The goal for springs first outing is fish, food, fires and fun! To be honest, fishing was a little on the tough side. While we saw a variety of bugs, the hatches were sparse. The fish were not active so you had to grind them out. But the work paid off as several good size trout & whitefish were landed.

Nymphing tactics were best with Euro nymphing edging out Indicator tactics. When the wind picked up I relied on drop shoting, the extra weight helps keep the line tight. Our best patterns were tried and true favorites; hares ear, pheasant tail & prince nymphs around size 14. To switch things up Rich tried swinging steamer and got a ripping strike from a big trout that threw the hook on the surface.

For the most part the weather was nice but we did have a pretty good rainstorm blow thru Friday night and another one late Saturday afternoon.

The water was a touch off color and on the high side, flowing at 4,700cfs. This is just high enough that we needed to hunt for new spots as most of our usual productive places had too much current. The water temp was on a rising trend, maxing out at 48 degrees in the afternoons.

Even with the fishing being a little slow, the Deschutes canyon greening up in spring is a great place to be. We heard lots of chuckars, saw plenty of deer and the weather was good. Our goal of fish, food, fires and fun was achieved!

Next months Fish A Long will be at Schmedeke Pond. Here’s a link to last years report to whet your appetite. Hope to see you there!