Deschutes River

The river

The Deschutes cuts a 400 km canyon through basalt and juniper before joining the Columbia, and the water in it is cold enough to hold both resident rainbow and a genuine run of summer steelhead. Between Warm Springs and Maupin the river is float-only for practical purposes, with road access at a handful of ramps and a rail line along the west bank that makes walk-and-wade trips possible.

On this river

The stonefly migration

Two weeks before adults appear, the nymphs migrate to the bank to crawl out. That migration, not the adult flight, is the most reliable window: fish a heavy stonefly nymph 60 cm under an indicator, right against the bank, and expect takes in the first metre of drift. When adults start flying, switch to a dry the size of your thumb and cast into the branches hanging over the water.

Swinging for summer steelhead

From late August, fish a floating line with a 1.5-metre sink tip and one wet fly, cast at 45 degrees downstream, and let the current do everything. Step 60 cm downstream after each swing. On a good day you cover 400 metres of water and get three takes; the discipline is in the stepping, not the casting.

Reading a basalt canyon

The Deschutes has almost no gravel bars; its structure is boulders the size of cars and long glassy flats between them. The fish hold in the seam where a boulder's eddy meets the main current, so look for the small slick patch below each rock rather than for the rock itself. If your fly never passes within a metre of that slick, you are fishing empty water.