Black Friday Forecast

Fall fishing is great right now. The east side continues to fish well, and the local waters are starting to come to life. Once we start getting rain again and the rivers come up and stay up, there will be steelhead around. Typically Thanksgiving is the kickoff to winter steelhead, so fingers crossed for some rain, and we’ll see what happens. 

Now next week is going to be our Black Friday fish-along, I know we are all excited, and the fishing should be good. Trout fishing has been great, and it doesn’t matter if you are on the lower access road or above Maupin. Swinging for trout is good right now and will be getting better. I would use a sink tip and some small streamer-type patterns, like a sculpin or small hair-wing flies. There have been a few dry fly hatches, mostly BWOs, in the afternoon. And lastly, the best fish-catching option would be Euro Nymphing; I would be fishing Mic Drops and Peacock Perdigons. But just about anything will be good right now. 

If you’re like me, I’ll be targeting steelhead. I plan on going down on the lower access road and swinging a sink tip. I’m imagining I’ll have a black rabbit strip leech with a cone head attached. But if you’re game, you can still find a steelhead with a floating line and a small fly. Deschutes steelheading should be good at least through December, and then it’s time to give those tired fish a rest and let them do their thing. 

I know we are all looking forward to this outing, and I hope we see you there too.