River of the Falls

With Monday off and the Deschutes fishing well, I hitched up the boat and headed over on Sunday night. I got to camp around 10:30, set the alarm for 4am, and fell asleep in the back of the rig.

Got up and headed down to fish a few runs. The only truck on the road was already parked at the run I wanted to fish. Solution: Go talk to the gent to see if he wants me to follow him or split the run when it gets light. He was game for the split. I basically fished the tailout and got a nice little native buck about 30 minutes in on a Purple Peril of sorts. Met up with Todd, fished the run up top and headed up to launch the boat.

Put in and to my surprise, there were probably more boaters than bankies. Finally found a run. Todd went up and I went down. A guy in a pontoon had already fished through the run, but he was a good half mile downriver, so the water had been rested a bit. About 10 casts in......grab....loop gone, hook set, fight on. I got steel peeled on this one for sure. After a great fight, brought the nice native to hand for a quick release. Back at it, 20 yards down, grab, set, fight again. Another native. Another 20 yards further stuck another. This time, it ended up being a sweet hatchery fish that ran over 30 inches.

Todd and I headed down river, opting for taking our time and letting most of the boats get past us. The clouds were out and fish were on the move. I hooked another nice one right in front of Todd on our next stop. Of course, once I told Todd "let's get a pic of this one" the fly pops out with the fish about 5 feet from me.

I let Todd go throug the rest of the run with his skater. I ate lunch in the boat while he dissappeared around the corner. Looked up behind me and notice and bit of a tailout that I hadn't given a second thought to. Hiked on up there. Big sandy deep pool. Didn't look fishy to me at all. Apparently, it doesn't matter what I think because I got grabbed and ended up beaching a nice hatchery fish.

The evening was dedicated to trying to get Todd to get one on a waker. No such luck, my thinking is the water temps may have been just a bit too cold. We were the last boat off the river and it was one long drive home. Arrived in my driveway at 12:45am! All in the name of steelhead.

Totals were 6 hooked, 5 landed. All but one came on a Green butt purple with a white wing created by master tier Chad Potter. I'm checking on if the fly has a name, but I'm thinking "Fire Starter" in honor of the brush fire just below the run where the fly did big time damage!

Hatchery fish taken from the Sandy Tailout.

Water Train putting out the brush fire.

Hatchery brute.