Some friends and I made a recreational trip down the Deschutes that weekend. It’s an exciting time: the fishing bonanza that is the salmonfly hatch is only a couple short weeks away. This is the time that we who guide for a living still have some free time to fish for ourselves while anticipating the busy weeks to come and making preparations. It was a good group: Matt and Nate Stansberry came along, my old friend TJ Matteri (he and I worked together on the Deschutes when I started in the mid-90s), as well as Kyle Duke and myself.
We had great conditions: warm weather, a few rain showers, and relatively light traffic on the river. Although there were decent mid-day mayfly hatches, the surface activity was limited mainly to smaller fish, and we caught only a few nice rainbows throughout the trip on dries. The nymphing, however, was good, and the action was fairly steady. All in all, a great trip; a lot of laughs, a lot of good fish. In short, good times. Here are some highlight photos:
Setting up camp on the Deschutes
We were all wondering what Nate would look like with a mustache. Unfortunately, the caterpillar wouldn’t sit still.
Evening light on the Deschutes Canyon walls
Nate with a beautiful Deschutes Redside
Matt with a great Deschutes Rainbow
TJ poses with a nice trout, weird wide angle shot
More Deschutes Trout Fish porn
Ethan Nickel Outfitters 