Winter Steelhead
Winter season is always a rollercoaster. The first part of this "winter", if you can even call it that, brought a tremendous amount of water and moved a bunch of fish. The bite area wide was pretty encouraging leading up to all the flooding and continued for a while when things dropped back in. This situation seems to come up often in the winter, but it's time to start hoping for rain again. Rivers from the coast through the Gorge have been on a long steady drop and it looks like that's going to continue for another week-ish. There are fish to be had, but they seem to be getting a little sparse for the time being in a lot of places. Look for the next bump to be productive. In the mean time, try some brighter sink tip flies on these beautiful sunny days!
Deschutes Trout
The Lower Deschutes is in great shape. Easy level to wade and the water temps are notably warmer than they could be at this time of year. That means there's some great trout fishing to be had! Nymphing with whatever method you prefer will be the most consistent way to go, but there are other options on the table. Hatches of BWO's and midges will be fairly consistent. Especially on cloudy days. You could even encounter some other bugs on these extra warm days.
If there is cloud cover, be sure to work a streamer into the program. Whether you're a Trout Spey person or prefer the single-hander, the streamer bite is not to be overlooked. It can be just outstanding and produce some of the larger fish in the river. The fly itself doesn't have to be that big, but your terminal tackle does! Call this a 1 or 2x fluorocarbon deal. The initial bite and surge from a big one can easily break lighter tippet.
"The Gorge"
Gorge Fly Shop Team - 541.386.6977
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