Oh, my! The Lower Deschutes, the place that seems like a ghost town these days. Very few crowds, open water, and decent fishing. However, the amount of smoke down there over the past few days has been unreal. The (mid-day) caddis fishing seems to be just about finished for the year. We are still seeing a few caddis fluttering around but not enough to call home about. Would focus your caddis efforts in the evenings. Aside from the caddis, we are seeing a decent PMD/PED hatch a few times a day that can provide some fun opportunity to catch fish on dries. Fishing dries in the riffles and chop water that leads into a deep pool will prove effective for sticking fish on dries.
If you are okay with nymphing all day, this will be your best for getting into more fish. Fishing a 9 foot 5x, 5x fluorocarbon tippet, and two flies will be your best bet. Fishing with 5x leaders and tippets can be a bit risky with the hot Lower river trout but will give you more opportunity to get into fish. Fishing overall has been a bit tougher, that is why we like to implement some of these tactics and taper down our leaders and tippets. The go to nymphs these days have been sz 10 octover caddis pupa, sz 20 copper john (red,black or blue), sz 20 two bit hookers (red or black), sz 20 anatomay (olive), and sz 18-20 psycho princes (purple).