I’ve hit the Maupin area of the Lower Deschutes a couple of times in the last week or so and have had pretty good luck finding fish. The reports have been kind of all over the board with some anglers catching fish and some that have not. I was in the “have not” group the first trip down with Thu. She was able to hook three fish and the only fish I caught was a trout.

            I decided after the verbal beating I took on the way home, that I would try to redeem myself and go back down in a couple of days and try again.  I left Bend at 4:00 am and made to the first run I wanted to fish just before daylight.

            The river has been clear and running around 5,000cfs, with a cool temperature of 44 degrees. I geared up with a 15’ T-10 sink-tip & a Craft Fur Stinger fly and stepped in at the top of the run.  I was only in the water about 15 minutes before I had my first solid take by a small, but chrome bright wild fish that ran around like crazy before I could land her and take a quick picture. Just 10 casts later I got my second take, but after just catching one a few moments before and being all jacked-up, I lifted the rod on the take and he came unbuttoned after a little thrashing. YES, I Farmed Him! I can make a mental mistake just as easy as you can! Anyway I pushed on and hooked a third fish in the bottom of the run, which turned out to be another wild hen of about 5 or 6 pounds. I fished two more long runs before I ran out of daylight (and charged battery packs for my electric socks), and had the grace of the steelhead gods to hook 3 more steelhead. I only landed one of those but it was a really nice size buck that was all colored up and put up a heck of a fight before I was able to bring him to hand for a quick picture and release.

            It’s a long day to drive to Maupin at 4:00am, fish hard all day and then drive home after dark, but the tiring day is a lot more bearable when you catch some fish.

The Patient Angler                 patientangler.com

Peter Bowers

Walked into the Lower Deschutes River from Mecca Flats with a friend of mine the other day, to see if we could find a few steelhead. After a stormy night the evening before, I was surprised to find a very mild day when we arrived at the river.

The river is running about 4800cfs from the dam, clear and with a temperature of 45 degrees. The best part was there was nobody there! In fact, we didn’t even see another angler until after noon.

            Jimmy and I worked our way down river fishing some likely spots without a pull until we stopped at one of my favorite pieces of water. Jimmy fished the top of the run and I fished the bottom and again we came up empty. After a short break for lunch, we decided to fish through again with Jimmy taking the bottom this time and I walked up to fish the top of the run. I was the first to hook-up, with a big colored-up hatchery buck that grabbed my fly and took off, ripping line from my reel when he realized he was hooked. This fish put up one heck of a fight, taking two long runs on me before I could work him back upriver and land him. Jimmy had heard my cry of “FISH ON!” and came to take a picture for me. After releasing my hard fighting fish, Jimmy didn’t waste any time getting back into the water and soon hooked and landed a nice wild fish of his own.

We were both fishing spey rods on the swing with type 8 sink-tips and rabbit leech patterns, which over the years, has proven to be the most productive way to go this time of year.

There are still a lot of Salmon around, so if you like to nymph for steelhead, make sure you have a good supply of egg patterns in your box because everything in the river is eating them.

The Patient Angler                     patientangler.com

Peter Bowers