The White River - Oregon

White River (click image for detail)

As a native Oregonian, I’ve been all around this beautiful state enjoying its rivers and steams. One of those is the White River, which enters the Deschutes River on the west bank at the 46 river mile mark up from the mouth.

The White is a glacier fed river off the east slope of Mt. Hood, which can cause some silting or milky colored conditions when high freezing levels accrue for extended periods of time in late summer or early fall. Thunder storms can also cause the great White to do some unpopular things such as add a beautiful brown coloration to its flows.

Summer and fall is not the only time this happens, sometimes the spring run off and rains will make the river look like most peoples morning cup of mud. In any case, I think you get the idea as a fishing enthusiast that this can and does affect the color of the Deschutes and you may have already experienced this. If you have, you know that it is simply not going to fish well at all!!!

This has been a on going phenomenon for ages, and it’s not going to stop any time soon. The reason that it is getting more attention over the past 20 years is there is more people fly fishing, and most of these folks have taken up the sport during the 90s when fly fishing was at its highest growth rate in history, and the information super highway was exploding into our lives. Thus, new cool sport, new cool way to get information, and a lot of it.

We've all heard the cliché, no news is good news, and lately when ever you hear about the White River, its bad news, or is it. We are now smack dab in the middle of summer trout fishing season and rapidly approaching is the summer steelhead run that last well into fall. This means that people will be spending more time in the lower sections of the Deschutes fishing for trout and steelhead for weeks to come, and the big question is going to be, is the White River out? This is a good question because when the White River goes out, I mean really out, it
can take the Deschutes with it. In fact I’ve seen it so bad that it even discolored the Columbia River.

Now for the good news. In most cases, even if the White is out, its not out enough to effect the Deschutes because the white chalky color gets dissolved from the larger volume of water the Deschutes has in it.

It's easy to get paranoid when you see the White so out of shape that you would swear every thing below would be just as bad. Here is a little tip for you to try. Check out the color of the White River, if its good, no problem. If its out, drive down stream a few miles to see what the clarity is in the Deschutes River because that’s where your going to be fishing. Even if its off color a little bit, that ends up being to your advantage, because its always better to have a little color to the water than it being crystal clear. Here is why.

Fish are nocturnal and have the ability to see in all kinds of water conditions, light, color, and clarity. Fish are usually more comfortable in low light, and are spookier in direct sun light. Fisheries biologist have explained to me that when water visibility only 1 to 2 feet, the fish can see 5 to 8 feet. Another example would be, if the visibility was say 4 to 5 feet, the fish would be able to see about 10 to 15 feet ahead. Remember fish look up and forward most of their lives to find food and to look for predators, and because their light source comes from above, everything is back-lit which make it easy for them to do so.

This should make you feel more comfortable about fishing in murky colored water, because the fish are going to be able to see the food they need, or any object that might be invading their territory, and yet won't be able to see above the surface of the water where you are. It’s just a cloudy day to them. A lot of times the fish will move in very close to the bank because, again, they feel safe, and they want to avoid heavy currents if water levels have had a sudden increase in volume, if that’s the case. This means that you can fish for these guys right up against the bank, not have to worry about if they can see you, and get better results than you thought possible, and that’s for Trout or Steelhead.

So, if you hear someone say, "The White River is BLOWN," ask yourself, I wonder how bad it really is?

Thanks for your time John Smeraglio