Deschutes
Summer
Expectations
I’m jonesin to fish the Deschutes
and several other Columbia River
tributaries in 2017, but I’m not
letting my expectations get out
of control this year. And neither
should you: The Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife
is predicting the lowest return of
steelhead to the Columbia River
Basin in 37 years.
Specifically, the department expects no
more 137,000 steelhead to swim up the
Columbia this year with numbers of wild
fish headed for the Snake River and its
tributaries—meaning the Clearwater,
Salmon, and Grand Ronde rivers, among
others—being especially low. Closures
are expected on some rivers, such as
Washington’s Methow, and bag limits on
hatchery fish have been lowered on many
lower Columbia tributaries.
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Bowing to the L. While fishing the
Deschutes you’ll find all sorts of
interesting creatures, including
preying mantis.
To put the run in perspective, understand
that 261,400 steelhead returned to the
Columbia system in 2015 and a whopping
601,000 returned in 2009. Last year,
anglers got a taste of what 2017 holds
when only 183,000 steelhead returned. For
those who fish the Clearwater the news is
grim: just 6,200 B-run hatchery steelhead
are bound for that famous river this year,
and just 1,100 wild B-runs are expected to
join them.
So, should you even invest your time
trying to swing up these fish this year? The
answer, to me, is yes. Recently I spoke
with a dedicated steelheader who said the
numbers of fish returning to his home river,
the Salmon, last year were paltry, but the
fishing was pretty good.
How’s that?
He told me that the river was devoid of
anglers a lot of the time, so he could
pick his favorite pool and fish it without
competition. That meant he got to swing
flies over untouched fish that were willing
to take.
Remember this: it only takes one steelhead
to make your day, or even an entire trip,
so keep that in mind this summer and fall
when you’re wondering weather to head to
Oregon, Washington or Idaho to search for
these fish.
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