The D

The Lower Deschutes River has, for years, frustrated me.  From the first day I fished it I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, even when I was always targeting trout, and in the last couple years - Steelhead. It's a big river that can be intimidating.

Yet, over the past two or three years I've slowly begun to figure it out. SLOWLY.  I hooked and lost my first steelhead on the first day of a two day float in October '09.  On a few days in 2010, I had some amazing trout action. And later that year landed my first Deschutes steelhead on a cold December day.  In 2011, I didn't fish it as much as I had planned.  But on a day float on October 2nd, standing in the same spot where I hooked that first fish two years earlier, I hooked a really hot steelhead - so hot, in fact, that I thought it might be a chinook.  With the help of a friend that was just along for the ride in the boat, I landed the 30.5" hatchery hen.

Salmonfly

Now that another season has come and gone, I very much look forward to the upcoming year on this amazing river.  Including trout from April until the start of the steelhead run.  And the Salmonfly/Golden Stonefly hatch in May, dodging crowds trying to hook big trout on these big dry flies.  Unfortunately, I was not able to fish this famous hatch in 2011, but I fished it for the first time in 2010 and had maybe the best day of fishing in my life.




So I say goodnight to "The D" for a few months, as I spend some time at the fly-tying bench getting ready for a wonderful new year on a world-class river right in my backyard that people travel from around the world to fish and float.

Swinging a fly through "Luelling"