Deschutes River Fishing Report - August 31, 2010

I had the most fun day of guiding yesterday! Before I tell you about that, I want you all to know that the entire river is open, the fires are long gone, some of your favorite areas may be a bit charred, and steelhead fishing has picked up a bit. So, yesterday I guided Mark O'Meara and his Caddy, Shane. Mark has been a regular customer and friend of ours for at least 12 years and he is an AVID steelhead angler. We had a very nice float on a perfect cloudy day on the Deschutes. The steelhead were quite cooperative and Mark got three and his caddy got one. Nice fish, all of them. We were most successful on dull flies with no flash in them, the Lady Caroline was our top performer - but maybe that's just because Mark and I were singing "Sweet Caroline" to the fly as we swung it through the runs. By the end of the day, we determined that the lady was a bit of a tramp after hooking all those steelhead...."That's why the Lady is a Tramp!" Okay, enough with the musical references. I posted a few pics here from the trip yesterday.

If you are still considering a guide trip for September or October, give us a call soon because nearly every spot on the guide calendar is full. If you want to fish in November or December, consider a trip on the John Day River. We are guiding camp trips and day trips on the John Day this year and would love to share those waters with you.

Trout anglers rejoice, for the the coming month of September offers excellent mayfly and caddis hatches and a chance to enjoy the river without any of the normal summer time crowds. No matter where you are fishing on the river for trout, if you choose to nymph for them you are always in danger of having a steelhead grab the fly, so you may want to consider using 4X Flourocarbon for your nymphing. The added strength may help you land a few of the bigger steelhead that you may encounter.

The prime time months are now upon us - which means that the Deschutes will be packed with steelhead anglers from now through October. Keep your cool and keep the lines of communication open to avoid river conflicts. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Think about the golden rule before you step into a run if there is anyone else around you. Everyone is out on the river to have a good time - or they should be...so respect the space of others and find your own piece of river to enjoy. Waves of steelhead are moving up the river and spreading out as they come. Try to cover as much water as you can as quickly and efficiently as possible and you will surely encounter a fish or two in doing so.

Tight lines!!

Amy & John Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop in Maupin, Oregon

Deschutes River Fishing Report - August 28, 2010

I was out on the river yesterday guiding steelhead and I will report that overall the fishing has been fairly average to spotty. We hooked one fish which jumped high and threw the hook, and had a few other plucks and grabs but not much excitement for all the great water we covered over the course of the day. We had a big camp trip on the lower river on Mon - Thursday and they had spotty fishing...which is to say that one day two of three boats went blank and one boat hooked five steelhead in one run. Then, on other days, everyone hooked fish because they happened to be floating through pods of fish. That's the honest fishing report...no fluff...but steelhead fishing is steelhead fishing and things could change by today (happens to be the first cloudy day in a while) or tomorrow.

One thing that my staff, John, and I were discussing this morning is that the river is DISGUSTING thanks to the extremely poor pooping etiquette of river users. Okay, maybe you don't see it when you are in the water, but if you step into any shady area right on the river's edge I will put money on it that you will find traces of toilet paper or WADS of TP along with human feces. Hey people, this is NOT OKAY. Road fishermen, there are plenty of toilets at day use areas and campgrounds along the road. If you are on the other side of the river or you can't make it to a toilet, how about carrying a trowel with you to bury your waste? You can buy a small folding one at REI or a simple one at any garden store or Home Depot. The thing that is most annoying of all is that most of the unburied piles of doo are deposited right smack in the middle of the nicest shady spots for camping or mid-day resting. In prime camp sites all along the river we find huge waste piles....do people think these are going to go away? They are there for the rest of the season and in some cases for years. Toilets are mandatory for overnight float trips - so why don't people use them? This is beyond me. If you are on a day trip, nature is going to call at some point in the day. The very least you can do is not leave your feces in the middle of the trail or on the edge of the river. Be a decent human being and walk to the other side of the railroad tracks or walk 150 feet from the river to do your business, please.

So, besides the obvious TP hatch that has been taking place ever since steelhead season has begun, trout anglers will have some very good dry fly fishing in the mid day on small mayflies. A size 18 PMD imitation or even a parachute adams will work to match this hatch. I would have more specifics but we were focusing on steelhead when the hatch was happening. The caddis clouds in the evening are intense. So be ready morning and evening with good caddis imitations.

Tight lines...and watch your step along the river!

Amy Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report - A fire update. I am posting the fire update this morning to give you the most up to date information I have. This is the site where we get all of our fire info, so if you look here it will give you as much up to date information as is possible on the fire. I know nothing more about the fire than what I read here.....

It is supposed to be very windy today, which could make matters worse with the fire, but they have 900 people working on stopping the spread of this fire, so we can only hope that they are able to stop it. It is mainly burning on the west side of the river but it has jumped the river to the east side a few times. The hot shot guys were able to put the small fires out on the east side. This is mostly happening in the area of the Deschutes Club which is upstream of the locked gate. The fire goes from Nena Canyon south. You can see it all on the above web site.

As a result of fire closures, the river is EXTREMELY crowded on the segments that are open. To give you an idea, on Monday last week there were 39 boater passes between Buck Hollow and Mack's Canyon, and this Monday there were 168. That's four times as many boaters and that doesn't even touch upon all the extra road traffic. It is pretty busy. Read on to the reports I wrote this week to check up on the fishing.

Tight lines,

Amy Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report - August 24, 2010

The Deschutes is still closed to all activity (camping, fishing, and floating) from Trout Creek to Harpham Flats due to fires. The BLM expects that the river will reopen by Friday, but they think it is too soon to say for sure. We are supposed to have a very windy day on Thursday. The moon is full tonight, which can make trout fishing a little tough, so hang in there and don't be afraid to resort to deep nymphing. Despite the moon, the evening caddis hatches and trout activity have been super strong.

Steelhead fishing is pretty normal - about one hook up for every 12 hours you fish. If you hook more than that, count yourself lucky. The people who experienced last year's return are bound to be a little disappointed, but the steelhead fishing is pretty on par for a regular return this year in the Deschutes. Some days are better than others and we are starting to see the fish in little waves, some days you hook several in the first stop and nothing for the rest of the day. Keep the faith and you are going to run into chrome eventually.

As a result of the rest of the river being closed, we are seeing 5-8 times the number of boats and people on the lower access road than we would normally be seeing this time of year. Apparently, with the rest of the river being closed, everyone had to head down to Maupin for fun and adventure.

Despite what you read in this fishing report or any other, you really can't wait to hear good news...if you do, then you already missed what might have been the best day of steelhead fishing ever. Hard core anglers will fish no matter what and will enjoy the day whether they hook into steelhead or not. If an angler can't enjoy a day on the river without hooking fish, then he/she should target bass or bluegill instead of steelhead. Hooking a steelhead is a privilege and not a RIGHT.

On a side note, I had a really fun evening on Sunday with a rag tag group of golfers who rolled in from Sunriver after the PGA Tour of Champions. Mark O'Meara was dying to swing a fly that evening, so he hit the river and I grabbed his caddy, Shane, Nick Price, and Nick's caddy, Matt, and took them on an adventure. We drove along the river and checked out Shearer's Falls then drove through Tygh Valley along the White River and up to our ranch. We sat on the edge of the canyon and had a couple of beers and Nick commented that Central Oregon really reminded him of his home country of Zimbabwe. I agreed since Zim was about six weeks of my round the world fly fishing trip. We compared notes of fishing spots around Zimbabwe and Zambia and South Africa. After hanging out enjoying a view of Wapinita Rapids from our building site, I had to feed my horse (daily chore) so we walked down to the barn and loaded the wagon with hay. Before I could turn around, Nick was off across the field pulling the food out to my horse, Scout! His caddy took photos to capture the moment. Needless to say, Nick Price is a really down to earth guy. I now have another golfer to cheer for on the Tour of Champs. I figured a country adventure would be more fun than hanging out at yet another hotel room for these guys who are on the road for half the year. After our ranch adventure we met up with Mark O (who had landed a steelhead that night and was very happy) and had dinner. It was a very fun evening.

Hopefully everything will be back to normal on the river by the weekend.

