The Lower Deschutes has been fishing well. Nymphing will be the most productive method to utilize and adding a bit of split shot or using flies with tungsten beads will be to your advantage to get your flies down nice and deep. A variety of mayfly and caddis patterns will get the job done and euro and indicator methods will both be effective. Swinging sculpin and leech patterns is also a fun way to target some aggressive trout. There have been 23,220 unclipped steelhead over Bonneville so far and an average of about 750 have been coming through each day. It looks like we are going to meet the threshold to keep steelhead fishing open on the Deschutes this year. As of right now it remains open until September 15. There should be a few fish around down there now but higher and higher numbers will be in the river in the coming months.
Lower Deschutes Update August 11, 2023
August 11, 2023