Finding The Slow Within the Fast
After a few days of teasing warm weather we are back to feeling like it’s winter again here in Maupin. With the thermometer hitting a rugged low of 6 degrees this week the fishing was a little bit more of an afternoon game for those who decided to brave the conditions.
Whitefish don’t appear to be as affected by the colder temps, which can be a nice way to keep spirits high in the earlier part of the day if you just can’t wait to get out and you hit the water early. Whitefish in my opinion get a bad rep and I personally can’t quite figure out why. They eat, they pull, they wiggle—maybe not as aggressively as our stone cold killer Redband trout—but I still get a kick out of them. If I’m guiding someone and they keep getting upset when it turns out to be a whitefish on the end of the line, I turn the head of the whitefish to show the client what a tiny mouth the fish have, and let them know that they just hit a smaller target. When have you ever gotten mad about hitting a bullseye, right? Anyways, enough whitefish ramblings for me today.
Let’s talk about river conditions out here. We have seen a little fluctuation of flows this week, with the USGS gauge at Moody showing a drop from around 4700 cfs to 4400 cfs. As of this morning we are back up to 4500 cfs. Typically the slight fluctuations don’t affect the fishing all that much on the lower Deschutes, but if you noticed a lull in productivity on the morning of the 30th that would explain it. River temps have dropped down this last week with a low of 37 degrees on Monday during our cold snap and working their way back up to a balmy 41 degrees today as the cold front pushes through. This cold water push might also be a contributing factor to a lull in the fishing productivity on the 30th.
Now to the title of my fishing report: finding the slow within the fast. A couple of years ago I saw a post from Devin Olsen about fishing every piece of water as you work your way upstream, leaving nothing untouched. He pointed out a small, slower current pocket within what most people would consider fast summer pocket water. This stuck with me, and as I went back out to the river after reading his post, I decided to break out of my winter norms and try to find the lower Deschutes equivalent of what he was fishing. Things definitely looked different on his much smaller streams in his home area, however, with a little research and development I was able to find spots on a slightly larger scale that matched what he was talking about.
As a fishing guide, winter is when I have the most freedom to explore the river. My only quarrel with the season was the restrictive water types that produced fish in the winter—or so I thought. Using what I have learned from other anglers like Devin who take full advantage of the scarcity of people in the winter, I have found that there are a lot of quality fish that find a small soft pocket within the faster water that isn’t too far from where they reside in the winter. These fish can sometimes lay only a few feet away from the fast plunge they sit in during hot summer days. The picture in the title of this fishing report was found in a small area only a couple feet wide on the edge of a fast ripping current seam. During the summer I fished this same area and found the majority of my fish caught in the run were about four to six feet out into the faster current, but as the temps drop those fish slide either to the back of the pool or move into a small zone along the bank that provides a reprieve. I know this is a little reminiscent of my last post, but what I hope to do is encourage anglers to get out of the slow water winter funk and enjoy the many options our river has to offer even in the coldest of months.
Streamer fishing was fairly productive on small jigged pine squirrel leeches in black and small olive pine squirrel leeches swung and twitched slowly on the days I went out. Streamer fishing has been best on the warmer days in the afternoon at peak of trout activity. Pink metallic bead Hare’s Ears and Pheasant Tails in size 16 have been a consistent wintertime staple with small size 18 black Perdigons and Pheasant tails also working well when even a few Blue Wing Olives start to hatch. I am still yet to encounter a solid Blue Wing Olive hatch, but I am as always prepared for that magic moment with a Smoke Jumper Baetis in size 18 or 20 tied on my four weight.
Thanks for tuning in to my fishing report. I’ll see you guys on the water!