Tight lines,

Amy & John Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

August 22, 2010

The latest news on the fires: Ignore everything I wrote yesterday morning - the winds picked up yesterday afternoon and evening and blew the huge Warm Springs fire down into the Deschutes Canyon in the area above the locked gate. The river is now closed from Trout Creek to Harpham Flat and all recreation upstream of Harpham including camping and fishing is closed. Last night the BLM evacuated Devil's Canyon and Longbend campgrounds. The sad news is that the fire made it down to the river at Dant and burned two cabins in Dant (according to the news). According to a first hand witness who just drove down from North Junction and who is standing in the shop right now, the cabin belonging to Len Dick and Roger Bachman on river left of the Deschutes Club area has burnt to the ground. The fire is now directly across from the Caretaker's house at the Deschutes Club and so far the fire has not jumped the river. The winds are ripping again today but they may blow the fire back upon itself if we are lucky. The fishing will be negatively impacted in the sense that you will not be able to float from Trout Creek to Maupin, and that you are not able to go any further up the access road than Harpham Flat. Here's a copy of an article I just read:

"WARM SPRINGS, OR -- Two cabins were lost in the Dent area, and eight cabins were evacuated and are at risk from a wildfire that broke out Tuesday on the Warm Springs Reservation.

According to the Warm Springs Agency, the Deschutes River is closed to rafting from Warm Springs to Maupin. 100-plus rafters are stranded upriver above active fire. Further evacuations are in progress on the east side of the Deschutes River.

The White Lightning Complex is burning over 10,400 acres and is 5 percent contained. The fire consists of seven lightning-caused fires on the Warm Springs Reservation 30 miles north-northwest of Madras, Oregon. 647 fire personnel are fighting the fire, which is burning in dry grass, sage, juniper and pockets of pine and oak in rocky, rugged terrain.

The White Lightning Complex is being managed by the Northwest Oregon Interagency Incident Management Team. The Incident Command Post is located at the Fire Management Complex in Warm Springs."

That is about all I know....Tight lines!

Amy & John Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

August 21, 2010 9 AM

River update: Maupin dodged the bullet on the wildfires so far. Those of you coming out here to fish will probably not even notice any difference from any other time you have fished out here - other than a little smoke in the air. The fires made it down to the river by Shearer's Falls and there are quite active fires right now raging up in Nena Canyon. We had some intense fire on the edge of Wapinitia Canyon up by the township of Wapinitia. John spent the day helping Brian Silvey fight fire on part of his property. Fortunately the buildings were just out of the fire's path. Thanks to a ton of fire crews from all over the state, things seem to be pretty well under control now. The access road has not been closed - but the river was closed yesterday to all activity (fishing rafting boating camping) on the small stretch from Maupin City Park to the Sandy Beach. This is the main rafting stretch. No news yet on whether that has reopened, but my guess is that it has. If you float the lower river from Mack's to the mouth, you should expect some smoke as a result of the fire at Fall Canyon. I have not seen it first hand so I don't know if it burned all the way down to the river but Travis' brother is a smokejumper and he was on that fire up until today. Now they have pulled his brother and other smoke jumpers out of Fall Canyon and they are headed down to Medford. That is pretty much all I know about the fires. We got 300 phone calls yesterday asking when the fires would be out...there's a brilliant question....who knows? I do know that your recreation as an angler will not be delayed or interupted on the Deschutes this weekend unless we have more lightning or an unexpected wind event that drives the currently burning fires towards the river.

The weather has cooled way down so the fishing should be really good this week.

We'll see you on the river!!

Amy & John Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

August 19, 2010 If you tried to reach the shop today but could not get through it was because our power was out for most of the day. We are having massive grass fires all around Maupin and we heard that a helicopter carrying water hit the main power pole for Maupin which is why the whole town has been unplugged all day. It just came on this afternoon at around 45. I am going to close the shop now (50 PM) but will be in early tomorrow morning to get everything straight. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. It has been pretty crazy around here and I spent part of the day evacuating my horse from our property which is literally in the line of the fire. I hope the wind dies off.....

Deschutes River Fishing Report - August 18, 2010

Well, I am starting to get grief over the phone for not posting a fishing report in SO LONG...so I thought I better put all of my other work aside and get to typing on this fine cool morning. We had a massive thunderstorm last night with hundreds of lightning strikes right on top of the town of Maupin. There are now at least 25 different fires actively burning on Juniper Flat, so it's a good thing the wind is dead calm. The smoke in the air is sometimes a welcome break from the blazing August sun, and it can actually be thick enough to create a false cloud cover, which makes midday steelhead fishing quite productive.

I guess my last post regarding nymphing vs swinging didn't offend too many people...it was written in the least offensive manner possible....I really don't care how you choose to pursue steelhead, unless I am guiding you and have the responsibility of sharing technique and history and beautiful water with you. In that case I will share Spey casting and swinging a fly on a floating line because that is the technique for which I have passion and in which I have the most confidence.

Recently, Travis found a book by Jock Scott which was printed in 1952 in London, the title of which is Fine & Far Off, Salmon Fishing Methods in Practice. After he finished reading it, he shared it with John and me. I found it delightful and refreshing to learn that the fishing technique feuds were the same then as they are now. To quote Jock Scott from the very first chapter of this book....

"In all probability, these pages may annoy, and possibly infuriate, certain anglers. If so, I am sorry; but if we all thought alike, fishing would be a dull affair. A few weeks before these lines were written, I was fishing with an ardent exponent of the sunk fly, and he abused me most vehemently for greasing my line; in fact, he could hardly have said more if I had fished minnow in what was rather sacred fly water. Now to my mind this attitude is narrow-minded, and it is usually prevalent amongst those whose fishing is confined to one or two waters....where so many anglers trip up is in the habit of riding an idea to death. They acquire some method which gives good results, and straightway hurl all others to the winds, apparently under the belief that they have found the universal poison suited to all times, weathers and waters; and should any luckless wight venture to disagree, the vials of their wrath are poured on his head. At the risk of incurring a similar fate, I should like to say that, in my view, there is no such thing as the universal method - there never has been, and never will be. That is one of the endless delights of salmon fishing."

For me, the appeal of the sport of fly fishing is that it is constantly changing and thus is constantly challenging. Even if you only fish one river all year long, that river has changes in flow, in weather, in hatches, in migrations of fish species, and more that I can't even think of right now. If you don't change your technique, your fly, your fishing depth, etc. to match the conditions or hatches of the day, chances are good that you will fail to encounter fish. Then again, on some days the fishing is just generally all-around sour and no amount of changing technique will bring success. Conversely, on some days it doesn't matter what technique you employ...everything works because the fish are happy and on the bite. If you try a new technique for the first time on either type of day, sour or sweet, you really won't be able to draw conclusions about the merits of the technique. Fishing is like science, the more extensive your data base, the more trials you have, the better able you are to draw conclusions. The problem is that there is no control and lots of variables. So, the only thing to do is to fish a LOT!! Okay, on to a less rambling and more comprehensive fishing report.

Trout fishing in August: It can be tough in the mid-day when it gets really hot and the fish are seeking shade or going deep. If you can rally yourself to get up at the crack of dawn to fish hard until 10 or 11, this is likely to be your best fishing of the day. The last hour of light is also a good bet - especially since the caddis hatches will be off the hook in the evening. The caddis are king in August. There are still quite a few aquatic moths hanging on and craneflies are out in good numbers, but caddis are the first go to pattern of the day. Dead caddis will blanket the water in the morning, so be sure that you have good dead caddis imitations for the crack of dawn fishing. Stop in and we'll show you the best patterns of the 300 or so dry fly caddis we have in stock.

A great searching technique is the dry dropper combo with a bead head nymph trailing 18-20 inches off the bend of the dry fly hook. Keep the bead head to a 16 or 18 for best results. Nymph down deep in the mid-day (or all day if you choose) and you will find some big boys hanging down deep. Be prepared to lose nymphs to the bottom and to the odd steelhead.

Speaking of steelhead, we have been having some fun in the lower river on a few camp trips recently. Our crack staff of guides had an excellent trip last week and the week before and, I assume, this week went well but they are due off the river this afternoon. I changed out all the photos to show you some lower river chrome. Floating lines and swinging non-weighted wet flies or surface skaters did the trick to the tune of double digits per day in our guide boats. Water temps were good in the morning and questionable in the evening, which is par for the course in August. The guys who fished the evening session broke off or lost quite a few steelhead in an effort to horse them in quickly. The fish were not lifted out of the water nor were photos snapped in the evening sessions of fishing due to water temps in the high sixties. The cooling trend should help the evening water temps over the next week or so. Other than some warm water, the river has been in great shape.

You can't read the news or even a fishing report when it comes to steelhead....you have to just get out there and fish and you will be the one making the news on the day the river comes unglued! Tight lines....

John and Amy Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop in Maupin, Oregon.

