Deschutes Salmonfly Hatch Report

A long overdue fishing update...

Fishing has been outstanding on the Lower Deschutes River.  The Maupin area has been on fire.  Lots of golden stones and slamonflies in the bushes.  Last Friday around 2:30 pm we had a flurry of Pale Evening Duns and Green Drakes.  The trout went nuts over the mayflies for about an hour, then back to eating stoneflies.  What a great day!!  Even though it was the start of Memorial Day weekend, the hot cry fly action made the river seem not too crowded.  The White River has been in wonderful shape, making the lower river down to Mack's Canyon a great option.  Of course the river upstream from town has been fishing very well too.

The Trout Creek to Maupin float is where its at if you want to see the best of the Deschutes.  Fishing is great with stonefly dries the whole 35 miles of this float right now.  The bugs are really spread out, and even the day stretch from Warm Springs to Trout Creek has been great.  The better fishing is still towards Maupin, but will eventually progress up river.

We were fortunate to have a week of hot weather just as the stonefly hatch began.  The bugs were in the air and on the water, and the trout keyed in right away.  Cooler weather since then has kept the bugs in the bushes for the most part, prolonging the dry fly action.  The river also dropped from around 6,000 cfs at Pelton Dam to a perfect mid 4,000 range just in time for the hatch.  We could not be set up any better!

Over the next couple weeks I expect some increased mayfly activity, as well as more great stonefly fishing.  Start looking for PMD hatches around noon also, and keep an eye out for green drakes around two or three in the afternoon on cloudy days.

I have some great photos that I will post up as soon as I get them uploaded.