Well folks, Salmonfly 2026 is in the books. We are still seeing a few of the big bugs in the Warm Springs to Trout Creek stretch of the river, but the fish are rarely rising to them anymore. You might get lucky if you aren’t willing to throw in the towel, but it is basically over unfortunately. It was a bit of a strange one this year. The bugs were here early and stuck around for quite a while, but the weather was heating up and then cooling off every few days changing the bug’s/fish’s behavior. That coupled with the low water levels, due to a mild winter and light snowpack, made the fishing a little different than we are used to this time of year. We had some great days with lots of surface action, and then some others where it seemed like we could only get them on nymphs even though there were plenty of adult stoneflies out and about. Anyways, it was fun while it lasted, but now we are transitioning into caddis season.

We are already seeing some decent caddis hatches, and it is only going to get better as the weather warms up. This can be some of the best fishing of the year on the Deschutes. The pressure on the river will decrease dramatically as the crowds that were chasing the stonefly hatches head home or to other rivers. Less pressure on the river is always going to improve the fishing, and we expect to start seeing the really good caddis hatches kick off soon. There is some hotter weather rolling in later this week and that should get the caddis much more active. There are also some respectable mayfly hatches happening right now, PMDs, PEDs, and BWOs. We haven’t seen much for green drakes up this high on the river but have heard some decent reports about them further downstream in the camp stretch and Maupin zone. Per usual, the dry fly fishing will be best in the mornings and the evenings when the sun isn’t high on the water.

The nymph bite has been consistently good. Stonefly nymphs always work well. The classic mayfly patterns (hare’s ears, pheasant tails, etc.) have been working very well, along with the jig head perdigon style flies. We are catching a few on caddis pupas, but it doesn’t seem like the fish are totally keyed in on those yet. There are also lots of midges around, so a classic zebra midge can be a great choice. While we are catching fish in the typical spots, it seems like a lot of them are holding in deeper water. They are more vulnerable to predators in some of their standard feeding lanes with the water lower than usual, so heavy nymph rigs in the deeper water seem to be catching the most fish in the middle of the day. Anyways, the caddis hatches are about to get really good, so get out here and get it done!