Good News and Bad News
Well, you have probably already seen it on social media, but I am here to report the bad news about the White River. Yesterday the White completely blew out the lower Deschutes. It was pure white with less than an inch of visibility. John had put his boat in at Beavertail in the morning. His buddy got two fish in the morning on small flies and floating line. By 10:00 AM they could see that the river was changing color and not long after that it was completely unfishable.
By noon, I had talked to enough people to know that this was a BAD blow out. We had cool weather all last week and the mountain got its first layers of snow. A lot of that snow melted early yesterday morning and started tumbling down the White River in the form of a giant mud ball. 
One of our local guides stopped in on his way back from looking at the White. He was disappointed that he would be forced to cancel a big camp trip set to launch today.
Wait a minute, what is the good news? Well, ironically, the good news is that the road crew was able to grade the lower access road a bit and it is a lot smoother now that the washboards have been smoothed over by a big blade. SLOW DOWN on that road, people! If the anglers and shuttle driver could just calm down and enjoy the drive, the road could stay smooth all year long. Oh, well, there won’t be many heading down there with the river looking like a latte.
I DO NOT have any way of telling you when the White River is going to stop impacting the Deschutes. I am not going to drive down there before work - I have too much to do. The White might stay this way for a week, it might clear up tomorrow, or it might already be clear as I type this report. The good news is that there is a LOT more river to fish if you simply go above the White River.
Have fun out there! We will let you know when we see the White River improve.
Update: 9:45 AM Thursday - the volume of the White has dropped significantly overnight. We believe it is fishable now, but there will be some color and you may want to use sink tips and flies with a bit more bulk.
Enjoy your trip. Thanks for all the reports.
Thanks for the update. A couple of weeks above the falls, I had a big truck with a boat on the back, inches from my bumper, weaving back and forth like I should move out of the way for them. I wish people would slow down and just chill.
Thanks as always for the info! I was there Monday and Tuesday, I’m glad I missed the blowout, but fell for all the folks that had trips planned. That’s a bummer.