Deschutes River Fishing Report - August 10, 2010

I won't lie to any of you, the river is pretty dang busy in the month of August with a bunch of rafters. This can make fishing a less than serene experience when hoards of yayhoos are screaming "Catchin Anything?!?" as they paddle through your prime dry fly water. You can manage to avoid the rubber hatch by fishing really early in the morning in the paved "splash and giggle corridor" 10 miles downstream of Maupin to 5 miles upstream of Maupin. When you see the first floatilla of rafts headed your way, reel up and fish the water upstream of where they launch or downstream of where they take out. These are the non-paved stretches of river. The early morning fishing will be mainly a dead or spent caddis game - unless you modify your elk hair caddis with a serious pair of scissors, you will not even be in the game with a pattern that looks that lively. All the caddis that hatch in the evening are dead on the water in the wee hours of the morning and those make up the majority of the trout's breakfast. The best patterns are those that lay flat on the water - antennae are a nice realistic touch. Later on in the day you will want to seek out the shaded water where trees over hang the river and the current is strong. Trout are seeking as much oxygen as they can get right now, so you are fishing over a wasteland unless you are fishing the foamy boiling water. A good approach to the mid-day is to fish a caddis or aquatic moth imitation with a small size 16 or 18 bead head dropper hanging 18 inches below the dry. A diving caddis or caddis pupa is an excellent choice for a dropper.

Now, the topic that many people are most curious about.....steelhead. Yes, the dam counts are big, yes, there are steelhead in the Deschutes, but overall I would say that steelhead fishing isn't absolutely bonkers as the dam counts would lead you to believe. On average, anglers are hooking one to two steelhead per day when fishing a solid 12 hours per day. Once in a while you strike the jackpot and run into multiple steelhead holding in one run, but that is the exception rather than the rule. Most of the steelhead are holding from the mouth up to Shearer's Falls - with a few trickling in above the falls and in the Maupin area. I would say that traffic has been outragous for the early season and it is bound to get even more crowded as we head into the prime time months of September and October. A crowded river can lead to a lot of frustration if you only know one or two popular spots to fish. My suggestion, to alleviate your own stress level, is to explore new spots that look promising. Either that, or stay home....no, seriously, there is nothing more rewarding than looking at a spot, giving it a try for the first time, and hooking a nice steelhead in your first pass through. A busy river will force you to do just that and it might be the best thing that ever happened to you.

For steelhead we are fishing floating lines and either skating dry flies or fishing non-weighted wet flies just below the surface of the water. No need to dredge or go deep as the steelhead have definately been looking up!! You haven't experienced true steelhead fishing until you have experienced an electrifying grab on a swinging fly on floating line. There is no mistaking the animal on the end of your line. You never ask yourself...was that a rock? Am I stuck on the bottom again? When you get that grab, the next thing you know you have backing ripping off your reel and a chromer cartwheeling at the end of your line!

I talk to a lot of guys making the transition from trout fishing to steelhead fishing. Many of these anglers are used to nymph fishing and they have gotten quite good at fishing in this manner over their years of trout fishing. When they come to the Deschutes, they naturally want to use the methods that they are most familiar with and most confident in using. They will hook a lot of steelhead using their nymphing methods, and on some days they may hook more than the guys swinging. I can see the logic in sticking to their familiar method of fishing and it makes sense....however, I think they are really missing the opportunity to dive into a new experience and to embrace the opportunity to hook fish in a way that may require a little more work but which offers fantastic rewards.

Here is the best way that I have found to put the nymphing versus swinging debate into an analogy that makes a lot of sense: I grew up downhill skiing and downhill ski racing in the midwest. We skiied icy groomed slopes all day every day and we got really good at that type of skiing. We could chew up a lot of vertical feet each day on our 300 foot tall Buck Hill. When I moved out of the midwest I went to Jackson, WY to be a ski bum. Stepping off the gondola on my first day on the big mountain I was faced with a new challenge - thigh deep powder! It was tough. I had 195 cm stiff slalom racing stock boards and I struggled with the deep powder and the tree skiing. Had I stuck with skiing the courdory groomed trails, I would have gotten a lot more vertical feet each day. I would have looked like a lot better skiier on the familiar groomed trails, but I flogged my way in the chutes and the deep powder because no ski bum in his/her right mind stuck to the groomed trails. At the end of the day in the Mangey Moose bar, none of the locals bragged about how many vertical feet of groomed slopes they skiied - it was all about the one great chute or the uncarved backcountry powder run that they worked hard for and enjoyed to the max. In time, after learning to float on the powder rather than trying to cut through it, I experienced what Jackson really had to offer that I couldn't find in the midwest - truly epic powder days! I didn't ski all that many runs in the day, but it wasn't about racking up vertical feet - I could do that on groomed trails, but I chose not to. I wanted face shots, powder immersion, that amazing floating feeling.....which I never would have experienced by skiing groomed trails. Swinging a skater on floating line is one way to ski the powder of the Deschutes. By doing so, you will truly experience the very best of what the Deschutes has to offer. Fly fishing is a sport of passion and nowhere will you find the passion of the sport running stronger through the veins of the anglers than during steelhead season on the Deschutes. I would guess that any serious fly angler sipping a beer at the Rainbow Tavern will look at you sideways if you start bragging about how many steelhead you jacked on while nymphing. You may as well sit in the ski town bar and compare how many vertical feet you racked up on the groomed trails with how many vertical feet the ski bum racked after he hiked 4 miles in deep powder to take one epic backcountry powder run. Ski the groomers if you feel safer and more comfortable, but you'll have to learn to ignore the screams of joy and howls of ecstasy coming from the guys floating through the powder in the trees right next to you.

Tight lines! Amy Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report: August 5, 2010

It’s been a fine week in Maupin with relatively windless days, lots of heat, and a little bit of smoke in the air thanks to a couple of wildfires burning in Sisters and somewhere over near the John Day River. We have been both trout fishing and steelhead fishing in the past week and I have a few stories to share from my experiences and from the cocktail hour conversations with our guides.

Earlier this week I was fishing a piece of steelhead water before work and I noticed a busy beaver working back and forth and up and down the bank. He would swim about 1/3 of the way across the river then back again, carrying twigs and branches in his mouth and looking very official. I didn’t worry too much about him negatively impacting my fishing, not the way I would with a river otter sharing my run, so I continued casting and working my way through the run with a floating line and a near-surface fly. I was really enjoying my morning solice on the river and my mind was drifting off when my friend the beaver popped up right under my swinging fly line and headed downstream towards my hook. I immediately began stripping the line to try to lift it off the water before my little buddy met up with the hook, but I wasn’t able to get the running line in quickly enough and the line went tight. The beaver slapped his tail and dove under water as slack line peeled off the water in front of me. I thought to myself, I hope I hooked him in the fur and not in the foot (as I had done one other time years ago). When the slack was gone and the rod started to buck I pulled steadily on the line to see if I could pull the hook through his dense fur. I figured him to be at least 20 lbs. during our brief battle, and I was just starting to plan how I would break him off when the hook pulled through his fur and freed both of us from what could have been an ugly situation. I checked the hook for fur or skin and found it to be clean, so I continued fishing down the run. About six casts later, I felt two beady little eyes boring into the back of my head. I turned around slowly to see Mr. Beaver glaring at me from the grass line about 15 feet behind me. As I was staring back at him I started thinking about how helpless I would be on this slippery rock if this little rodent decided to attack me. My mind flashed to the scene in The Big Lebowski where the Dude is relaxing in the tub when the nihilists break into his house and drop a marmot into the bath water right between the Dude’s legs….it’s a ferret, actually, but the reaction of the Dude is just about what my reaction would be in the middle of the river if this beaver decided it was payback time. Fortunately, I finished out the run without another encounter with the beaver and unfortunately without an encounter with a steelhead.

My staff have been hooking more than just rodents, in fact I think every one of our crew has had time in the last week to do a lower river float trip to the mouth (everyone except me and John) and the reports from down there have been fair to good. The steelhead seem to be in pods, so it is not uncommon to get 2-4 steelhead out of one run and then go the rest of the day through 7-8 more runs without getting a bump. The most interesting piece of steelhead data that I have gathered this week is that on several different occasions, on different days in a vastly wide geographic distribution, steelhead have shown a preference to a skated dry fly. Case #1 – Evan dropped into a run the other morning which had just been combed by a good angler swinging a wet fly. Not knowing the run had just been fished, Evan decided to swing a skater through the water. About four casts into the run, he got a huge boil to his skater. On the next cast Evan landed a 10 lb hatchery steelhead on his skated dry fly. Case # 2 – Gordon and a friend fished their camp water one morning and each got a steelhead on the first pass on your standard non-weighted wet flies on floating line. They made a second pass with the same flies and floating line and hooked one more apiece. One the third pass through, Gordon decided to fish a skater and he hooked and landed the biggest fish of the trip. Case # 3 – Andrew was fishing for steelhead this week using a floating line and swinging a wet fly pattern, also non-weighted. He got a good grab during which the steelhead pulled out all of his slack line (which he was holding in a loop) but the fish let go before the line came tight. He cast back to the spot a few times and worked through the spot carefully with a few different wet flies to see if he could get the steelhead to come back. No dice with the wet flies. Andrew tied on a skater and worked back through the area where he had the initial grab even though he had already scoured it with wet flies. Kabloooosh! A huge hole opened up around his skater and it was game on! Like Gordon’s fish, this was a monster aggressive steelhead that just wanted to destroy that annoying little skater!

