Fishing Report - Lower Deschutes

We fished the Lower Deschutes every day this past week... here is the skinny on the stone fly hatch:

The fishing from Trout Creek to Maupin was outstanding! The crowd yesterday from Warmsprings to Trout Creek was HUGE, and definitely affected the fish. We had many refusals and I even watched trout refusing naturals. The best patterns yesterday where small golden stones, size 10-12.

The hatch is winding down toward Maupin, though we did see a few Golden stones still flying around, and the the fish where receptive in few spots. Between Trout Creek and North Junction the fish are still eager to eat the big bugs. We had very heavy rain last week and the river was a bit off color, but the fish didn't seem to mind. We had some of our best fishing when the river was a little off color. We did well on bigger patterns that had better silhouettes. During the rain storm we stubbled into one of the best Green Drake hatches I've seen. From 3 pm until almost 5 pm the Drakes where popping. My favorite pattern is the Green Drake Flash Cripple in size 10.

Prediction for the coming week: The caddis hatch is ramping up near Maupin, expect fish to start looking to these smaller sources of food. There are still hoards of stone flies on the bushes from Warmsprings to White Horse. The resent rain will prolong the hatch in this area. Expect to catch fish on the big bushy dry flies for another 10 days or so, especially in the upper stretches.