Columbia Gorge Fishing Reports - 1/14/2020

NEW: OPST Micro Skagit Rods - In Stock

Trout:

Deschutes:

Once again not a lot that is new to report it has been very consistent this winter.

Remember the Deschutes has some great winter fly fishing. One great thing is there is no need to get up early, the best fishing is between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm. From here on out the crowds will be low, leaving lots of great water for the rest of us.

There have been the usual good Blue Winged Olive hatches on the cloudy cooler days. Keep in mind that the colder and nastier the day the more concentrated the BWO hatch is. So stock up on Blue Winged Olive nymphs, dries and emergers.

My favorite flies are: Dries: Sparkle Flag BWO #18-20, Extended Body BWO #20, Parachute Extended Body BWO #20, Parachute Adams #18-20 Emergers: Sprout BWO #18-20, Challenged PT #18 Nymphs: Bead Head Flashback PT #18-20, Pheasant Tail #18-20, Flashback Pheasant Tail #18-20, WD40 #18-20

Hand Selected Fly Kits

You will also see very productive fishing with a variety of midge patterns. I prefer Zebra Midges Black, Brown, Tan #20

When nymphing I prefer drop all of my smaller flies below a bigger heavier nymph. Here are my favorite larger nymphs: TJ Hooker #8-10, Jigged PT #14-16, Jigger PT Purple #16, Bead Head PT #12-16. Many others work, but those are my favorites.

For those that want to swing some streamers, streamer fishing will slow down a little during the winter, but you can still get them on Streamers. The key is fish your streamers slower than you do the rest of the year and keep moving.
Here are my favorites streamers: Rio Precious Metal, Kiwi Muddler, Sculpzila #8 (White, Olive/White, Natural) and Beaded Wooly Buggers #8 variety of colors.
Trout Flies

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Lakes:

We are fairly limited on the lakes that you can fish this time of year due to snow in the high country and the lakes being frozen. The most accessible lakes in the winter are down near the Columbia. Taylor Lake on the Oregon side. Roland Lake and Spear Fish Lake on the Washington side.

The best thing about fishing lakes this time of year is that the best fishing is mid day. No need to get up early.

Best results have been fishing an intermediate or slow sinking line with a variety of #8-10 leach patters in Black or Brown. Suspending a Balance Leach or Chironomids under an indicator with a floating works well to. The biggest thing in the winter is fish your flies very slow.
Stillwater Trout Selection 

Other Great Winter Trout Fisheries: Here are some other great winter trout fisheries across Oregon and Washington to think about. Oregon: Crooked River, Donner Blitzen River, Malhuer River and Owyhee River. Washington: Rocky Ford Creek and Yakima River All of these are great fishing during the winter and can be fun to go explore.

Steelhead:

Finally have a good amount of water at the coast and most rivers on the west side. This should get the winter steelhead moving. There are a few in the Hood, heard of a few in the Sandy, but it should get good once water conditions settle down after this weekends rains.
Steelhead Flies

Smallmouth:  

Water temps have cooled to the point that smallmouth are not very active now and won’t be until spring.
Smallmouth Flies

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Columbia Gorge Fishing Report - 12/28/2019

Trout: 

Deschutes: 

Not much has really changed here, pretty consistent. Remember the Deschutes has some great winter fly fishing. One great thing is there is no need to get up early, the best fishing is between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm. From here on out the crowds will be low, leaving lots of great water for the rest of us.

There have been the usual good Blue Winged Olive hatches on the cloudy cooler days. Keep in mind that the colder and nastier the day the more concentrated the BWO hatch is. So stock up on Blue Winged Olive nymphs, dries and emergers.
Trout Flies

My favorite flies are: 

Dries: Sparkle Flag BWO #18-20, Extended Body BWO #20, Parachute Extended Body BWO #20, Parachute Adams #18-20 Emergers: Sprout BWO #18-20, Challenged PT #18 Nymphs: Bead Head Flashback PT #18-20, Pheasant Tail #18-20, Flashback Pheasant Tail #18-20, WD40 #18-20

You will also see very productive fishing with a variety of midge patterns. I prefer Zebra Midges Black, Brown, Tan #20

When nymphing I prefer drop all of my smaller flies below a bigger heavier nymph. Here are my favorite larger nymphs: TJ Hooker #8-10, Jigged PT #14-16, Jigger PT Purple #16, Bead Head PT #12-16. Many others work, but those are my favorites.

