Big Snowfall = Big Water
Well folks, the river is raging as this heavy and wet snows sheds itself from the already saturated hills out here. I have seen some brave souls attempting to conjure a trout or two out of the muddy waters but the conditions are less than ideal.
River Conditions -
The clarity of the river as of today was about 24 inches; this is a large improvement from the 6 inches of clarity we had just a few days ago. I expect it to continue to clear as water levels drop. Flows coming out of the dam are currently sitting at 6,850 cfs. After picking up the volume of the swollen tributaries the flows at the mouth are sitting at 11,000 cfs. The peak of the high water at the mouth topped out at a whopping 12,100 cfs! Water temps are not all that low considering how much of this is from snow melt. The water temp at the dam is reading 45 degrees today and the water temp at the mouth is just a little bit lower at 44 degrees. With these water temps and the forced sabbatical from their normal feeding schedule, these trout should be ripe for the picking when the water clarity and flow returns to a more fishable state.
What’s Happening -
Prior to the big snowstorm and runoff event, the Blue Wing Olives were really coming off quite nicely on our overcast days. While out curing my cabin fever, plenty of beautiful trout were brought to hand with small size 18 and 20 CDC emergers and adults. In typical winter dry fly fashion these hatches were happening in the middle of the day and occurred with more intensity on the more overcast and drizzly days. This winter has been a wet one and those conditions make for some really great dry fly fishing—if you can get over the incessant need to dry your fly out. In addition to a couple hours of prime dry fly fishing each day the nymphing was red hot. It has been nice to see a large percentage of trout caught instead of the usual whitefish-heavy winter fishing we usually see. Streamer fishing has been hit or miss, but if you like throwing some meat around and are persistent you can definitely find some of our finer specimens. When fishing streamers, I would focus on fishing Olive leeches and Sculpin patterns, fish them deep and strip them downstream or jig them on your euro setup.
Flies that were working before the high water -
CDC Blue Wing Olive Cripple Size 16 & 18
Hi Vis Parachute BWO size 16 & 18
CDC Comparadun BWO Size 16 & 18
Purple Haze Parachute Size 16 & 18
Pink Bead Tasmanian Devil Size 16 & 18
Pink Bead Hares Ear Size 16
Pink Bead Pheasant Tail Size 16
Roza’s Red Tag Jig Size 16
Roza’s Pink Tag Jig Size 16
Silver Bead Pheasant Tail with Hot Orange Collar Size 18 & 20
Silver Bead Blue Glo Brite Perdigon with Hot Orange Collar Size 16
Egg Taco in Orange and Peach Size 16
Slush Egg in Orange, Pink, and Peach Size 16
Eggstasy Egg in Orange and Peach Size 16
Jigged Kreelex Minnow in Gold and Silver Size 8
Jigged Mayers Mini Leech in Olive Size 8
Jigged Hot Bead Mayers Mini Leech in Black Size 8
Kelly Galloup’s Mini Dungeon In Olive
Kelly Galloup’s Mini Dungeon In Black
Meat Whistle In Olive (Smaller Sizes)
I expect to see water levels stay high for at least another week. Fishing can still be really good in high flows as long as the clarity improves.
Stay safe while wading out there and don’t forget that the sandbars you used to wade on before the high water may have disappeared. Last year after a high water event I confidently pulled my boat into a cove that was about 2 feet deep with a sand bottom prior to the event. I hopped out with blind confidence only to find that it was now about 5 feet deep. This of course made for some gut rolling laughter from my clients that day. It was a cold reminder to always stay vigilant when fishing the mighty Deschutes! Tight lines and I’ll see you all on the water!
