Deschutes Steelhead

September is every steelhead fishermans favorite month. Rivers ranging from the Skeena System in British Columbia to down on the Columbia sytem here in the USA are in the prime time for their run of chromers. The Deschutes River is no different. Possibly one of the greatest rivers on this planet, the Deschutes has an impressive run of fish that happen to live in some of the nicest water to swing flys in ever made. They react to a surface fly and fight like hell in the fast flowing Deschutes. This year may not have the record high numbers of years past, the colder than average water in the Columbia has kept stray fish from entering the warmer than average Deschutes, crowds are clogging the river, smoke from fires upstream has clogged the canyon, and winds in recent days have made spey casting comical, but the steelhead addict in all of us doesn't care. There are fish in the river which means we have a shot at hooking them, and that makes the drive out a no brainer.

Fishing is picking up and the water is cooling down. The reports from each week have been better than the last. Plenty of steelhead are being hooked. The fishing is good which means if you fish your brains out from sun up to sun down you should have 1-2 steelhead encounters. Some days are incredible with multiple hook ups and sometimes you can go for three days and not touch a fish. That's steelheading. Have fun out there and be safe.