For those that want to swing some streamers, streamer fishing will slow down a little during the winter, but you can still get them on Streamers. The key is fish your streamers slower than you do the rest of the year and keep moving. Here are my favorites streamers: Rio Precious Metal, Kiwi Muddler, Sculpzila #8 (White, Olive/White, Natural) and Beaded Wooly Buggers #8 variety of colors.

Lakes:  

We are fairly limited on the lakes that you can fish this time of year due to snow in the high country and the lakes being frozen. The most accessible lakes in the winter are down near the Columbia. Taylor Lake on the Oregon side. Roland Lake and Spear Fish Lake on the Washington side.

The best thing about fishing lakes this time of year is that the best fishing is mid day. No need to get up early.

Best results have been fishing an intermediate or slow sinking line with a variety of #8-10 leach patters in Black or Brown. Suspending a Balance Leach or Chironomids under an indicator with a float works well to. The biggest thing in the winter is fish your flies very slow.
Stillwater Trout Selection 

Other Great Winter Trout Fisheries: 

Here are some other great winter trout fisheries across Oregon and Washington to think about. Oregon: Crooked River, Donner Blitzen River, Malhuer River and Owyhee River. Washington: Rocky Ford Creek and Yakima River All of these are great fishing during the winter and can be fun to go explore.

Steelhead:  

We had some heavy rain last week that helped to get a few early Winter Steelhead in across Western Oregon. I have heard a few scattered reports of Winter Steelhead being caught from the Hood, Sandy, Clackamas and some North Coast Rivers. It is still early and we could use more rain, but there are just enough fish to venture out and see if you can get lucky.

Anglers are still catching late summers in the Lower Deschutes, this will continue until about Christmas. There are some scattered fish in the Hood River. You can still find some scattered fish in the John Day when it is not frozen. Keep in mind the Klickitat is now closed for the season.
Steelhead Flies

Smallmouth:  

Water temps have cooled to the point that smallmouth are not very active now and won’t be until spring.
Smallmouth Flies

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Columbia Gorge Fishing Report 6/19/2018

Driving along the upper Klick looking South.

Steelhead- Numbers over Bonneville are slowly increasing and we still haven't had a big push of fish yet. However, looking upstream a bit it appears that a good chunk of fish that have passed over Bonneville haven't passed over The Dalles Dam yet. So they must be in some of the tributaries and/or waiting for conditions to trigger them upstream on their journey more.

 Count numbers over Bonneville, The Dalles Dam, and John Day

The Klick has been low and clear for the start of the season, however that may change soon as the high country might see a little rain followed by some nice warm weather. A rising river from rain or snow melt will color things up a bit and get fish moving throughout the system and will be a welcomed change. We are also in the Columbia Gorge and it gets windy here at times... When that is the case I will quickly take my scandi head off and put an Airflo Rage on instead. If you're unfamiliar with this line than it might be time to explore it's benefits! Larger flies or light sinking polyleaders will work on it, but I utilize it most for its ability to cast into the wind when my scandi falls apart mid-cast. While it doesn't present itself as nicely as a scandi, it still does all the same touch-and-go casts and is simply just a versatile line.  

 This fish took a Grease Liner about 3ft into the air on the take, but steelhead won't eat dry flies...

Trout- Deschutes action isn't really slowing down, however the angler pressure has been. It seems folks come out of the woodwork for the Salmon/Stonefly hatch for a couple weeks and then tend to avoid the river until next season. Meanwhile hatches occur year round and the Yellow Sallies have been popping off for a few weeks now.  Pale Morning and Pale Evening Duns are out overcast days certainly seem to turn on the mayfly fishing. Also, don't forget your Caddis flies and we just got stocked up on the smaller sizes that tend to work best out there. 

Small stream trout never seem to disappoint!

Small streams are fishing well and as I've said before, those trout aren't too particularly picky when it comes to eating. One thing I tried recently that I usually reserved for larger waters, was swinging soft hackles into seams on these small creeks... turns out it works great here too! In our mountain lakes, the nighttime temperatures have kept water cool and fish have been sticking closer to the shore until we start to get into the heat of summer. 

Warmwater species- Bass fishing has been great lately for those in pursuit! The John Day provides non-stop action and the bass aren't to particular their either. On the Columbia, the big boys seem to want the big stuff and a 7wt rod is ideal for throwing it to them. The top water action has been picking up and is a exciting visual seeing some predator fish chase down its "prey." Finding a carp flat can be a fun alternative to bass and these brutes will make you work for it, and the reward is high. Carp tend to average around 10lbs, with plenty of bigger ones available too. Carp can be picky though, and stealthiness is crucial. We just got a few new flies in that work pretty good for carp so if you're up to the challenge, come see us!

