BEND, Ore. — The bright-yellow strike indicator dipped under water, and I raised the rod tip. A small trout flipped out of the water, and I began stripping line to bring it to hand.
Two other fly anglers were nearby, casting for rainbow trout on the Deschutes River, just downstream of Tumalo State Park, north of Bend.
The Middle Deschutes, from Bend to Lake Billy Chinook, is open to angling with artificial flies and lures year-round, but anglers have about two more weeks to fish the 40-mile stretch before irrigation season ends and rising water levels make fishing challenging.
“Steelhead fishing has been really good this year, for the most part,” French said. “One of the better Julys we’ve ever had. August and early September has stayed good, with some ups and downs. The run over Bonneville (Dam) is greatly improved over last year, but still just a little bit shy of the 10-year average. We’re seeing really good numbers of wild fish, a little better than the 10-year average.”
Steelhead and chinook salmon returning to the Deschutes from the Pacific Ocean must make their way over both Bonneville Dam and The Dalles Dam on the Columbia River before they can turn south into the Deschutes on their way to spawning.
More than 280,000 steelhead are forecast to return to the Columbia this year, according to the ODFW, which does not make specific fish-run forecasts for the Deschutes. More than 90,000 of those are expected to be wild fish. Last year, about 230,000 steelhead returned to the Columbia from the ocean.
Now through the end of October is the prime time to fish for steelhead in the Lower Deschutes, according to French.
“The best fishing will still be Sherars Falls to the mouth (of the Deschutes),” French said. “But the numbers upstream of Sherars will improve significantly in the next week or two. We have really active creels on the Lower Deschutes, so we’ve talked with a lot of anglers. We’ve heard good things. Overall, it looks like a pretty decent season. Water temperatures have not been any sort of issue at all this year.”
On the Deschutes, steelhead can travel from the mouth at the Columbia all the way upstream to Pelton Dam near Lake Billy Chinook — about 100 miles. But the numbers of steelhead are always greater closer to the mouth of the Deschutes.
According to French, “B-run” steelhead, which are destined for the Clearwater and Salmon rivers in Idaho, often turn into the Deschutes for a spell before turning back out, which increases the number of steelhead near the mouth.
“B-run fish are starting to show up in the Deschutes in decent numbers,” French said. “They’re over 30 inches in length. They’re big fish. They get bigger because they stay in the ocean longer.”
The small town of Maupin — about 90 miles north of Bend — is a popular destination for Lower Deschutes steelhead anglers. Joe Ringo, an employee at the Deschutes Canyon Fly Shop in Maupin, said there are about 20 excellent steelhead-fishing runs between Maupin and Sherars Falls. He estimated that most anglers near Maupin are catching, on average, about one steelhead per day — a decent catch rate for the elusive oceangoing rainbow trout.
“The steelhead generally don’t like the sun, and they hold up in the riffles to feel like they have protection overhead,” Ringo said. “But you can hook more fish in full sun with a sink tip and a big fly than you can in low light.”
French said that steelhead are not typically found in deep pools, as salmon might be. He called this year’s fall chinook salmon return “robust,” adding that some of those chinook — all wild fish — are driving the steelhead out of those deeper pools in the Lower Deschutes.