So, there is no need to go down deep for the steelhead right now – unless you are going to fish in the middle of the day when the sun is blazing on the water and right into their eyes. Early season steelhead are mostly wild and are very aggressive to the surface flies. With a little smoke in the air thanks to a few wildfires, we have the equivalent of light cloud cover – which makes for great fishing conditions all day long.

Trout fishing has been a little tough lately, due partly to a full moon last week. Now that the full moon is gone, the trout fishing will get better. This time of year you have to be willing to fish in the heavy pocket water where the fish are able to live in the most oxygenated water on the river. The trout will also be holding tight to the banks in the shade of the overhanging trees. The menu for the trout reads: dead caddis, live caddis, caddis pupa, aquatic moths, and craneflies. If the clouds roll in we are bound to have some excellent mayfly hatches. Change flies often and try using a dry-dropper combo to get the attention of trout that may be sitting a little deeper in the water column. Of course you can get them down deep too with a cased caddis and a caddis pupa off the point.

Well, that’s the fishing report for Thursday, August 05, 2010. If you need anything for an upcoming trip, don’t hesitate to give us a call. Remember, we have a place where you can pick stuff up after hours if you are planning on rolling into Maupin in the evening or night. Have a great weekend! Tight lines,

Amy & John Hazel and the entire staff at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop on the main street in Maupin, OR.

Deschutes River Fishing Report: July 29, 2010

I guess you are wondering what took me so gosh darn long to get around to writing a fishing report...I never let two weeks go by without typing something out. Well, I don't have any grand excuses other than the fact that I am twice as busy here in the shop now that Andrew is gone and that I was on the Deschutes guiding for 6 of the past 13 days and trying to catch up in the shop on the other 7 of those days. Anyway, we completed our two Spey camps for this year and they went very well. We teach Spey casting all day on day one, then fish and teach on day two and purely fish on day three - putting all of our new Spey skills to the test. The weather was hot and the water temps were quite warm but we managed to hook a couple of steelhead never the less. As water temps have cooled a little bit coming out of the dam, thanks to an adjustment on releases by PGE, the conditions have been getting better and better for steelhead fishing. This is late July, so temps are always going to be awfully darn warm in the afternoons, and we have been taking it easy in the evenings when temps are over 68 degrees to avoid damaging wild fish by hooking and playing them. Morning fishing is the way to go and more productive by far than evening fishing....though neither has been unbelievable yet this year.

Trout fishing is going to be shifting a bit from a mid-day bonanza to a bit more productive in the early mornings and late evenings. Early morning trout will be found sipping dead caddis off the surface of the water - so it is best to imitate these bugs with Rocky Road Caddis, Slow Water Caddis, or even a size 20 x-caddis. Small craneflies come into play in the shadowy edges of the river in the mid day and all afternoon. I use a little parachute tan body fly to imitate the cranefly, and it never fails to hook a ton of trout. Trout may move into the more oxygenated riffle water for the next month, so don't ignore the pocket water with lots of foam. A dry/dropper combo is a great way to explore the heavy pocket water. If you feel like nymphing down deep, you will certainly find trout by getting down deep.

This morning I drove my cousin, Jason, down river to try to find a steelhead. He took our 3 day Spey camp and decided to stay for a few days before heading back to Eugene. We fished last night with only a grab but put in some effort this morning and we were rewarded with a really nice wild hen. His very first steelhead grabbed the fly hard, instantly took him deep into his backing, and was jumping up river from us while our backing was screaming off the reel headed downstream. THAT'S YOUR FISH! I screamed as the chaos ensued. I was playing guide and had two cameras around my neck in hopes of a hook up just like this one! After we landed and released the chrome bright fish, we headed back to town to tell some stories and share the pictures with the guys at the shop.

So, there are some steelhead around....by no means is it easy or gangbusters, but ot only takes one encounter to really make your day!

The lower you go in the Deschutes, the more likely you will be to encounter pods of steelhead. For this reason, the river below Mack's Canyon will be pretty busy this weekend, especially since the jet boats are off the river. The rafting traffic has been really heavy for the past couple of weeks too, and that can be a bit frustrating when they run over the water you are about to fish. I carry a whistle and give it a short blast to get the attention of the rafting party - after which I usually point towards the center of the river so they paddle out away from the steelhead holding water. A friendly wave as they float past at a respectable distance is the nice thing to do.

Other news of the past few weeks....lots of lightning strikes came down yesterday and today. We smelled smoke on the lower river like there was a fire somewhere, but the smoke wasn't really thick. It's normal for the canyon to burn to some extent every summer, and this summer may be particularly bad due to the wet spring and high grass. We'll see what happens. We have a huge orchard sprayer on our property which we use to protect the buildings from raging grass fires, so it is full and ready to go right now.

After ten years and many sets of plans, we finally broke ground on our house. It is amazing how exiting something as simple as forms and footings can be! I really wish I could go on vacation somewhere for the next 9-12 months and return to find the entire thing finished....but that's not going to happen. We are crossing our fingers that the roof will be on by October - but I don't want to jinx anything by saying that. We decided to put aside the plans to build a a spectacular fly fishing lodge, which we had planned to build alongside our house on the edge of the rimrock bluff over looking the river. The economy is not the best for lodge building, so we decided to just build our house and enjoy our view of the river with friends and family. Our place is outside of Maupin by about six miles and we have great views of Wapinitia rapid from all rooms of the house. The property is outside of the wild and scenic boundary, so we are fortunate to be able to see the river.

Since we will not be lodging clients on our own property, we have invested a lot into our deluxe camp trips on both the Deschutes and the John Day Rivers. In recent years we have done more and more Deschutes camp trips and we enjoy sharing the river with our customers in our luxury riverside camps. Recently we got delivery on a MEGA wall tent which we will use on the John Day for our November and December steelhead camp trips. Those trips can be cold and the days are short, so our 18 by 15 heated canvas wall tent will serve as a gathering area and dining room in the evenings. This tent is a huge! We have a lot of John Day steelhead trips booked already, but we have one trip which we will be booking on a seat by seat basis. This gives the angler who doesn't have a crew of steelhead fishing buddies a way to do a guided steelhead camp trip. The dates of the open seat trip are November 29, 30 and December 1 & 2. We have a total of 6 spots available, but we may have a few sold already. Give us a ring if you would like to discuss the trip. $1580 covers everything - guided steelhead fishing for four days, three nights of camping, all meals, etc.

Well, I made up for lost time by writing a bit more than normal. I will try to stay more on top of the reporting as the season goes forward. The river is in great shape, the White River is clear as a bell, and I will let you know if those conditions change.

Tight lines!

Amy & John Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report: July 14, 2010

We have begun to get a lot of calls about steelhead fishing on the Deschutes River because of the buzz surrounding the large early dam counts at Bonneville and The Dalles. Unfortunately the fishing has been extremely tough despite the dam counts. We have had several personal lower river float trips over the last week with little to no success. I (Evan) went down to mouth this last weekend and my buddy Rich Zellman caught the only fish for the trip. We didn't even have a grab the rest of the trip. Amy and Harley launched a few days later and experienced about the same amount of success. I also talked to a few of the jet boat guides on the lower river and they said very few fish have been caught. The obvious question is where the hell are those fish coming over the dams going? Our guess is many of those fish are staying in the Columbia river because it is substantially cooler then the Deschutes right now. As long as the Columbia runs cool and the Deschutes runs hot there is no incentive to move into the river. Hopefully over the next couple weeks it will be different.

The trout fishing continues to be strong with phenomenal evening caddis hatches where you can hardly breath they are so thick. The mid-day fishing has been steady as long as you seek the foam lines along the deep banks where fish will sip dead caddis, aquatic moths and crane flies all day. Plan on fishing dries with small 18 and 20 droppers throughout most of the day. Nymph fishing has also been strong as long you fish small flies with split shot. With the predicted cooler weather for the next week the trout fishing should continue to be strong while we all sit and wait for the steelhead to begin their migration.

