The month of October is my favorite fishing months and during that month I always find myself drawn to fish the Deschutes River. I guess it must because I can integrate some awesome fall scenery and warm/dry weather, floating a river, and camping. And if I camp on the Deschutes I can be the first on a few of the steelhead runs! Always a bonus – even it may just be more of an emotional bias than reality!
Swinging for steelhead on the Deschutes
This trip was my second trip in October, I suppose I can’t complain! My angling buddy was Sue. It is with Sue’s encouragement that I start integrating pictures of Smiley into my fly fishing ventures. It is a great idea and thanks for Sue for her ingenuity! Here’s a shot of Smiley with my hairwing box. I should say I was drying the box out – as I waded way above my waist and filled my fanny pack with water.
Letting the water drain from my fly box while I have a glass of juice
Now onto the fishing report!
Reports were fishing for steelhead was slow! Sue did a mixture of trout and steelhead fishing. She landed a good number of trout on pheasant tails and hares ear nymphs. I opted to continue my quest for steelhead. I swung my Sage VT2 7130 with a 510 Skagit Head and a T-17 sink tip. Last fall I had grabs with a blue and purple intruder – so I opted to stick with that color combo this year. Early morning of the second day – a fish jumped twice to the surface. Was it chasing my fly? Maybe! Maybe not! We moved down river and about noon I opted to change colors to an olive intruder. Voila! A solid connection and I landed a nice steelhead! I subsequently lost my fly on the rock; the steelhead must have been in front of. Out of olive intruders I went back to a black and blue style intruder. Guess what! I hooked into a larger fish behind the rock I had just lost my olive intruder on! Hmm! I should note Sue was fishing the same water with a Skagit (570 grains) Type 6 sinking head (6-7 ips) and had no interest. Moral of the story: Even if reports say fishing is slow I say go fishing– as you won’t catch a steelhead if you don’t go. Be willing to risk losing some flies and fish deep.
A very colorful Deschutes River Steelhead
If you want to enjoy the catch – watch the following video!
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