Central Oregon Escape - Salmonflies Part 3 of 3

This post has definitely gotten held up by my busy schedule of late, with 3 weeks on the Olympic Peninsula for work bit of fishing, being the primary culprits. However here it finally is.

With fishing on the Metolius River a little slow and the Deschutes finally starting to drop, catching the Salmonfly hatch was on our priority list. We arrived at the river in the late afternoon and found that the wind was howling and from talking to other anglers it sounded like the weather had really slowed the hatch and fishing down, so we decided to just hangout at our campsite, enjoy dinner and maybe do a little hiking up the river before dark to scout things out for the next day.

The mighty Deschutes

After dinner we headed up the river (without our rods) to do a little scouting. After walking about a mile upstream we came to a descent looking spot and upon walking to the water's edge it was clear that the hatch was in progress as the grass along the bank was filled with adult Salmonflies. Unsurprisingly Colton couldn't help himself and tossed one of the big bugs in the river.

A Salmonfly

It drifted maybe fifteen feet before disappearing with a swirl of water. Seeing a trout eat a big bug on the surface is exciting, but after we witnessed this phenomena repeat itself several more times with different fish we couldn't resist the draw of fishing anymore. Unfortunately, for us it was almost sunset already and we left the rods back at the campsite. So by the time that we got back and rigged up, we just ended up fishing at camp.  However, for just a few minutes of fishing we each got one on top, with Colton getting a smallish fish and me getting a nice about 15"Redband. This was enough to get us psyched for the coming day and we made a plan to be up at the crack of dawn to have our choice of water in the morning.

A beautiful last light Columbia Basin Redband Trout

As planned we were up at first light and headed straight to the stretch that we had found the night before. With the chilly morning temperatures, the hatch typically doesn't kick in till around 10:00 AM or 11:00 AM, so we started out fishing nymphs and attractor dries and managed to get a few small fish including a Northern Pikeminnow. However, we found this stretch extremely difficult to fish from the bank and to deep to wade, so we kept moving on in search of better water.

A dry fly eating Northern Pikeminnow

About another mile upstream we found what we were looking for, with a run that had a nice riffle at the top, great structure along the bank and Salmon Flies everywhere. While the Salmonflies were definitely abundant in this stretch, it was still early and the hatch really hadn't fully kicked into gear yet.

Salmonflies everywhere

As with the night before Colton tried the swimming Salmonfly trick and flung one in the water and pretty much right away a fish rose and gulped it. Next we tried the same thing with an artificial and once again the fish rose to the fly, but after a short battle the fish came loose. Seeing the results of this and given that the Salmonflies were starting the land on us left and right, I picked one off my neck and tossed it in. This one didn't get grabbed right away and just as I was about to give up on watching it a trout finally nailed it. The only problem was that the fish was in a pretty darn tough spot being under a tree with a couple of branches hanging down that made present a fly drag-free quite difficult. After a few tries though I got a good drift and hooked up with the trout. This fish put up a heck of a battle, but after a few runs the fish tired and I slid it into the net.

Me with a beautiful Redband

Next it was Colton's turn and after working a feeding trout for a while, the fish finally rose to his fly and took it. This was a hot fish and made Colton work for it, but he had a good hookset and after a few minutes we netted a beautiful 16" Redband.

Colton with his big Redband

Fishing was good in this stretch, but after a few fish and with most of the day still ahead of us we decided to do a bit more exploring. Even though we found a few nice fish along the way, this ended up being more leg work than fishing and it seems that the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence.

Great scenery upstream, not as good of fishing

After our little bit of exploring upstream, we headed back to the stretch that we had been working. By the time that we got back the hatch was in full swing, with Salmonflies everywhere and plenty of egg-laying adults in the air.

Trout's eye view

I started upstream at some water we had passed over in the morning and quickly found a pod of feeding fish. I got one nice one off the bat, but the rest of the fish seemed to be a bit picky and were keying in on fluttering Salmonflies.

A nice Deschutes Redband

With the fish being a bit finicky I switch to a PMX that would ride a little lower in the water, but also pulled the deer hair for the wing off to the sides so it looked like a fluttering adult. This did the trick after singling out a nice fish that rose just upstream against the bank I got a rise and hooked into a nice trout. This fish immediately took off downstream and stopped a couple of times, but kept turning and heading downstream. However, after chasing it several hundred feet downstream it finally tired out I managed to land a beautiful about 17" fat Redband.

My big trout for the day.

While we fished for a little longer and picked up a few more fish, before long the drift boat armada started to show up and while we had this stretch to ourselves pretty much all day now we were finding ourselves getting low-holed and crowded out. This was our sign to call an end to a great fishing trip and a great weekend.

Watch your step

While we were ready to go, the excitement wasn't over as nothing gets my heart racing quite like surprise visit by a rattlesnake in the middle of the trail.