Tight Lines

Deschutes Angler Staff

Deschutes River Fishing Report: July 1, 2010

The weather out here is simply spectacular! Not too hot, not too cold, light breeze, a few clouds rolling through and great bug hatches! The great thing about this weekend is that it is one of the quietest weekends of the summer. The town literally feels like a ghost town right now - even though the holiday weekend is upon us. I have speculated on this before and will do so now....I think that the fishermen think it is a zoo out here on July 4 with rafters and campers and they stay away. Fishermen with families have obligations to go to family picnics and other events, so they stay home and the river goes unfished. The rafting and camping crowd is looking for a place where they will have a fireworks show and that is NOT Maupin, Oregon where fireworks are illegal. So, this brings about a so called perfect storm and we end up having a very quiet weekend in Maupin over the Fourth. So be it.

If you do have a break this weekend and you can sneak away; we'll show you the bugs that have been really working for big trout. The main hatches are little yellow sally stoneflies, aquatic moths, caddis, and crane flies. Cloud cover will trigger good mid-day PMD hatches. The aquatic moth is best imitated with a white body elk hair style fly with the wing flattened out. The caddis are best fished in tans and olives right now. Use dead caddis in the morning and livelier patterns in the day and evening time. Fish right up to dark if you want to see the river go crazy with hatching bugs. Crane flies are small, use a tan body size 16 parachute to imitate a crane fly - it is my go to bug this time of year.

This being the first day of July, I will report that a few, very few, steelhead are beginning to nose up into the Deschutes. Reports from the mouth have not been anything to write much about, but the odd steelhead is being hooked in the lower river. The numbers over the dams look promising this year, and we have had quite a few people asking about the steelhead already this year. Look at the numbers going over The Dalles dam and also the numbers going over the John Day dam. If those numbers are fairly similar, it means that a lot of fish are staying in the Columbia and headed for destinations east. Judging by our recent angling reports, that is where the bulk of the early steelhead are headed, although we must keep a positive outlook and remember that it only takes one steelhead in the run to make your day!!

Yesterday was the last day at Deschutes Angler for our manager Andrew Dutterer. Sadly, he is leaving us to go on to graduate school. He may be working here a bit here and there over the next year, since he will be living in Bend. We wish him all the best. He is already missed.

I bring you a more positive upbeat message now....Deschutes Angler has just sealed the deal on a John Day River Guide Permit. We have been working on this for quite a while but have not been able to advertise until the final stamp of approval. We got the official letter on Monday. We have long been fans of floating and fishing the John Day - our closest river neighbor to the East. We are now happy to offer steelhead trips in late October through January as well as some bass float trips in the spring and early summer. This venue is really going to allow us to extend our steelhead season in the fall as well as get a jump on the spring fishing. Since anglers are allowed to fish from a boat on the John Day, we feel that the bass venue will be a fantastic one for young and old anglers (and those in between) who do not enjoy the wade fishing that can be challenging on the Deschutes. I foresee doing schools and lots of multi-day trips down that beautiful river. We are only about one hour from the boat launch, which is equal in time to driving to Macks Canyon. We have stocked up on bass flies for the JD and we have beefed up our camping equipment to include an 18 foot by 15 foot wall tent which we can heat in the winter and use as a mini lodge on colder nights during steelhead season. The dutch oven meals are Harley's specialty (he spent last winter on a 30 day trip down the Grand Canyon in December) so the gourmet roasts, breads, and hot desserts will be one of the many highlights of the winter trips. I will be posting a section on our John Day float trips on our web site in the next few days with prices and float types.

We wish everyone a safe and fun Fourth of July weekend and hope to see you on the water soon! Tight lines,

Amy & John Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report Friday, June 25, 2010

Nice weather all week has traslated into better and better hatches. The caddis and yellow sallies are really stong right now, so don't hit the river without a selection of patterns to imitate those bugs. The thing about fishing caddis on the Deschutes is that the standard old elk hair will not work all the time - unless you modify it. If I were to look down into my fly box and find only elk hair caddis, you can bet that I would be pulling out a pair of nippers to modify the elk hair. For starters, the hackle on an elk haor often hides the true body color of the caddis from the trout. Often the hackle is brown and the body tan or green, so through all the brown hackling you can't really see the body. When you pick up a reel caddis on the river and turn it upsidedown to see the body, you can clearly see the bright green abdoman, or tan, or grey, or black. This is what you want the trout to see on your imitation, so trim the hackle down on the belly of the elk hair caddis and you will have a better imitation right out of the gate. Better yet, buy a Kingry's better foam caddis. This particular pattern does a better job of showing off the abdomen of a live caddis than any fly I know. Additionaly, if you are fishing caddis first thing in the morning, you need to clip down the elk hair wing and splay it out from side to side to make the caddis look dead. Dead caddis are on the menu in the mornings, which is to say, the trout are seekign those bugs that mated the night before and are now laying on the surface of the water lifeless. The elk hair can be modified to do an okay job at this, but you can buy better patterns like the slow water caddis, or the rocky road caddis which are dead on imitations for the real thing.

I love the little yellow sally stonefly activity this time of year. I will be the first to admit that the flying sallies are not as obvious as their much larger cousins, but they are out there and their bright yellow body and orange butt of eggs is a huge trigger for hungry trout. We have a couple dozen patterns of dry sallies in the store. The guides are behind the counter to share their favorites with you when you stop by.

There, just took my first sip of coffee, know I can kick this fishing report into high gear. I'm going to let you all in on a little secret about the Deschutes....4th of July weekend is one of the quietest mellowest weekends of the summer. Most anglers are not on the river because they either assume it will be a zoo or they have obligations to spend time with their families. The rowdy rafting traffic is extremely light because the town of Maupin, and all the campgrounds along the river have outlawed fireworks of any kind due to fire danger. So, with no opportunity to watch a good fireworks show, this place just isn't as popular as you might think on the biggest vacation weekend of the summer. Tomorrow kicks off the Splash for Pink weekend here in Maupin which is a fundraiser for the fight against breast cancer. There should be lots of activity in town.

Big news in Maupin - the Maupin Market (which is located in the spot where Grave's Market used to be) is going to have its grand opening on the 30th of June. We are now going to have an excellent grocery store in Maupin with fresh produce, meat, a deli counter, espresso, grocery items, beer & wine, and a full liquor store. The new owners, Allison and Randy Bechtol, have worked very hard to make this dream a reality and to bring to Maupin a grocery store where we can stock our kitchens without having to make a 100 mile round trip drive into The Dalles. They have hired a great staff and we are excited that the town will be able to serve all of our visitors with fresh food at fair prices. Until they open their doors, we are selling ICE (cubed and block) for $1.50 a bag. Just ask for ice when you check out at the fly counter and our guys will fix you up.

I believe that we are going to have a little bit of overcast weather over the weekend, so the mayflies will be out in full force. Be armed with yellow parachute patterns from size 18 to 12 to cover your bases on PMDs and PEDs. Spunduns work very well too.

That's the news from Maupin...although I am actually writing this fishing report from a hotel in Arizona where I am here with family celebrating my grandmother's 95th birthday! You are in good hands with our staff in the fly shop and we will see you next weekend. Tight lines,

Amy & John Hazel and the staff at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report - Friday June 18, 2010

The river is back in great shape for the entire 100 miles from Warm Springs to the mouth. I didn't get around to posting a fishing report all week because I have been busy guiding. With four boats on the river every day, I can tell you that there are areas of the river, pockets actually, where you will find tons of 8-10 inch smolt and the adults seem to be on vacaction. This seems to happen every year and I attribute the temporary absence of the big trout to them moving to the spawning redds to take care of business. True, much of the spawning activity takes place in May, but spawning will continue through the month of June and is the reason that you may not find your normal resident bank feeding fatties in their usual haunts. If that happens to you, move on to another spot, and another, and if you are fishing from the road drive up or down stream several miles before stopping again. There are plenty of big boys slurping along the banks and we have been hooking nice fatties on dry flies every day. The great thing is that our trout are now looking up for dries from the very beginning of the day - so don't wait to see rising fish...they are near the surface looking for dead caddis in the mornings as soon as the light comes onto the water. If you don't have confidence in the dry, trail a small bead head dropper behind it about 18 inches. What this will do is get the trout who might not be right at the surface to look up for the shiny beadhead dropper. The trout typically tilt upwards as they inhale the dropper and, at this moment, they see your dry fly on the surface and continue blasting upwards to grab your dry. You set the hook in surprise when you see the splash on your dry and you land the trout on the beadhead nymph. Once you are getting all the fish to come to the dry fly, cut the dropper off. You won't need a dropper from about 10 or 11 AM onward.

