Springing Forward

It feels like spring is fast approaching. Daylight savings time starts this week, the days are getting longer, and hopefully, spring showers will be in our future. This winter has been relatively mild with minimal precipitation, which has made for very low water conditions. Hopefully, that’s going to change this week.

Winter steelheading, sadly, is coming to an end; I’m starting to see some new redds every day I’m out there. So if you’ve been waiting to go, don’t wait much longer. Steelheading continues to be hit-and-miss, but the Clack and Sandy are kicking out some fish. Recently I’ve seen pictures of fish pushing 20 lbs from the Clack. With the low water, the deep spots are where steelhead live. If the forecast is right, we should start to see the rivers come up, and those fish, plus any fresh ones, will move back into the tail outs and big runs where they are easy to catch.

If you’re looking for a change of scenery, I’ve been getting good reports from the coast. Most rivers over there seem to be fishing well.

If you need more than a change of scenery, head over to the Deschutes. It’s been fishing good, with BWO hatches bringing fish up later in the day. Soon, we will see some March browns coming off, which can make for some pretty good dry fly fishing and some really good soft hackle fishing. Streamer fishing has worked well, with smaller sculpin patterns fished with sink tips. Of course, the Euro technique is still as deadly as ever. The Drag Queen, the Rib Roast, TNT Baetis, and the Peacock Perdigon have all been working really well.

And if you’re not quite ready to go fishing this weekend, the NW Fly Tyers Expo in Albany would be a great alternative.