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| Metolius Bull Trout |
Trout - Deschutes River:
Lower Deschutes River
Today marks the opening day for the upper portion of the Lower Deschutes River (warm springs, mecca flats, trout creek). Fishing should be good this weekend up there. Fish should be keyed on big black and brown stonefly nymphs hard for the next few weeks before they start to crawl up onto shore and hatch.
A big Chubby Chernobyl with a rubber legs dropper is a good setup now if you don’t want to stare at a bobber all day with the outside chance of getting an early chubby eat. Still a few weeks out and a couple hot days for the hatch to really take off.
Swinging small streamers on a 3-4 weight trout spey rod is a super addicting way of targeting Deschutes redsides and is a favorite among Gorge Fly Shop staff.
Middle Deschutes River
The Middle Deschutes has been fishing pretty good and will only continue to get better as we move closer to May. Just like the Lower, fish in this section will be keyed in on stonefly nymphs and small streamers on the swing or stripped.
Metolius River
The Metolius has been fishing really well this spring for both rainbows and the native bull trout. Lots of good bug activity and fish starting to consistently look up.
Pale morning duns were the main mayfly I have been consistently seeing down there but pretty soon here, the famed Green Drake hatch will get started which is an exciting time to be on the Metolius River.
Good fishing can be found from Allingham Bridge all the way down to Lower Bridge 99 as well as below down towards Lake Billy Chinook. The river upstream of Allingham to the headwaters remains closed until May 22nd.
Euro and traditional nymph rigs are productive methods right now for trout.
Bull trout have been eating both big streamers and nymphs pretty well the past few weeks.
For streamer fishing, the bigger the better. I use streamers that most would think is a joke. 8-10 inch streamers with good action. I like black, white and olive. They are eating dead drifting streamers and stonefly nymphs good right now too.
Mount Hood Lakes:
Lawrence Lake Update.
Lawrence Lake opened on Friday April 22. The current situation is with snow and road culvert repair needed the access is gated at the Middle Fork settling pond. This is about 2.5 miles before Lawrence lake. The spring stocking of Lawrence has been postponed until access allows.
Steelhead -
Smallmouth Bass / Carp:
Smallmouth fishing was good over the weekend. I talked to a friend who had a banner day on Saturday fishing back sloughs with some depth and rocky structure. He was using an intermediate full sink line with some smallish streamer/baitfish patterns on a slow strip and the bass were all over it. Should remain good throughout the next few months.
"The Gorge"
Gorge Fly Shop Team - 541.386.6977
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