Flies that we are using for dries right now are many. The golden stones are definately on their way out, but the big boys are still keyed in on a well presented golden stone dry fished tight to the grassline. Taking the place of the golden stone is the diminutive stonefly, the little yellow sally, who packs a punch of her own. These little stoneflies are bright yellow with orange egg pooches off the rear. We have about 20 different patterns for little yellow sallies because they are a critically important fly during this time of year. The yellow sally nymph fishes well as a dropper - amazingly well. The fly itself is a bit odd looking, but it is hard to beat.

In addition to yellow sallies, the caddis are here to stay. Now that we are experiencing warm nights, the caddis clouds are thick on the bushes every evening. They move from the bushes to the river to lay their eggs and the trout go nuts for them in last light. Everyone who has ever fished the Deschutes on a hot summer evening should recall the mayham that ensues when caddis are thick on the water. A chimp could pitch an elk hair caddis out into a riffle at last light and hook a nice redside! And who doesn't love those moments of stupid dumb easy fishing?? We all do! The next morning when you wake up and creep down to the river with your fly rod, you should still be thinking caddis. Cut off your elk hair from the night before and replace it with a caddis pattern that looks dead, flat, lifeless, wings askew, antennae splayed out, anything but a lively looking elk hair patterns! Trust me here, no Deschutes fly box is complete without dead caddis patterns - unless you don't ever fish in the mornings. We have dozens of patterns to imitate dead caddis, so stop on in and we will share our favorites with you.

Beyond yellow sallies and caddis, we are still experiencing great mayfly action all day. The cloudy days are always going to produce the strongest mayfly hatches, but they make themselves available even on the bright sunny days. PMD, PED, Pink Alberts, these are the main summer mayflies. Have a few yellow parachute patterns at the ready in size 16, size 14, size 12, and pink parachutes in size 16.

Often confused with mayflies, the tiny but mightly cranefly is also an important bug to take into consideration on the D. Craneflies are tiny and can be seen tumbling down river entangled in a love fest as they mate inches above the waiting trout. I fish a small size 16 tan parachute to imitate the cranefly and it is sometimes the only bug the trout will eat on a hot summer day. I would not go to the river without a few good cranefly imitations in my fly box.

Our private lakes are experiencing incredible damsel fly hatches right now. 20" + fish launching themselves through the air to grab the damsels in flight - it might just be about the most fun fishing you can imagine. Give us a call - the lakes rarely are open at this time of year because we normally have much warmer weather than this. If you are headed to the Deschutes for the great June hatches, consider a day on the secluded private lakes fishing dry flies for 20 inch or larger trout. It is not uncommon to hook 30 or more huge trout in a day on the lakes.

I have two very important announcements to make here in the fishing report: First, for medical reasons I had two anglers cancel out of our JULY 24, 25, 26 SPEY CAMP. Since all of our Spey Camps have been booked full for months, this is a GREAT opportunity to get in on the total Spey immersion camp. John and Amy Hazel are your instructors for all three days of this camp. We teach Spey casting for the first full day and guide you for steelhead on the second and third days. We have a great time around camp discussing steelhead and Spey technique, and it is a rare opportunity to be guided by John and Amy (since we rarely take new clients). Plus, this class is just a TON of fun!! Hopefully this cancellation will give two other people a chance to get in on our highest demand Spey class of the year.

My second and final announcement is one that I make with a heavy heart. Andrew Dutterer, our right hand man and shop manager, has decided to go back to school to earn a graduate degree. I'm sure that everyone who has spent any time in our shop over the past five years has had the pleasure of talking with Andrew. His articulate advice has helped many an angler hook their first Deschutes redside or steelhead. I, personally, have greatly enjoyed working with Andrew and think of him more like a brother than an employee. He will be greatly missed around here. Andrew will be here through the month of June and may fill in over the busy steelhead season, but he is moving on to a bigger and brighter future and we wish him all the best.

We hope to see you out on the water this beautiful Father's Day Weekend. Tight lines!

Amy & John Hazel and the entire crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report - Friday, June 11, 2010

The river dropped significantly over the past two days. It is still at mid-April flow levels, but it is clear and we have still been hooking lots of trout on adult golden stonefly patterns in the Maupin area. Our guides have been guiding down below Shearer's Falls and the clarity is good, through the water is quite high below the confluence with the White River. Pick your spots carefully and be ready to change your game plan because a lot of the spots you could normally wade may just be unfishable. To give you an idea, if it is normally shin deep it will now be waist deep. If it is normally waist deep....forget it. The weather is forecast to be absolutely gorgeous this weekend - finally!!! We are ready for some summer weather after the long and wet spring. We'll be here and open all weekend. We look forward to seeing you as you pass through town. All the best, and tight lines!

Amy & John Hazel and the staff at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report - June 9, 2010

Deschutes River Fishing Report - Wednesday June 9, 2010 The river is coming back into shape slowly but we are having a little bit of rain again today....but just a little bit. Will we ever see normal June weather or will we be stuck in this Juneuary pattern forever??? The answer to that question lies in the forecast which is excellent starting tomorrow and getting better and better through the weekend. Sunday is supposed to be 80 degrees! Hurrah! THis will help the river drop a bit. The clarity is actually fine for fishing, it is just a little difficult to find a good and safe place ot stand. If you are young and strong and confident in your wading, you won't have a problem. If you are nervous about being right on the edge of fast strong water, you may want to wait for the river to drop another 1500-2000 CFS. You can check the flows on our website, just click on the icon that says water flows. We also have good weather links on that page.

So, I mentioned that the clarity is decent and this holds true mostly above the White River but the White is clearing significantly too, so it should be getting better all around. From the reports we have gotten from anglers in the last three days, the fish are congragated in backeddies and are holding tight to the banks where there are no eddies. Dry flies have been producing well in the entire river - the trout are still wacking the golden stone dries, and mayfly hatches have been good every afternoon and evening. I was dining on a riverside deck last night watching tons of caddis hovering over the sage, pale evening duns rising from the river but getting eaten by the nighthawks, the odd golden stone bumbling in flight, and a few little yellow sallies making their debutante entry into the June melee.

June is my favorite month on the Deschutes....not yet too hot and so many more hatches are taking place than in May. Maybe not as many big stoneflies...but the green drakes and the yellow sallies more than make up for the void. Be armed with lots of ammo so you can change things up as the hatches change throughout the day. Hot days will equal fantastic early morning fishing on dead caddis patterns the morning after the hot weather hatch.

The cool wet spring has been a boone for our private lake venues. The Grass Valley chain of lakes is still fishing very well. We have had groups up there throughout the week and the dry fly fishing on callibaetis mayflies and adult damsel dries has been strong.

We have one single spot left available on our Spey clinic this Saturday. If you want to be able to cover a little more water and have a lot of fun doing it, come on out and use our Spey rods or yours to learn the ABC's of two handed rods. The class is a full day float on the river with John and Amy Hazel for $195.

One last thing to announce which is something that we are doing for the first time ever. We have a camp trip that is half-filled at this point. We have three spots availble for a four day lower river steelhead float trip on August 23, 24, 25, & 26 of 2010. Judging by the fact that the dam counts are twice as large as the ten year average, we expect this steelhead season to be phenomenal!! If you don't have a group big enough to reserve a camp trip, going in on this established trip as a single or as a couple is a great opportunity. This is four days of steelhead fishing during what is forecast to be one of the best steelhead returns of record. This is prime time with the best steelhead guides on the Deschutes! Cost per person to do this trip is $1588. We will fish from dawn til dark and will cover roughly 10 miles of river per day. This is a great trip at a great price! Give us a call if you want in on one of the three spots.

Tight lines!

Amy & John Hazel and the gang at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report - Sunday June 6, 2010 Brief Update: The river is still very much off color and high throughout the lower 100 miles from Warm Springs to the mouth. It did not seem to show signs of improving this morning. We expect that it will mellow out during the week since nice sunny weather is in the forecast. It is tough right now to even find a spot to stand. What would have been mid-thigh deep water last week is now mid-chest deep water. People are mostly nymphing with bright patterns along the edges of the Deschutes and some people have been successful at hooking some nice redsides with that strategy. The golden stoneflies are flying all over the place, but it will probably take a lot of dropping and clearing before the trout are once again looking up for the big bugs. We are definately on the back side of the hatch now - so we have lots of other fun hatches in the coming days including little yellow sally stoneflies, green drakes, PMDs, PEDs, Pink Alberts, Craneflies, and the staple of the trout diet for the rest of the summer....the good ol' caddis fly. Stay tuned for river condition reports.

