This is the end, My only friend, The end

With the weather system that we got last week most of our local rivers bumped up quite a bit. Now most of them seem to be dropping back to the fall norm, but a few like the White River on the Deschutes continue to wreak havoc and stay off-color. Steelheading on the east side continues to be pretty strong especially for the low counts over the dams. Fish have spread out all through the Deschutes system now, so if you find yourself below the White River and it is blown out, just fish above the confluence and you should be fine. Trout fishing has been excellent over there, and the euro nymphers continue reporting unholy numbers of fish being caught. If you don’t want to go to the dark side of trout fishing some bugs have been flying around, so might I suggest trying either an October Caddis or a Blue Wing Olive pattern for your dry.

In our local rivers, Coho continue to be the main attraction for about the next month, but don’t worry, soon enough winter steelhead will start gracing us with their presence. It’s not uncommon for us to hear about a bright winter steelhead caught in November on the Sandy or the Clackamas, especially if the rivers come up and stay up.

This week is also your last chance to chase trout here on the west side of the Cascades in most of our streams. After October 31st, The upper Sandy and Clackamas will close to trout fishing as well as the coastal rivers. Sea-run Cutthroat over on the coast can be great the closing week of the season so get it while you still can. With higher river flows on the coastal rivers right now try fishing some of the mid to smaller sized stream, like the Trask or the Kilchis. Most of the Cutthroat are chasing the Salmon upriver to eat their eggs. Try swinging small brightly colored egg looking streamers and those fish just can’t refuse. Just remember that it closes on October 31st.

If you still want to Trout fish after that date most of the lakes will stay open for fishing year-round. Also, the majority of the Lower Deschutes, Metolius, and Crooked River will continue to stay open. If you are unsure check the regulations.