Deschutes River Fly Fishing Report

Cory Godell reports on 9.17.2015

For one of the hottest, driest years on record, the Deschutes River is in great shape. Down from the  White River, the Deschutes is as clean and clear as its been all steelhead season. And to top things off the water temps are as good as we could ask for. In the mornings the water temps are in the low 60’s. By the end of the day the water temps are hitting mid 60’s. Soon the temps should get nothing but better.  The weather man says there’s a short cool snap coming our way.

Since the Deschutes has been running cooler than the Columbia this season, it has been sucking in a lot of stray steelhead that are meant for other Columbia River tributaries. Each year a lot of steelhead get out of the hot water of the Columbia and slip into other rivers to cool down. That is the great thing about the Deschutes and where it’s positioned on the Columbia.  It gets stray fish or what I like to call extra targets for us steel headers.