Fall River - July 30th, 2010


It has been a few days since I made it out fishing and with some good reports coming from Crane I was hoping to make it out that way for some chronomid fishing, however after a glance at the forecast and the called for thunderstorm I figured I might want to stay off the lakes while waving a graphite rod around. Instead I opted for the Fall with quick afternoon run to the upper Deschutes. Fishing started off slow despite sighting actively nymphing fish. After throwing nearly everything in the box at them I tied on an olive streamer and started working my way back through the same water that I had just fished. The results were nearly immediate, almost every fishy look spot was producing a fish that was willing to play and while most failed to get hooked up it was awesome to watch a fish come charging across the river to attack a 3 inch streamer after completely ignoring all my previous offerings. The coolest grab of the day belonged to my friend Jason who was swinging his fly just in front of a logjam when a fish came out and make several unsuccessful swats at his streamer all of a sudden another fish came charging over to completely hammer his fly, after several impressive jumps he was releasing a nice 16 inch rainbow. The sculpzilla in olive was the best producer although black as well as silver also did the trick. Generally a few casts to a likely look spot was enough to determine if any fish were willing to eat, but by changing presentation methods between swinging, slow stripping, and a fast two handed retrieve fish that showed interest but were unwilling to hit could be coaxed into biting. After streamer fishing slowed down we headed to the upper Deschutes in hopes of repeating some of the awesome fishing we have had there over the past month. Blame it on the hot weather, the thunderstorm overhead, or the high fishing pressure (but not our angling abilities) fishing was definitely slower then it has been. While the smaller fish were willing to play the larger fish we were after eluded us. The few nice fish that were hooked made quick work of our tippet in the many fallen logs lining the streambed. With my fishing partners headed back to Bend I decided to wrap up the day on the Fall in hopes of catching an evening caddis hatch. With the sun still on the water I started out nymphing and picked up a few small rainbows on a pheasant tail before switching to a heavy stonefly with a mayfly emerger dropped off the back in the hopes of getting down into some of the deeper pools. While I wasn't expecting a fish to hit the stonefly I was pleasantly surprised to land 2 small brook trout on it, a species that until now I had not caught on the Fall. As the sun slid below the mountains fish started to key onto the surface and after several refusals to a parachute adams I switched over to a size 18 x-caddis and landed a few feisty rainbows. I desperately wanted to land a brown, but alas it wasn't to be and with daylight fading fast I called it a day. If your looking for a change of pace and want to throw some streamers try giving the Fall a shot. If you have two trout rods its worth bringing them both along, one setup with a stout leader for throwing streamers and the other with a long leader down to 6x for drys and nymphing. Its also a good place to work on nymphing without an indicator as the fish seemed more willing to eat without a fluorescent ball floating overhead. Go get a line wet,Ira Miller


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