Gorge Fly Shop Blog: Columbia Gorge Fishing Report 10-9-2020

Trout

Deschutes River:

Warm Springs to Maupin has been fishing strong recently! The trout are happy and feeding pretty aggressively mainly on nymphs throughout the day.

Look to fish october caddis pupa, rubber legs stoneflies, soft hackle pheasant tail nymphs, two bit hookers, red copper johns, red lightnings bugs, and rainbow warriors as productive nymph patterns.

There are still some decent small caddis hatches as well as some larger October caddis that have been getting active down on the lower river.

Trout spey fishing is good too. I threw my 4 weight trout spey around last time I was out and hooked quite a few good solid trout on the swing. I was fishing my favorite pattern that I tie called “the dirt”. It’s a small olive and red sculpin pattern that really is a hot ticket on the Deschutes. I’ve done well with sculpzilla and little olive and black wooly bugger type flies as well fishing with trout spey gear. I have been running a 10 foot section of t-8 sink tip connected to a 300 grain skagit scout head on my 4 weight with some OPST mono running line.

Fall and winter are my favorite times to fish trout spey on the Deschutes as the fish really start keying in on larger meals when the hatches begin to die down.

S hop Trout Flies

Lake Fishing:

Lakes are good and will continue to be good for another month or two. Fish will be feeding pretty heavily trying to fatten up before winter.

Fishing a full sink line with brown, black, olive pr purple wooly buggers or crystal buggers are great options.

Fishing indicators with balanced leeches, chironomids, scuds or pheasant tail nymphs is another productive method to try if stripping flies isn’t producing. Giving your indicator some twitches and movements every now and then will help trigger bites if it’s super calm out.

Crowds from the summer have thinned out some and will continue to going forward into fall. The lakes can be a great option to escape for a few hours and have some productive fishing opportunities.

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Summer Steelhead

Deschutes River:

Steelhead fishing has been fair to good for most anglers out on the Deschutes recently. Fish are spread throughout the entire lower river and will continue to look for swung flies all the way through the end of November.

I usually fish more sink tips this time a year on the Deschutes, but guys still get them on floating setups with small classic steelhead flies like the green butt skunk or the no name variant.

The white river has improved slightly since the last report but it is still not great clarity, but it is fishable below the confluence of the white, whereas a week ago it wasn’t.

This time a year we see more larger steelhead in the Deschutes. Lots of two and three salt fish. This year in general I feel like there were more two salt fish than the little 24 inch one salt fish. Not complaining about that at all.

The season will go until the end of November, and after that, the steelhead begin going into spawning mode and will spawn in January and February before making the journey back out to the ocean.

Hood River:

There are probably quite a few old springers in the lower few miles but not super high on people’s list to be targeting at this time as they have been in the river for quite some time now.

There are definitely summer steelhead spread throughout much of the Hood which can still be caught on the swing and nymphing.

Recent rains can get the fish freshened up and more willing to bite. If you’re swinging, using an egg sucking black leech is a tough fly to beat. Other good patterns are dark colored intruders or hobo spey type flies.

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Smallmouth Bass/Carp

Smallmouth fishing most years is fantastic in the fall months. The leaves start changing colors and the bite is on. However, recently it has been a little tough out there. The water is very warm and low on the Columbia.

The shad are mostly gone which have caused the bass to scatter and been tough to find. Focus on fishing 10-20 feet of water and use small to medium streamer and baitfish patterns.

The topwater bite is pretty off at the moment. The key is to continue moving to find the fish, and once you find them stay on em.
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-Zach

Customer Contribution

Hals from Louisiana sent in this shot of a chunky 19" largemouth caught on his new Sage X Rod and Sage Spectrum LT fly reel. Mr. Bucketmouth was released to fight another day. Great job Hals!