Meet Baby Paley, Fishing Around Bend, and Deschutes Steelhead Report

Another long time in between posts... sorry!!!  Well in my own defense there has been a lot happening in our house lately.  On July 19th Cairn and I had a baby girl, Paley Loran O'Donnell.  She weighed 10 lbs 4 oz!!!  And in the 98th percentile for here length - 22 inches.  She is beautiful and amazing.  Bright, alert, strong, and active.  She sleeps through the night.  She doesn't cry much.  Is that normal?  For the first time in my life there is a place I would rather be than on the river... I can't wait until I can take her down the river with me!  Cairn went through a lot, much more than usual, but is recovering quickly and doing awesome.  We have entered a new chapter of life and couldn't be more excited about it.  Now I really have to work hard... so lets go fishing!

We showed up in Bend for a doctor appointment on July 3rd.  Cairn is dilated.  So we decide to stay in Bend to avoid any scrambling to get to the hospital from Maupin.  Well long story short we had Paley July 19th.  She was nine days overdue.  So what does a guy do while hanging out in Central Oregon for three weeks?  It didn't take long for me to begin wandering around the Upper Deschutes River watershed.  I spent time with good friends and family chasing big rainbows, browns, and even largemouth bass!  It helped pass the time and it was good for me to break away from the Lower Deschutes and enjoy some of the other fisheries I used to hit when i lived in Bend.

In other news (as if there is any other news!) steelhead season is well under way.  Good fishing began while i was waiting in Bend for baby to come.  I got phone calls, emails, and text messages about how good the fishing was.  My first trip was after Paley's birth on July 28th.  Since then I have been on the river swinging for steelhead just about every day.  Fishing has been all over the board.  I have had some incredible days and skunk days with no rhyme or reason.  We have been finding a couple of fish most days, with more experienced anglers taking the lion's share.  A few highlights from the past few weeks include a good number of first ever steelhead, a lady angler who hooked around ten or twelve steelhead over the course of four days while here male fishing partners each landed two fish.  The anglers shall remain nameless to avoid embarrassment!  At least one of the two fish one of the guys landed was a 15 lb monster buck... that was also a highlight.  Fred Patton's daughter, Cathline, caught a whopping 14 lber from a tiny riffle on a super short cast.  Last night, after a long fishless day, Ryan Nelson hooked up on his last cast!  The fish left the run, cartwheeling all the way, and we had to chase her.  After a short but super hot battle we were cradling a six pound immaculate wild hen that brought tears to Ryan's eyes.  That is a hell of a way to end the day.  The good news is that we will still be running hard for at least two months!

We have a few spaces left for both day and camping trips between October 25 and November 6 if anyone is interested in putting together a fall trip with us.  Fall is time for big fish with almost no fishing pressure.  Call Cairn at (541) 720 - 2633 for the fastest service.

Thanks for reading,

Chris