Gorge Fly Shop Blog: Columbia Gorge Fishing Report

Deschutes Trout

With the steelhead and salmon fisheries closed on the Deschutes, trout are the only game in town. And it's a great game! It's a pretty rare situation to go out on the lower part of the river in September and barely see anyone. As bummed as everyone is about the steelhead closure, it does present a great opportunity during one of the best times of year to fish trout.

As for the fishing, there's a lot going on. Caddis are present in great numbers on warmer days. BWO's are around and prevalent on cloudy days. Dry/dropper fishing has been very productive. Heavy Euro droppers that loosely imitate caddis have been very good. If there's any sign of mayflies around, switch your dropper up to a dark bodied mayfly Euro pattern. They both work great, but the fish noticeably favor the mayflies when they're present in decent numbers. As for the dry portion of the equation, run as small of a chubby as you can get away with without the dropper sinking it. Recent outings have raised a handful of fish to the larger dry, but the bigger fish are refusing it. Scaling down the chubby gets more committed takes on the top. And don't leave home without a good selection of hatch-matching caddis and BWO's. The surface fishing can be hard to come by sometimes, but when it's happening, you definitely don't want to miss out!

Mt. Hood Lakes

Reports coming off the stillwaters have been pretty good lately. Lots of good leech fishing on intermediate lines and under indicators. There are still some Callibaetis and chironomids around, but you can't necessarily bank on them every day. That said, there's still plenty of dry fly fishing to be had. Especially on warmer afternoons. Prospecting with ants, beetles and small chubbies can be really fun at this time of year. Most of the big hatches are on the fade and the fish know it. They can be very opportunistic in the early fall, which makes for some really fun fishing!

Summer Steelhead

The Deschutes is closed, but there are certainly plenty of other places to fish for summers. Reports coming from the Washington side of the big river have been rather good as of late. Fish are also being caught on the Portland Metro rivers and some of the stuff further west. Great conditions for dry line fishing. A little rain wouldn't hurt, but they're out there!