 Yes, we love two-handers! Even when fishing poppers for Smallies...

As always, we are happy to talk fishing anytime. Give us a call if you have any specific questions on local rivers, gear, and tactics, or if you just want some encouragement to get out of the office. 

-Cody

Local Fishing Information

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Columbia Gorge Fishing Report - 6/12/18

Pit stop on the way to some mountain lakes...

Steelhead- A handful of folks have been out hunting for their needle in a haystack on various "home" waters. So far catch numbers have been low, but we've been hearing of a couple hot fish hooked and lost. While I'm not exactly a numbers guy when it comes to steelhead, I have noticed the Bonneville counts have a decent number of wild fish that have passed over so far and we are closer to the 10-year average (which is heavily skewed from the historical average anyways). 

The Klickitat River opened up last week and it's been a slow start. The river has been running low and relatively clear since the opener, which leaves the few steelhead in there to hunker down into the deeper salmon water. If we get a little bit of color or better yet a spike in flows, that will push some fish around and catch rates should jump up a little bit. Nevertheless, it's nice to see an old friend and I was out floating a couple days ago in some beautiful weather. If venturing out, be mindful of private property and especially on the South end of the river as locals are fairly territorial- I even got yelled at for just stopping briefly at a run that was allegedly private, though no signs were posted, and turns out the gentleman didn't own the property anyways. The lesson learned is to just be mindful and know the boundary lines. Politeness goes a long way if you're ever trying to access tricky spots, and I certainly like to keep a couple hard to access spots in my back pocket when water gets crowded.

 

 It's dryline/dryfly season!

A underutilized method for summer steelhead I believe is the dry fly. Dead drifted, grease lined, riffle hitched, waked/skated, twitched, chugged, or down in the surface film. If you've caught a few steelhead before but never on a dry fly, I can't recommend it enough! Indeed, a couple anglers will tie on a dry to work a quick run and after no avail will quickly swap back to a wet fly and maybe a sink tip for the rest of the day. The reality is if you fished dries as often as you're wets, half the fish you get will on the dries. In fact on some of the waters I fish I find more summer steelhead show themselves to the dryfly than a well presented wet. Some will say the surface attack is like crack... While I can't speak from experience on that, I will say watching top water disturbances is fully addicting! 

 A favorite perch to watch summer-run steelhead rise to skated flies.

Trout- The fishing has been fantastic lately! While many of the big bugs on the Deschutes have simmered down, there are some that are still out. If you're needing to toss big Salmon/Stoneflies focus some of your attention up higher on the river as the hatch migrates upstream. Just because the big bugs have dwindled doesn't mean that the dry fly fishing is over yet! Currently, Yellow Sallies (a smaller stonefly) have been fishing very well, lots of Pale Morning/Evening Duns are out, and Caddis flies are rounding out the dry fly action. Sub-surface a lot of stuff will work, though this time of the year Hares Ear Nymphs, and emerging caddis in the evening are some of my favorites.

The lakes around Hood are a great place to spend a hot day cooling off on the water!

Lake fishing has also been excellent lately. On hot summer days, heading up to a lake is a favorite way of mine to cool down. I haven't really seen the big push of Carpenter Ants but rather just a few here and there. Callibaetis cripplers and leech patterns seem to be a go-to of mine, though I've found some of the trout aren't too particular up in the lakes as they have a limited food season- often a Purple Parachute Adams or Caddis fly works great for me up there.

 "Hero Shots" are out, #keepemwet photos are in... 

Warmwater species- The John Day River has been great place to explore smallmouth bass fishing and a wonderful place to take somebody out for their first time. If you're not having a good time on the JD fishing for smallies, something's wrong... Top water stuff works great out there, however my favorite pattern on the JD is really just a small dark Bead Head Hale Bopp Leech, or a natural colored muddler on the top. On the big river we've finally seen some levels drop- Friday was the first day in a couple weeks that I've actually seen water flowing out at the mouth of the Hood River and not backed up from the Columbia. The top water bite is about to be on for the Columbia, and best time of the day is usually nearer to the evening. Carp and Largemouth are also readily available in lots of the side lakes/ponds to the Columbia and can be a fun way to try something new.  

As always, we are happy to talk fishing anytime. Give us a call if you have any specific questions on local rivers, gear, and tactics, or if you just want some encouragement to get out of the office. 

 

-Cody

Local Fishing Information

Bookmark our new link to Weather, Stream Conditions and Fishing Licenses