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I just got home from another four day trip on the Deschutes. We had great weather, very good dry fly fishing, and an excellent group of guests; nice guys and good fishermen. When luck and conditions line up like this, it is hard for everyone, guests and guides alike, not to have a great trip.

At this point the salmon flies and golden stones are well distributed from the Maupin area all the way up to Warm Springs. As the hatch progresses, the bugs will thin out on the lower end (around Maupin), but good numbers of bugs should stick around on the upper reaches for some time.

The Deschutes River salmonfly hatch is the best in the country, likely the most prolific in the world, but is often also accompanied by a fairly substantial drift boat hatch. This last trip was no exception, there were substantial numbers of other guides and fishermen around, but we had very good dry fly fishing nonetheless. Fishing successfully around or behind other anglers and guides often requires some strategy. The low hanging fruit has often been plucked; the easy spots out in the open have often been fished hard, but in the out of the way areas around brush, trees and low-hanging branches, and in the areas that are more difficult to wade, the fish are often relatively undisturbed, and very willing to attack a big dry fly.

The way the fish eat the fly is my favorite part of fishing the salmonfly hatch. The takes are often startling, like a toilet bowl flush under the fly. Sometimes the strikes occur under the rod tip and are so violent that the fish splashes the angler.

Special thanks to the guys who came fishing with us last week: Keith Steinbruck, Robert Jones, Keith Sherman, Tom Doherty, Mike Stickel, and Rick Fairbanks. All photos in this post were taken by my good friend Matt Ramsey, who was guiding with us on the trip. Many thanks to Matt for sharing the images. He has a great eye for photography and takes much better pictures than I do.

Now through the end of April, I am offering a discounted rate for half day trips ($275) on the lower McKenzie. Late Winter and Spring offer some of the best fishing of the year for the lower McKenzie’s wild rainbow and cutthroat trout, with good nymphing opportunities throughout, and often great afternoon wet and dry fly fishing as the March Brown hatch materializes. The best early season fishing is during the middle of the day as things warm up a bit, and a half day trip is the perfect way to take advantage of this window of opportunity. A typical day involves meeting at 9:30 or 10:00 in the morning, and fishing until around 4:00 in the afternoon. All tackle, flies, etc. are included, along with beverages. All you need to bring is some rain gear, sunglasses, lunch, and a fishing license! What could be easier?

The lower McKenzie is currently in great shape. We are seeing good March Brown hatches most days, with some really nice fish moving to dry flies and wet flies on or near the surface when the bugs are out!

Judging from some of the fish I’ve seen in the last week, it may not be safe to wade in some of Oregon’s coastal rivers. These big bucks look mad, and they have teeth! I advise staying in the boat. Seriously though, steelhead fishing has been good of late, with many coastal rivers falling into great condition in the wake of February’s flooding. Though hatchery returns are thinning out, as is typical for this time of year, the wild run of winter steelhead is still going strong and will continue through the end of March.

Much of February, usually a great month to fish winter steelhead, was lost to prolonged high water, and it appears we are poised for another blowout: the forecast is calling for a few inches of rain over the next several days. That being said, things should drop back into shape before too long.

I am booked up through the 17th, but have a lot of availability throughout the last couple weeks of March. It’s not too late to get out and wrestle some chrome! Call or email to arrange a day on the water.

Though we have been experiencing a remarkable late fall and early winter drought, and weather ranging from pleasant to cold to downright arctic, the 2013/2014 winter steelhead season is off to a great start.

Because flows on are rivers are so low there are fewer places to fish than usual, but the lower reaches of many of Oregon’s coastal rivers have already seen a healthy return of winter steelhead. This is just the vanguard of the run; we should see a lot more to coming over the next several months.

Standard swing and nymph tactics have been working well in the right water.

The forecast shows a good deal of precipitation headed our way in the first week of the New Year. Hopefully this much-needed weather will actually materialize, bringing us a nice spike in water levels throughout the coastal rivers. This would allow much better upstream passage for the fish already in fresh water, draw a nice group of fresh steelhead into creeks and rivers along the coast, and bring a lot more of our rivers into fishable shape.

Winter steelhead season is arguably the most exciting fishing of the year in western Oregon, and if early returns are any indication, there will be a lot more fish showing up in our coastal rivers over the next several months.

I have quite a few days booked over the coming weeks, but plenty of room open on the calendar at this point throughout winter steelhead season. Please call or email if you are interested in booking a day of fishing this winter. Let’s get out and chase some chrome!

Special thanks to Matt Ramsey for sending along some images from our recent fishing trip.

I know I am.

Now is a great time to book winter steelhead trips.

Though it is true that the dog days of summer don’t produce the most prolific hatches of the year, fishing has been good throughout the summer on the wild upper section of the McKenzie River as well as the Middle Fork Willamette between Hills Creek Dam and Black Canyon campground.

Fishing pressure has been light on these stretches, with the fish responding surprisingly well to large attractor dry flies and dropper nymphs.

This oversize wild rainbow came out of 10 feet of clear water to attack the Chubby Chernobyl. It ate the fly so aggressively, you can only see a little bit of wing poking out of its mouth in the photo.

The bull trout pictured here attacked a smaller trout my guest had hooked in a deep pool. I don’t know what happened to the little rainbow that appeared to be about 10 or 11 inches; whether it ended up in the bull trout’s belly, or was somehow knocked off the hook and escaped. When we landed the bull it was fair hooked on the same prince nymph the smaller trout had eated initially. It was a strange and exciting encounter.

Hatches will intensify and fishing will only get better as we move into September with somewhat cooler weather and more cloudy days. Soon, short-winged stoneflies will start to emerge and join October Caddis, some Fall Drakes, and other assorted caddises on the menu.

Fall is one of the best times of year to fish for trout on the McKenzie and Willamette, and without a doubt the most productive time to flyfish for steelhead in our Willamette Valley rivers. Now is the time to book fall fishing dates. Don’t miss out on some of the best fishing of the year!

Though the numbers of fish over Willamette Falls to date are lackluster in comparison to the last couple of seasons, summer steelhead fishing in the southern Willamette valley has been improving with more fish on the way and ideal water conditions for swinging flies.

Water conditions on area streams are low and clear. Various patterns ranging from traditional wet flies fished on floating lines to leeches swung deep on tips have been producing fish.

We are blessed with a long summer steelhead season here in the Eugene area, starting in the late spring and extending well into November.

Anyone interested in booking a summer steelhead trip, please call or email!

This spring, for the first year in many, we have had light precipitation and consistently low and very fishable water conditions. As of this writing, we are finally getting a good rainfall, and the river has come up, but is still in fine shape. The lower McKenzie can fish well at a wide range of water levels, and current conditions are not high, but only moderate. If anything, this modest spike in water levels will serve to move the fish around, give them a little bit of a break from angling pressure, and reshuffle the deck.

Nymphs have still been taking a lot of nice fish both early and late in the day, but over the last couple of weeks, we have seen a lot of great afternoon hatches of March Browns as well as grannom caddis, with good numbers of nice fish looking up. Swung wet fly emergers and dry flies have been getting a lot of attention from the wild redsides and cutthroats of the lower McKenzie.

The spring season offers some of the best hatches and trout fishing of the year on the McKenzie. Now is a great time to get out and see what the lower river has to offer.