Salmonfly Pre Game

Opening weekend on the Deschutes is one of my favorite times of the year. It’s like a holiday for me or a changing of the seasons. And this year, I needed that more than ever. Steelhead fishing has been not great, to say the least. The other great thing is that it’s my great friend Eric’s birthday week, so it’s a twofold event. This year we had a great group of friends for the float from Trout Creek to Maupin. Myself, Eric the birthday boy, Jeremy the Merman, Jim Band, and his buddy Pat. Most of us have all fished together and have had quite a good time. My expectations for dry fly fishing were low, but there was no question in my mind that Euro Nymphing would be great. And to get this out of the way, it was!

The Deschutes is currently running at late summer flows, it’s around 3700 CFS, and that’s what it’s like in late July or August. We got to Trout Creek around 6:00 on Saturday. We planned to push away and float down to Hobo camp and stay there for the night so we would be in a great position to fish and float the next two days.

We got up early the Sunday morning, broke camp, and started fishing. We pulled into South Junction. No sooner did Jeremy jump out of the boat, and he was hooked up. No big surprise it was on the Euro rig. Pretty quick, Eric was out of the boat and into a fish too. Not a bad way to start our annual opening week birthday float.

We fished the day away, catching fish after fish. We didn’t see any dry fly activity that day. We did see quite a few horses, bighorn sheep, deer, and lots of other critters. We pulled into camp after a long successful day of fishing. We settled in for a great dinner followed by a birthday cake to celebrate.

Monday afternoon, we got to the takeout, we were rejuvenated, excited, and ready to do it all again. When I got home, I was immediately back at the tying vise replenishing my supply of jigs. We did the best with the peacock Perdigon, Mic drops, and Baetis jig nymphs. I can tell you I am well stocked up for my next trip, but I’ve also been tying the MFFR because that IS the next hatch, and any day now, it will be on. Make sure you have your flies ready.