Deschutes River Brief Update - June 5, 2010 Noon

It didn't seem possible that the river could get worse, but it has. Some of the low lying camp grounds have been flooded and the river is as brown as a rich glass of chocolate milk. Not good. I will post again when the condition of the river changes.

Deschutes River Fishing Report - June 4, 2010

This is going to make some of you a bit unhappy when I tell you that the Deschutes River is off color all the way through Maupin (about 1-2 feet of visability). Even worse is the condition of the Deschutes below the White River, which has a chocolate malt consistency. It is ugly. You can see the spike in the river on our water flows page - it is nearly 6000 at Madras and over 8000 at Moody. We have had a lot of rain over the past few days and this is why the tributaries of the Deschutes are muddying up the main river. Trout Creek is probably the main cause of the muddy water, but there could be other contributors higher up. I can't promise that any section of the Deschutes is going to be clear enough to fish well for the next day or so. That being said, the fishing was great yesterday while the river was going off color and a few anglers have been through this morning to report great success with bright nymphs tight to the bank on heavy split shot. San Juan worms and bright red lightning bugs will be your slavation this weekend....stock up! That's my quick report for now. We sent all of our guide trips today up to the private lakes which are fishing great right now! The cool weather and rain has not hurt the lakes at all - in fact they are cool and the fish are happy! If anything changes, we'll let you know through this report. We check on the river every morning and every evening when we get off work. Tight lines!

Amy & John Hazel and the staff at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report - May 27, 2010

This week we had overcast somewhat rainy weather and some excellent fishing ensued. The mayfly hatches were strong with a mixed bag of Pale Morning Duns, Pale Evening Duns, Blue Winged Olives, Pink Alberts, and even a few good days of Green Drake action! If you see the swallows swooping over the river, you can bet that some form of mayfly is coming off. Here's a good little trick...look along the river banks for an intact spider's web. If you find one you will surely find the recently hatched bugs that have been caught by the spider. If you see a mayfly that looks as big as a hummingbird, you can bet it is a Green Drake. The Green Drake hatch is a little earlier than usual as was the stonefly hatch(stay tuned for more news on that in a minute). The reason that some of these hatches came off one week to a week and a half earlier than normal is that they are plating around with releasing water from different levels of the reservoir behind the dam. Just a few degrees change in the water temperature are all that it takes to trigger a hatch 7-10 days earlier than normal.

Stonefly/Salmonfly Hatch - don't be alarmed...it is still happening. The golden stone females are laying their eggs all over the place - even on the main street in Maupin directly in front of our store. The orange salmonflies are pretty much gone from the Maupin area and you will be hard pressed to find much evidence of the golden stones in the bushes....HOWEVER, the trout are still very much keyed in on the big bugs and will be ready to grab them as they float on past. Most of the females has black egg pooches on their rear. This little black cluster of eggs is what I like to call CAVIER OF THE DESCHUTES. Crunchy & Tasty!! Just like the bright orange flying fish eggs we eat on our sushi, but tiny. The important thing is that you modify your fly patterns by using a black permanent marker to show the egg pooch. Having this little spot of black may mean the difference between hooking a few and hooking many. We have markers at the register if you need to modify your flies.

Our private lakes are still fishing really well. The callibaetis hatches have been strong and damsels are on the way.

We have a few spots open in a Spey casting clinic coming up on the 12th of June (a Saturday). If you want to jump in on this, it is a great way to prepare for what may well be another excellent steelhead return this summer. John and Amy Hazel (whom you may have seen presenting at the Spey Clave on the Sandy River a few weeks ago)are teaching this class which is limited to six people. The small class size allows us to float the river, cast on both banks of the river, and work one on one with each student to be certain that everyone comes away from the class with a solid foundation. The class is appropriate for anyone interested in Spey casting, from beginner to expert. If you want to take your Spey casting to the next level, come on out and get in on this Spey clinic.

This weekend is not as busy out here as you might think. What happens is that people assume that the river is going to be packed, but the rafting has not started yet (school is not out) and the majority of anglers are doing other family things on this weekend. Come on out and enjoy the Deschutes. We'll see you on your way to the river!!

Tight lines,

Amy & John Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report - May 21, 2010

We've had a week of cold weather and lots of wind and rain. Despite the horrible weather, fishing has remained good with big stonefly dry flies. The salmonflies (the orange ones) are pretty much gone in the Maupin area, but the golden stones are hanging in there and will become airborne and active again when the weather warms. John and I had our friends, Tim Rajeff and Katherine Hart, out for a few days this week and we went out fishing on Wednesday evening on the road near Maupin. In about 2 hours of fishing we hooked a few dozen nice redsides in 30-40 mile and hour gusts. Good thing those guys are world champion casters....because the wind was coming straight into our faces and water was screaming off the tops of the whitecaps. Every trout we hooked was hooked on a big dry fly golden stone imitation. No nymphs, no droppers, just your classic dry fly stonefly fishing, tight to the bank, short upstream presentations.

I just drove up the river this afternoon to run a shuttle for Harley, who is guiding an evening hatch trip tonight. It rained buckets and then hailed on us, but the sun was peeking out when we got to the boat launch. The weather has been a bit wild like that every day this week. As I drove back to town I knoew the fishing was getting better and better because the swallows were soaring low over the water picking off mayflies. We have had excellent pale morning dun and pale evening dun hatches for the last four or five days - so be ready to take off the stonefly dries and switch to a good yellow mayfly imitation. Parachute and spun dun patterns work well, as do cripples.

The good news about the cool weather is that it will keep the stonefly hatch alive for a while longer. The bugs stick to the bushes when the weather is this cool and they get up and fly when it gets warm. Our lakes are still going full tilt boogie, lots of big trophy rainbows eating dry flies. It's hard to beat that fishery. Travis had a trip for steelhead on the Sandy River yesterday and they were successful - I think one fish came to hand. That is wrapping up now.

We'll be here all weekend if you need any bugs, we've got 'em! Tight lines,

Amy & John Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report - May 13, 2010

Salmon fly fishing is definitely in full swing with plenty of bugs and the fish intent on eating every one that hits the surface. With the nice warm weather predicted for the weekend the fishing should only get better. I had a day off yesterday and fished for about 6 hours in town with a couple of friends and the fishing was incredible. No matter where we threw our flies fish exploded on them even the middle of the day when I expect things to slow down. Toward the end of the day we fished a favorite little nook trading the rod off with each fish between the three of us. We managed to hook and land 14 beautiful trout in 14 casts without taking one step upstream. Needless to say we are all jacked about the fishing right now and sitting in the shop is, needless to say, painful. Right now there are not many anglers around primarily because the hatch is easily a week earlier then expected. If you want to take a guide trip give us a call soon because we are booking up fast

The lake fishing continues to be strong with the hatches becoming more plentiful. We are starting to see the begining of the damsel hatch alongside strong midge and callibaetis hatches. A couple of people that were up there yesterday were even getting fish on stone flies and green drakes which aren't even found in the lakes. If you are interested in a some lake fishing we still have availability so give us a call.

Tigh Lines, Deschutes Angler Staff

Deschutes River Fishing Report - May 11, 2010

The weather has warmed dramatically today and the sun is shining brightly. The hot weather will always accelerate the salmonfly hatch, so make plans if you can to get out to the Maupin area this weekend. I heard reports that the salmonflies are already active on the bushes as high up as North Junction. I thought I would only see adult salmonflies but I also saw golden stoneflies when I got to the Wapinitia boat launch on Sunday. Here is a little video I made on Sunday morning at the Nena boat launch:

I posted the information yesterday about the private ranch that we are just now making available to customers called Badger Creek Meadows. The link to that information is here:

... Badger Creek Meadows Private Fly Fishing ,

I have not yet posted the photos and information about the cabin that is available to rent on the ranch, but I am working on it...The cabin prices will be very reasonable and it sleeps 6 comfortably. Check out the photo gallery of the ranch and I will work on getting the cabin photos online soon.

Tight lines!

