Deschutes Steelhead Weekend

October 18-22, 2007

 

Jay and I took our more-or-less annual trip to the Deschutes a bit later this season and I think we paid for it weather-wise.  Packet Green, a guide from Argentina, joined us in search of his first steelhead.  We arrived at the river late due to lots of traffic and rain to find the Deschutes already high and rising which set the stage for the weekend.  We hit the Hole in the Wall run on the way to camp with no takes but we were anticipating a good day with the guide the following day.

We awoke at 5:30 a.m. to meet our guide at 6:30 a.m. but he showed up early and had us getting in the boat well before dawn.  We rowed about 100 yards and stopped at Cedar Island for our first runs of the day.  While waiting for daylight to signal the start of fishing Jay realized that he knew Gordon the guide from Christmas island years ago, the fly fishing world is a small one indeed.

Getting a very early start	Gordon, our guide for the day

We fished from Beavertail to Mack's Canyon during the day and actually landed 2 steelhead though I have no photos of them since cameras were tucked safely in dry bags in the boat each time.  Packet got his first ever steelhead on a Polar Shrimp plus had another hit.  I got my biggest fish to date, a 9-10 lbs. buck that took a #1.5 Orange Painted Lady. 

Fishing the "Toilet Paper" Grass which we did a lot of in the high water	Matte break at mid-day

The next few days we hit quite a bit of water but never landed another steelhead though we had hits each day.  The water was way high by Saturday and on Sunday was starting to go down a bit and clear up more.  

In camp at night	Grumpies cabin
Packet working above Grumpies	Jay finishing the run above Grumpie
Painted Lady and Matte - the equipment for the trip	Black Painted Lady