The Hatch We’ve Been Waiting For!
It’s that time again and I’m here to give you the news on what’s happening on the Lower Deschutes. I had a couple guide trips mixed in with a few days of personal fishing over the last couple weeks. The first guide trip was on a day with a lot of overcast weather, making for an incredible Blue Wing Olive hatch. The other days were bright, sunny, and unseasonably warm, which made for some great nymphing in a T-shirt soaking in some vitamin D.
River flows have stayed very consistent, with just a slight fluctuation of approximately 100 cfs over the last couple days. This lack of fluctuation means that fish have really settled into their zones to feed and the fishing has been more consistent. Water temps have also leveled out topping out at 43 to 45 degrees each day. 45 to 48 degree water is ideal for Blue Wing Olive hatches, which means if you play your cards right and get out on a day that is overcast and not too cold, you could find yourself in the middle of some wonderful wintertime dry fly nirvana.
I feel like it’s worth mentioning the interesting little turn of events I found myself in during one of my guide trips this month. It was 11:30 a.m. and we were just leaving our second productive nymphing stop of the morning. As we moved downriver to our new spot, I slid my drift boat close to an outside bank that corrals a lot of mayflies, and I could see hundreds of mayflies being picked off by the noses of eager trout. We got into position at the bottom of a large gliding seam of a boulder and tied on a size 16 CDC Blue Wing Olive dry and started moving into position to present our flies to the feeding trout. The first dozen cast were perfect, landing just a few feet upstream of an actively working trout. Much to my chagrin, the first presentations were ignored so swiftly you would think we had a stonefly dry on. We went smaller and smaller with fly sizes as we moved up the bank and eventually ended on a size 22 BWO dry. I went through every sneaky BWO dry I have in my box before eventually deciding to move.
After leaving the fish that repeatedly gave us the “middle fin” we managed to find another pod of fish just a quarter-mile downstream that eagerly ate the original size 16 CDC dry we had started with at the previous stop. Moral of the story is sometimes you find a hatch so large with so many naturals on the water that it pays to move to a different zone with fewer bugs. This lack of bugs will leave the fish more willing to take your imitation. Sometimes nature works just like basic economics: the fewer of an item there is, the more that item is worth. Find the right ratio of bugs-to-fish, and whammy—you’ve got the dry fly eat (or two) that you have been yearning for.
Nymphs that worked well over the last couple weeks have been some smaller BWO nymphs in size 18 and 20 like the Silvey’s Super Sinker, Egan’s Frenchie, and Juan’s Tungsten Slim Shady. During the early morning and late afternoon I will sound like a broken record and continue to direct you to the Pink Bead Hare’s Ear and Pink Bead Pheasant tail as those patterns are just too good to overlook. Stonefly nymphs have been working well too. Dries I would keep on hand would be Size 16, 18, and 20 in the Baetis Student or other similar CDC wing Mayfly dries. If you don’t like CDC then a traditional Parachute BWO will work as well.
Cooler weather is on the way next week, so make sure you bundle up if your headed this way. Thanks for tuning in again and happy fishing to all of you who are getting out to enjoy the wonderful winter weather we are experiencing this February. See you on the water!
