Trout Spey Game

I’m still riding the high of fishing in Alaska so I haven’t been terribly interested in fishing around here, but this week I had my annual fishing trip with Sam Sickles of Steelhead Outfitters in the lower river. This would typically be a steelhead trip but since the Deschutes is closed for steelhead right now we went for a trout trip. It would be a combination of swinging trout Spey’s and Euro Nymphing. As per usual we met early, getting on the water as it was starting to get light out and the water temps were still cool.

We pulled into quite a few familiar spots, keep in mind we were trout fishing with small flies and light rods. We didn’t fish East Wagonblast, we didn’t fish Hot Rocks or any of that stuff we were truly hunting for trout. The water that we fished was typically more riffle or the heads of runs. Stuff that was more oxygenated and more broken. It was interesting to me to try to find that kind of water down there. I’m usually fishing from Warm Springs down to Maupin, the river is steeper and more broken, with lots of riffles. The classic flat runs are few and far between up there unlike the lower river that has lots of long unbroken runs with very few riffle breaks and pocket water.

The first run we stopped in I had three trout grabs. They are aggressive and pull the line off the reel. The energy of the grab reminds you of steelhead and keeps that dream alive. Subconsciously knowing that the Deschutes will be opening up soon for steelhead. The numbers look good and we will probably hit the first benchmark tomorrow or the next day, and by the end of the month, we will hopefully have the 23,000 fish required to keep it open all season. Expect the river to be open by August 15.

Not surprisingly the fishing was better than I expected. We caught quite a few fish on both the Trout Spey and the Euro setup. I would go back and do that again in a heartbeat, plus it was great to be in the lower river spending some quality time with a great friend.

The Deschutes will continue to fish well and has been having great hatches of Caddis. Obviously, nymphing, especially the European style, continues to produce with flies like the Mic Drop and the Peacock Perdigon killing it.

Other east side rivers and lakes are still fishing well and will continue to have water. On the west side, Shad is basically done but the bass are starting to go wild and guys are still hitting spring chinook and even steelhead in the Clackamas.

Now is some of the best fishing of the year, don’t let summer pass on by.