Deschutes River Fishing Report near The Dalles, Oregon
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The Chinook salmon fishing season is open and great numbers of them are expected to come through. In areas which they are passing try reeled,drifted or sitting bait on a hook, streamers small spoons or a light jig. The fish will usually be in semi shallow to mid depth water. Trout should be looked for in mid depth current breaks with mild cover or bottom structure. Use dry flies imitating the hatch trout are biting or subsurface drowned adult versions. Streamers, floating or light weight jigs, bait and a hook or small plugs will produce also. Enjoy fishing.
Keep in mind my advice will not apply to all of the river. For example some areas are fly fishing only. Regulations may be changed to accommodate fishing quotas. Make sure you double check the reg book and ODFW website for changes. Also the Chinook season is not shown in the book, a change was made after its writing writing to open Chinook angling, this may change again.
Rainbow trout, (redsides), (steelheads), and (redband), all different names for one fish that makes the Deschutes River worth fishing. In fact the fishing here for that fish is so good that the river was named in the top 100 trout streams in the country. One of the things that makes the fishing here so good is the fact that there are a lot of big fish. This is because of one major thing. As the river flows over the basalt and various other indigenous rocks that make up the riverbed it leaches minerals out of them. As a result the hatches here are huge! The biggest hatches are those of the stoneflies, mayflies, and caddis. But that does not mean you should overlook all the other, smaller hatches as well as the terrestrials during summer. If all of that interests you I’ll bet you want to know how to catch these fish. One of the best ways is to cast streamers downstream and mend the line so it just brushes the bottom and, hopefully, the noses of the trout. Another good way to go after these fish is to use skate bombers and other big dry flies on the surface in hopes of a spectacular strike from below. If your arm gets tired from catching all those big fish you can go upstream to the headwaters where you will find good fishing for brookies, browns, and rainbows that are more plentiful but not as big. You will of course need to downsize your tackle. As a final note before you go out fishing I recommend you check the fishing regulations. They change from year to year so much that I am not even going to try putting them in this report Spending just a few minutes checking can save you a whole lot of time and money if you get caught doing something you didn’t know was wrong. Oh, yeah, did I mention the river is often stocked with salmon? Good luck fishing!
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About Fishing Reports for Deschutes River near The Dalles
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