Gorge Fly Shop Blog: Columbia Gorge Fishing Report 8/20/2020

Trout

Deschutes River:

The trout fishing should be good going into the weekend with slightly cooler temps than we saw last weekend. Caddis is still the main topic of discussion and will be for the rest of August. Fish are eating dead caddis in the mornings and are positioning themselves in the foam lines where the current acts as a conveyor belt, delivering caddis that hatched the previous night and have died, downriver to the opportunistic redsides.

Fishing a dry dropper is a great late summer technique. Using a euro style nymph with a tungsten beadhead helps get that fly down in the zone fast. Jig style tungsten cdc pheasant tail nymphs are a great dropper when fishing suspended under a dry. Use larger caddis dries with foam to help hold up a tungsten beadhead nymph underneath. Vary your tippet length depending on the run but a 2-3 foot section between the dry and dropper is a good starting length. Be sure to douse your fly up good with dry fly gink and fish the faster riffles and you will find success.

Lake Fishing:

Not a lot has changed since my last report on the Mt. Hood lakes. Later in the summer however, the fishing can be a bit more challenging due to heavy pressure throughout the whole summer. Fish have wised up (maybe not the stockers), and won’t eat that traditional size 8 black wooly bugger anymore like they did in June and July.

Great place to beat the heat up there with great views of Mt. Hood and lots of fish around however. Usual lake methods of nymphing or stripping flies. Running a size 16 ice cream cone chironomid in red/black and a 16-18 non beadhead pheasant tail nymph or dark assassin nymph is a deadly combo. The pheasant tail/dark assassin fly imitates a callibaetis nymph really well and is a good dropper behind the chironomid. Don’t be afraid to twitch your indicator rig a bit to give those nymphs some life if its calm out on the water. If it’s windy and there’s some chop on the water then that alone will move your nymphs around enough.

Summer Steelhead Deschutes River:

Steelhead numbers over the Dalles Dam have slowed down quite a bit. Earlier in the month and in late July we were seeing lots more fish daily come over the dam, and those numbers have slowed down. There are still lots of steelhead around in the lower 20 miles of river, the key now with less coming into the river (at the moment), is swinging lots of water and moving. You can’t catch em if you’re fly isn’t in the water so being efficient is important. Fishing a sink tip with a big fly in the middle of the day is effective as is nymph fishing with an egg sucking stonefly nymph.

Be prepared to see quite a few folks out there. With the Oregon Coast buoy 10 fishery opening this past week, it has lessened the crowds slightly, but still lots of anglers out trying to connect with a steelhead.

We are starting to see some early fall chinook enter the Deschutes as well so don’t be surprised to hook one when steelhead fishing. The water temps have been running cooler now as they lowered them at the dam, but on super hot days they have still been creeping up towards 70.

With as many people who are out on the Deschutes, it’s important to practice good river etiquette and take care of our wild steelhead!

Here’s water temps over the last week. Been trending up with hot weather but should start trending down towards the end of the week with weather forecast to be in the low to mid 80’s instead of high 90s and 100s.

Hood River:

The Hood has been pretty colored up with all this hot weather. Been pretty unfishable for the most part this week, but could come into shape towards the end of the week. There are steelhead in the river and people who are fishing the Hood consistently, are the ones getting them.

Smallmouth Bass/Carp:

Carp fishing continues to be good out on the main Columbia as well as the countless side sloughs and ponds along I-84. Later in the summer, there is more algae and weed growth in the Columbia which can make keeping your fly clean a bit difficult.

Carp are still eating good and are super happy with the hot weather we’ve been having. I run a 9’ 8 weight rod with a general weight forward floating line and either run a heavy tapered leader to my fly or if I am lazy, will just tie like 4-5 feet of 20 pound maxima tippet off my fly line with a perfection loop.

Smallmouth fishing is good if you know where to fish. The Columbia is low right now and the fish are in deep water with structure. A friend of the shop had a great day fishing full sinking lines, similar to that of trout lake lines but heavier and faster sink rates, stripping streamers in about 15-30 feet of water. Most of these fish are closer to the bottom so having a type 3 sinking line is a good bet to get down quick. Topwater action when the winds stops blowing is good, but its been pretty rare to have no wind in the gorge lately.
Zach