Blowing out the Candles

Last Monday, the Fly Czar, Josh Linn, celebrated a birthday. Anyone that knows Josh knows that the best way to mark the occasion is with German Chocolate cake and a drift on the Deschutes. I made sure he had the cake, and he took care of the rest... 

by Josh Linn
Last Saturday, I was getting ready to do my birthday steelhead float on the lower Deschutes River when my friend Jim text me about getting blown off the river. Later that evening I was scrolling through Instagram and was seeing all of these videos of thunder, lightning, strong winds, and sideways rains. That’s not a good sign... I checked the weather report and there were red flag advisories through late Saturday. Strong winds, rain, thunder and lightning, and the possibility of wildfires. Another bad sign. On the drive over I called Henry to set up my shuttle and he told me that the river was blown out. All signs were pointing to bad. I told him I was going no matter what. On the drive-in, I could see the river was colored up. It was my birthday and the least I could do was to enjoy a leisurely float down the river. 

The storm turned into what could be one of the worst storms I've ever experienced out there. Thunder, lightning, torrential rains, flash flooding, crazy wind, and the river chocolate brown. Apparently, we were in the eye of the storm and missed all of it except the wind. The river started clearing Sunday midday and then colored up again overnight, clearing again midday. Eric hooked two in the tail-out of Wagon Blast on the push-out Monday afternoon. So the trip was pretty good all things considered. Actually, it was a great birthday float!

The fishing is tough out there but if you put in the time there are fish around. Fish floating lines in the low light hours when the fish are shallow. When the sun gets on the water put on a sink tip and keep fishing. We’ve been getting about half our fish in the sun.