The other day was so sunny and nice that I had to get out and fish somewhere. I only had the afternoon, so I grabbed my box of streamer flies and a 6wt rod with a streamer line on it and headed out to the Deschutes River just upstream from town to see if I could find a few fish. I hiked up and started fishing below some riffle to run areas concentrating on working my fly through the slower water as close to the bottom as possible. I twitched and stripped a 3 inch lead-eyed Tan Hare Sculpin at different speeds trying to find the right movement that would attract a fish. My first fish came while I was just swinging the fly through a slow pool like swinging a fly for steelhead. My fly came to a stop with a bump and I had a nice 12-inch Rainbow bending my rod. A short time later, again on just a swing, I found a 14-inch Brown Trout that thought my fly looked like an easy meal and fought him to hand for a quick release. I hit a dry spell for a while and changed my luck by moving to another pool where I caught another Rainbow and later hooked something big that broke me off right after the take. I’m sure it was that big Brown I was looking for. That was all the action I had, but it was all I needed to scratch that fishing itch on such a nice day.

The Patient Angler

Peter Bowers