Amy & John Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop in Maupin, Oregon

Deschutes River Fishing Report - May 10, 2010

I was out on the river all day yesterday doing a float from Nena to Maupin City Park and there are stoneflies everywhere on the bushes! Most of the bugs I saw were the big salmonflies, but there were some golden stones in the mix too. This is the very beginning of the big hatch, so the fish are just starting to key in on the big bugs. I was actually not fishing during this float because it was a maiden voyage of a raft that a couple bought through our store, and I was giving a rowing lesson. The few times I tossed the adult salmon flies into the foam lines, they were gobbled in short order by waiting trout. I saw quite a few bugs mating in the bushes and falling into the river, but very few were out on the wing. It was warm and the warming trend is forecast to continue, so this weekend should be an excellent one for avid dry fly anglers. Don't wait until June to think about the salmonfly hatch because you will miss it if you wait that long. The next three weeks will provide anglers an excellent opportunity to hook big trout on dry flies. The bugs are even thicker as you go down river and non-existant upriver in the Trout Creek area. Remember, this hatch is one that moves upriver as it develops. If you want to see the big bugs now, go downstream of Maupin. They have been out for a longer stretch of time downstream of Maupin and the fish are likely to be keyed in on them more strongly the further downstream of Maupin you travel. Be armed with lots of ammo - and don't hesitate to change patterns if you get rejection on your favorite pattern.

Deschutes River Fishing Report - May 6, 2010

The Deschutes River is in fantastic shape right now and we are starting to see the early hatch of salomonflies in the lower river. It happens every year that we see these early stoneflies in good numbers on the bushes around May 5. People come running onto the shop ranting about how the hatch is two weeks early this year, better get out there now or you'll miss it!.....not true. These active salmonflies at this time of year are what we call the False Hatch....a number appear but the acceleration of the real hatch doesn't get started for another ten days. That being said, trout are opportunistic little critters, so it doesn' hurt to try a big stonefly dry with a bead head dropper dangling 18 inches below it.

The next two weeks are a time that many of our wild native Deschutes trout will be on their spawning beds - called redds. It is up to us, the anglers that care about these trout and want to see continued great fishing in the Deschutes - to stay off of these sensitive areas and to remind fellow anglers to do the same. Trout are very vulnerable when spawning because it is the one time in the year when they are exposed and in shallow water. The rule of thumb to avoid spawing redds is to ask yourself if the spot you are in is easy to wade, easy to actually see fish, and you are hooking a lot of big trout with dark red sides and some have visible rub marks on their anal fin region or tails. If your answer to these questions is YES then you need to move on to a place where the water is deeper 4-7 feet and the wade is a challenge or non-existant. Many of the same big spawners will use a deep back eddy or deep rock wall as a feeding station in between sessions on the redds - and they are fair game at this point. ODFW posts signs along the road to remind anglers to stay off the redds and there are posts at each of the campsites. Please consider the future of the trout and remind others to do the same. Thanks!

This is Mother's Day weekend and the weather forecast looks to be perfect. I will let you in on a little secret...if you can be here on Sunday, you will find the river nearly empty of any people. It is the least crowded day in all of May - thanks to the Moms!

Private lake fishing has been spectacular. We had some awful windy days over the weekend and early this week, and that made it tough, but yesterday was beautiful and the fishing on the lakes was downright amazing. I am posting a picture of Buzz from Santa Monica taken on one of our newest private lakes venues called Badger Creek Meadows. This year is the first year that we will offer this private ranch with two lakes and over two miles of private access to the creek that flows through the meadow on this ranch. We have a ranch house that sleeps six and is complete with a full kitchen, dining room, living room with satellite TV, and a BBQ. The lakes have a wide variety of trout in them ranging from 14 inches to over 10 lbs - which really keeps you on your toes with every fish hooked! If you bring a small rod 2-3 weight, you'll have a blast hooking small trout hand over fist on big dry flies in the creek. I personally love creek fishing pocket water with overhanging trees and little pools and riffles. If you use a tiny rod, even the 8 inch fish in the creek feel like monsters! The ranch is completely private and set away from the rest of the world. It is one of Oregon's jewels. I will be posting a new section on our web page explaining the entire set up and cost to rent the ranch later today on our website. To wet your appetite I am posting one trout picture on this report.

Since the stoneflies are getting ready to com eout and some havce already started, the key right now is to fish big stonefly nymphs bounced along the bottom as well as cased caddis fished the same way. There are still good BWO hatches as well as Blue Dun hatches, and we are starting to see caddis and craneflies in the air too. The other thing we are starting to see are rattlesnakes. I had a big one about three and a half feet long mosey into our lunch spot on Saturday while we were enjoying a sandwich. He was on a very well fished stretch of river and right in the trail. I don't take my dogs on the river much, but I have had them vaccinated at the vet with the new rattlesnake vaccination because we have a lot of snakes on our ranch. The vacciniation is affordable and gives you a little peace of mind if your dog does take a bite. The dog will still have to visit a vet but the visit will likely last 5 hours instead of 4-5 days. Lots of ticks out there this year too! I only share this info because I am a dog lover, but I realize that the river bank is not a great place for my dogs.

We'll be here all weekend to help you get the secret weapon flies and good advice for fishing the Deschutes. I am working on a facebook page for Deschutes Angler right now with tons of great photos and good up to the minute info. If you want to be a fan or follower, simply search Deschutes Angler and you will see the page. Lots of good stuff is being added every day. All the best!

Tight lines!

John and Amy Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report - Wednesday, April 28:

The Deschutes River is coming back into shape nicely. The March Brown activity has gone way down, but for mid day dry fly action the blue winged olives and larger blue duns are really holding their own. Water clarity gets better by the day and the river is dropping fast. I hear good reports from the upper end of the river in the Warm Springs to Trout Creek stretch too, so we expect that the river will keep getting more and more clear through the week and will be fishing great by the weekend.

John and I were guiding on the Justesen private lakes on Sunday and Monday and the hatch on Monday was absolutely intense. We had a mix of really small chironomids and big callibaetis mayflies which were being picked off the water by hundreds of swallows. I took a few videos with a hand held flip video camera - these aren't the greatest quality but they give you an idea of what kind of hatches and opportunity for hooking multiple trout on dry flies we have on our lakes. Look closely in the glassy water and you will see rings of big trout sipping on dry flies.

This video shows the typical chit chat going on while guiding the lakes...near the end of the video, Jake (in the yellow tube closest to me) hooks a fish one minute after all of the other four guys had fish on simultaneously. We tried to get a video of all five guys hooked up at once but the fish were not cooperating.

This is certainly prime time for fishing the private lakes - there are very few weeds, the water is cold, the fish are extremely strong and jumpy, and we still have some spaces available - even on the weekends.

We are only a few weeks away from seeing the first big stoneflies on the bushes around Maupin. There are always some early bloomers that begin appearing in very small numbers around this time of year, but they don't start coming out in droves until May 16 or 17th. After that the entire hatch is weather influenced - the hotter the days the more the big bugs will fly. The cooler the days, the more likely the bugs are to stay in the bushes.

Exciting news in Maupin right now - the grocery store across the street from our fly shop is undergoing a complete gutting and makeover. They forecast a June opening date, so keep your fingers crossed! We will one day soon be able to stock up right here in Maupin - good food, fresh produce, beer, wine, etc. It beats driving to the Dalles to buy a fresh loaf of bread - 100 miles round trip!

If anything changes in the next few days, I will be sure to update the fishing report. Tight lines!

Amy & John Hazel and the crew at Deschutes Angler Fly Shop

Deschutes River Fishing Report - Monday, April 26:

Despite high water the Deschutes is fishing steadily. The clarity is relatively good for the high water (approximately 3 feet) and trout are responding to stonefly nymphs and bright attractor patterns. There are still March Browns hatching and caddis get more active all the time, but there hasn't been much activity on the surface in the last few days. It looks as though the river is dropping again quickly and at this pace it should be back in shape by the weekend. That is assuming that the rain that is predicted for the next couple of days doesn't do any damage. The whole river is open at this point now as the upper stretch opened last weekend. In high water be careful about where you step into the river- it will be deeper along the banks than usual. Also, before stepping into the river be sure to fish tight along the banks. Trout will push in tight along the banks in higher water. Make sure you put a fly in the water before wading through what may be a good holding position. If you make it out this way stop by the shop and we'll show you the most productive flies recently.

Justesen Ranch Private Lakes:

The private lakes are on fire right now. Great midge hatches, callibaetis coming on strong, and good sub-surface activity as always. The midge hatches have been strong all morning with the best action being from 10 am-noon and then again towards evening. Callibaetis hatches occur in the early afternoon and remain strong through most of the day. With the warm overcast we have coming on the callibaetis hatches should be outstanding. Also, there should be bugs hatching on and off all day long- lots of dry fly action! There are no weeds growing in the lakes right now and bank access is excellent. If you have a float tube or pontoon boat there are plenty of opportunities to use these. If you don't have a boat and want one we rent them by the day. Give us a call anytime to get set up on the lakes (541-395-0995). There are a lot of lakes on the ranch and we can typically get you up there and fishing even on short notice.

Hope to see you in Maupin sometime soon,

Deschutes Angler Crew