterns can produce results. I still run a rubber legs as my lead nymph fly, but will sometimes tie on something unique and different as my dropper to show the fish a fly they likely haven’t seen much of. Same goes for dry flies. Fluorocarbon is a good idea fishing subsurface and nylon tippet for dries.

Lake Fishing:

The Mt Hood lakes have been better in the mornings and evening when the high sun isn’t shining directly down onto the water. Hex hatch on Lost Lake is long over but there is decent opportunity to fish dries on the lakes now. Late evening callibaetis hatches can occur on any of the lakes throughout the summer which can be a very time hatch to fish. These are mayflies that typically hatch in a size 14-16.

I like fishing cripple patterns that sit vertically in the film and represent a insect that is struggling to emerge through the surface of the water. You can fish parachute callibaetis patterns like a simple parachute adams representing the full adult form of the insect as well.

Indicator fishing with small nymphs will always produce as well as slow stripping buggers and leeches on sinking lines.

Summer Steelhead

Deschutes River:

Plenty of steelhead around on the lower deschutes now as we are in mid August. Lots of beautiful chrome wild fish and some hatchery fish around too for the BBQ.

I had a buddy fishing down by the mouth a few days ago and he shared a story of some people who probably had no business targeting such a special creature as a wild steelhead. He saw these two guys step in maybe 50 yards below him as he was swinging through a run, which is not proper river etiquette to begin with, and they proceeded to hook up with a steelhead. He said the one dude just held his rod out in front of him with the steelhead still hooked up, but completely tired out, while his other buddy ran way upstream to grab his cell phone to take a picture. Then they proceed to mess with the fish for around 10 minutes and held the fish out of the water for far too long to get a sweet “hero shot” before finally releasing it. After listening to this story, I felt very confident that that fish did not survive and wasn’t able to spawn. I truly believe most people are good about this and do not overhandle a fish when they land it (at least I hope). If we do not take care of these steelhead, there’s not going to be a future for them, so please be mindful of this and spread the word if you see bad practices out on the water. Don’t get me wrong, I love capturing photos of steelhead but there’s a right way to do it where the fish stays wet the whole time and swims off strong. Anyway, good luck if you get out there though, the fishing has been great!

Skaters and hairwings in the mornings and evenings, and intruders/tube flies with sink tips in the middle of the day.

Hood River:

I have not heard of any more steelhead being caught on the Hood since the last report, however I am sure there have been. Still pretty colored up water whenever it is hot out, which has been more often than not.

Water temps aren’t as big of an issue on the Hood compared to the Deschutes as this river stays cool year round. The Hood is a great before or after work spot being so close to town. Good luck if you get out!

Smallmouth Bass/Carp:

Smallmouth fishing is good if you’re in the right spots. If you aren’t fishing around rocky structure, you will likely struggle to hook up.

Smallmouth might be the most willing fish to eat a fly however, so when you find them, it can be tons of fun. I like using small streamer patterns, wooly buggers, or crayfish patterns when fishing the main Columbia.

Carp fishing has been excellent with the hot and sunny weather. Spotting fish has been much easier with the high sun and the fish are happy and actively feeding with the warm water.

I went out last weekend on the Columbia and caught loads of big carp using a carp hybrid fly. Very similar to John Montana’s carp hybrid, just with my own twist to it. I even was able to catch one stripping a fly which is pretty rare with carp.

Remember to try and sight them first, and then place a cast at them that doesn’t land right on them, otherwise they will spook. I snapped my 8 weight on one last summer (probably my fault, putting too much pressure on it) but still, these things are brutes, so leave the 5 and 6 weights at home.
Zach