Central Oregonian

Fishing the Middle Deschutes

Benham Falls to Lake Billy Chinook provides ample opportunities for good trout fishing

Scott Staats

There's no shortage of fish to catch in the middle Deschutes River, especially rainbow trout. And if you're after some big trout, there are some lunker browns lurking there as well.

Spin Fishing

Steve Brown of Bend likes to fish everything from Benham Falls down to Cline Falls. His preferred method of attack for the browns is a 6-foot, 5-inch medium light action bait casting rod with 10-pound fluorocarbon line.

“I'm using suspending jerk baits, also known as rip baits or slash baits,” said Brown. “Rapala makes one called an X-Rap, Lucky Craft makes one called Pointer 78 - as long as they're at least 4 inches.”

Brown said that the browns and rainbows are on a totally different program in terms of where they hang out in the river. The browns obviously ta

ke up all the best habitat and like to ambush smaller fish. They'll lay under a ledge where fast moving water is dumping in and then dart out when a smaller fish comes by. Or they'll lay amongst logs and trees in the river and come out and nail these baits.

“I cast on the downstream side of a log,” Brown explained. “I’ll crank it down then I’ll rip it two or three times, and because it’s a suspending crankbait it will dart like a panicked fish. Then I’ll stop it and it will hang right there, not float up or sink. Then I’ll repeat this process and the fish will always hit

it on the pause.”

He said it’s a fun, visual way to catch fish since you can watch the lure flashing then all of a sudden you’ll see the big flash of the take. These browns will run right up into 4 or 5 inches of water to take the bait. If the browns don’t come out of the wood and hit it, he said they’ll trail the lure out into the river and attack it from behind.

“You usually don’t catch a lot of browns but I’ve caught fish consistently between 5 and 8 pounds,” Brown said. He’s caught many of these fish right in the city limits of Bend.

Not many people fish the river through town. However, between now and next summer is when it gets good because all the people floating the river are gone. Plus, the fish have less to eat so they turn to eating smaller fish since most of the bug life is down under the rocks. The bigger browns don’t eat bugs anymore anyway.

Brown said he likes to fish for the browns in the fall when they’re getting ready to spawn since they get ultra aggressive. The reason you don’t catch a lot of these fish is because they are so territorial. The rainbows spawn in the spring.

“That’s what allows you to catch them in the first place,” he said. “If you throw something in near them they’ll react because they want that thing out of their territory, plus it’s a food source.”

For rainbows Brown prefers a spinning outfit in the form of a 5-foot, 6-inch one-piece crappie rod with 4-pound line. He uses crappie jigs or lipless crankbaits such as Rat-L-Traps. He uses fluorocarbon line since it sinks and helps get these baits down in the fish’s face.

There are not a lot of big rainbows in this river but there are thousands and thousands of them in the 10- to 12-inch range. They are always found in the faster, highly oxygenated sections of the river. Anglers seldom catch brown trout mixed in with these rainbows.

“I’ve stood in the same spot in sections of the river and caught 30 rainbows in 35 casts,” said Brown. “It’s fun on an ultra-light rod.” The biggest rainbow he’s caught was about 18 inches.

For the lures, Brown chooses ones that have either a black back, gold side and orange belly or a green back and white belly. Then he takes fingernail polish and paints black and red spots on the orange belly to make it look like a young brown trout or a little bit of pink on the side to look like the rainbows. He also removes the barbs from the treble hooks and always practices catch and release.

Fly Fishing

Brown also uses a fly rod to go after the big brown trout. He uses the same technique as bait casting but with a seven-weight rod with sinking line and a 4- to 6-inch lure. He ties 12 inches of 20-pound fluorocarbon to 18 inches of 12-pound line. He uses mostly big articulated streamers that are either olive or brown and orange.

Brown is the owner of Better Ways Products, the company that makes RodWrap. In cold or wet conditions, or when you're constantly casting, RodWrap provides better grip on your rod handles.

Jeff Perin, owner of The Fly Fisher’s Place in Sisters, has been fishing this section of river for many years.

“Nymph fishing this time of year can be really productive,” said Perin. “I love to throw a nymph in the runs and riffles.”

This time of year still sees the migration of golden stones and salmonflies so Perin suggests using a nymph as your point fly, then running a smaller nymph as your dropper. He also likes to use an October Caddis Pupa with a dropper.

“I like a fly called Angel Case Emerger and one called Beer Head Baetis,” Perin said. “And a Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail and Electric Blue Prince Nymph also work well.” He said some of these are unique flies used on the river.

“For dries it will mostly be Blue-wing Olives and Midges with some October Caddis and smaller caddis mixed in,” he explained. “BWO will be the number one hatch going on in November.”

As most anglers who have fished the middle Deschutes know, the river fishes quite differently during each season. As the irrigation season ends, the water is going to come up substantially. According to Perin, this could be a good thing or a bad thing. It changes the wading habits of anglers as well as access to some of the holes. However, it can also move the fish closer to the banks and put them in places where they’re a lot safer from predation.

The average size rainbow Perin catches is 12 to 14 inches. The average brown is 12 to 16 inches and whitefish are 12 to 14 inches. Occasionally he catches rainbows in the 18- to 20-inch range and browns in the 6- to 8-pound range. He said anglers can also catch some robust whitefish.

For nymphing, Perin uses a nine-foot four-weight or five-weight rod with a 9-foot leader with a 4X tippet. For dry fly fishing he prefers an 8 1/2-foot three-weight rod with a floating line with nine- to 12-foot 5X or 6X leader. For streamer fishing he likes a nine-and-a-half-foot 6-weight rod with a sink tip and a short leader.

“The streamer fishing is going to be really good in the next couple of months,” Perin said. This section of the Deschutes is open year round with a limit of two trout per day.