Trout season opens on the Deschutes on the fourth Saturday in April and closes in October. The river is usually high with sparse hatches until mid-May, so nymphing is your best bet. High water may limit the areas you can fish, so look to the edges--edges of fast water meeting slow, edges of eddies, and edges of drop-offs--to catch most of your trout.

From mid-May through mid-June, the salmonfly carnival is an exciting time to be on the river. As you might expect, lots of folks are out to enjoy it, in addition to legions of recreational rafters. Anglers will be in all the obvious water, and especially easy-to-wade areas, such as riffles and shallow runs.

Deschutes River trout are attracted to bankside cover--both for the cool shade and increased food sources (terrestrials and aquatic insects like caddisflies and stoneflies are more common around bankside trees and shrubs than in the middle of the river).

To gain some water to yourself, try the tough water that others leave alone: side-arm casting in deep, quick water canopied by overhanging tree branches; negotiating patches of poison oak and the prickly thorns of wild roses to gain the river; crashing through thick brush, hoping to avoid a rattlesnake.

Fortunately, Deschutes rattlesnakes are shy and small, about a foot long, and they prefer to evade confrontation by slithering away. However, if you startle one, it may coil and buzz loudly. After you regain the ground from your three-feet-in-the-air leap, you'll pick another route to the river.

When I navigate brush, I tromp loudly so as not to startle any snakes. When navigating dense greenery--tall grass where sliding snakes make no sound--I pound the ground ahead of me with my wading staff. I also use the staff to remove spiders and webs from canopied brush where other anglers have plowed tunnel-like paths to the river.

As you explore the Deschutes, view each area as a new puzzle. For example, you might find trout holding in the shade of shoreside brush, ready to ambush 2-inch long salmonflies, while in a riffle only a few yards away trout are feeding on #16 PMDs. My point is that a particular type of water, say a riffle or a flat run alongside an island, may host its own mini-hatch. Weather can also be a factor, because some insects prefer cloudy, cool weather to shed their nymphal state for one of air and land.

I remember one June day after Forrest Maxwell had successfully rowed us through Whitehorse Rapids (Class 4), I suggested we get out and fish around the boulders in the calmer water, which looked like prime Green Drake habitat. Because it was a cloudy, cool day, the stoneflies weren't active. However, the #10, olive-bodied, gray-winged duns hatched mid-day and we had excellent sport in what is traditionally salmonfly time. In Hatch Guide For The Lower Deschutes River, Jim Schollmeyer wrote that although similar to a Green Drake, they are actually Slate-winged Olive Duns (Drunella coloradensis). For fishing, however, it makes little difference. And that's my point--the Deschutes is too large to fish as a whole; keep open to varied possibilities as you explore different types of water. By mid-June, although the jumbo stoneflies are fading, you can still use those big imitations for what fishing friend Denise Paul calls the brush hatch. Bigger redsides will hold under trees where they can scarf any stoneflies too weak to fly from the river. If you're willing to struggle your way into position to cast, you can catch those fish still willing to take your fraudulent stonefly.

Backeddy Trout
As a wide, brawling western river, the Deschutes invites standard nymph, emerger and dry fly tactics. However, the large backeddy pools common to the river often house some of the biggest and toughest-to-take fish, especially in the fall. You'll need to employ spring creek sight-fishing tactics with a long, light leader, a pile or reach cast, and a drag-free drift. Hide behind tall weeds, presenting a small dry, soft hackle or emerger while keeping your line and fly out of those same tall weeds.

Since backeddies actually flow backwards to the main current, you'll often be facing downstream. Starting where the backeddy flows into the river, you'll cast up-current into the eddy because the trout are looking up-current, watching for bugs to drift down to them. Jumbo trout love backeddies because they can easily hold in position while dining on a carousel of drifting insects.

Because some specimens of all the Deschutes' hatching and spent aquatic insects end up in backeddies, redsides can afford to get picky. In the same eddy at the same time, one trout may feed on caddis emergers, while another trout might pick off mayfly duns. It's a puzzle, so watch and study the water, and the trout behaviour, before you start casting. If you're lucky, you'll see the natural before it disappears in the trout's mouth. Watch the rise forms for clues: a bulge usually means trout taking emergers; quick rises for hatching mayflies, and subtle sipping for spent caddis adults. If you're confident that you have the type and stage of the insect nailed and are still getting refused, go a size smaller. Also, to further ensure a drag-free drift, drop your tippet size and extend it to three feet.

Varied currents in large backeddies can cause compound drag, and reduce the length of your effective presentation. Use a curve cast or a wiggle cast to put plenty of slack in your line, and/or hold your rod high to keep your line off the water. Use streamside cover to hide yourself from the trout when possible, and drop your tippet and fly size from what you would normally use in the main current. The flat, subtle currents of a backeddy can hold the most selective, hard-to-catch trout on the river.

Don't step on the trout
Too many people wade past or through the large, hungry trout sitting along the bank, and flail away at the center of the river. Don't make this mistake. Deschutes redsides often hold close to the bank because the lush shoreside vegetation offers shade, which is attractive to desert trout. Also, that same vegetation and shade attracts adult aquatic insects, which sometimes become trout food. When you approach the river bank, you should do so carefully. Make an educated guess as to where the trout are most likely to be holding, and then wade into position to make a cast.

Trout on the Deschutes often lie very close to bankside cover. It's important to approach the river carefully so you don't spook any fish, and position yourself for the best possible presentation. The most effective dry-fly presentations are (in this order): Down-and-across Up-and-across Directly upstream Directly downstream Down-and-across (1) and up-and-across (2) presentations are the most effective because the fish sees only your fly--the line and leader never pass overhead. These casts will also help keep your line away from shrubbery hanging over the river. The downside is that you must wade out into the river to make these casts, and on the Deschutes, this isn't always possible. If you can't wade out, you'll have to settle for a straight upstream, or downstream presentation. When you cast straight upstream, just show the fish the fly and a short piece of tippet. Casting too far will "line" the trout. Working your way up the shoreline is a great way to fish the Deschutes, especially when there are stoneflies or caddis around and you are prospecting with a dry fly. Cast the fly up along the bank, take in the slack line as the fly drifts back toward you, move forward a step, and cast again. If you see trout rising, and have to make a downstream presentation, measure your cast in the air (to the side of the trout), and then make a puddle cast to drift the fly down to the trout

If you can, wade to where you can cast back toward the shore. In most cases, this won't be possible, and you'll have to cast directly upstream at the trout.

When you are in position directly below the trout, check your backcast area for obstructions, then false cast until you have enough line out to allow for a drag-free presentation. If you can, measure the cast by making false casts off to the side of the fish. That way you won't startle the trout with a line shadow. Sometimes you won't have the luxury of a fancy cast, but if you can, use a pile or reach cast for a drag-free drift.