August 8th, 2019 – Non Motorized weekend number three, that means I’m thirty days in. We are now finding a fish or two each day and working really hard to do it. The crowds are thick and the annual post up campers have arrived taking prime camps for days, me included. Our first camp was set for seven days and we stayed at Henry’s and for three days we had two sleds, 1-2 fish per day mornings and evenings. The eastside fished a little better than the west and we picked up a few upriver but it was real busy up there. In all honesty this is going to be 2019 but hey it’s still the best summer steelhead fishery in the United States, and steelhead are still the best fish to pursue. We are catching fish on floating lines and sink tips, skater flies haven’t been working well and it’s been easy to pick our own pockets. The weather has been cool and windy, we did have two days over 100 and the river heated right up to 70. I’ll keep reporting after each closure. Stay tuned. I’m currently booked into week two of October but please hit me up if you’re looking for a fall date!
July 28, 2019 -Non-motorized weekend number two. The crowds have officially arrived, the fishing is slow compared to prior July. We are averaging a fish or two every other day. The fish are spread out throughout the lower 24 miles in thin numbers and there seems to be no real concentration of steelhead anywhere. The numbers of fish will increase as we merge into Augst and the busiest part of the season. The river has grown back but most of the camps are in poor condition do yo the high water late winter and overgrown noxious weeds. This July has been seasonably cool and very very windy. Water temps have stayed down under the 70 mark almost every day.
July 11, 2019 – Just Like that! We’re off and running. Today marks my first non-motorized weekend break on the Deschutes River. I started running Steelhead Trips on July 6th, and I’ve seen fish caught every day, not a lot but they are in fact here!
I’ve had the pleasure of fishing some brave souls the last few days and some of them have been rewarded for their bravery. We’ve got four fish so far all in different spots, two on floating lines, two on sink tips. Some folks are concerned about the poor forecast and all the negative press and that’s great! I hope they don’t come fishing this year, no one likes the crowds good fishing reports and forecast bring. I expect this season to mirror the 2018 season as far as fish passage over Bonneville goes. In 2018 we stuck 200 steelhead. I’m good with that number.
summer 2019 is booked, we are booking October
October availability is good! This season we are selling single seats $300 per angler. I will take up to three anglers most days and can accommodate groups as large as four. Angler groups of two can secure the boat for $695.
