The 2011-12 winter steelhead season has so far been a roller coaster of extremes. Up until around Christmas, we had barely a trace of precipitation, leading to low water conditions more typical of summer flows.

Fishing fluctuated from slow to excellent and back again, depending on your timing. But it was cool to be able to swing fish some of our larger rivers under such manageable conditions.

Just after Christmas, a big system came ashore and rivers went from summer low to flood stage in the span of 48 hours. When the storm abated, the waters dropped and soon were in perfect shape up and down the coast.

Since that storm we’ve been back to low water again, as little to no rain has fallen for weeks. All that changes tonight as a series of heavy storms are predicted to come ashore through the next week. Rivers will rise again and anglers will watch carefully for that perfect window where the waters go from brown to green and a fresh batch of chrome is in the house.

Despite the unusual run of dry weather and the return of the usual yo-yo-ing river levels of late, the one constant has been the fish. The winter steelhead are in.

Are you feeling lucky?

It was an incredible month of fishing here in the Willamette Valley. The weather was perfect: calm, warm, and overcast conditions were the rule for weeks on end. On the Willamette, summer steelhead were attacking dry October caddis patterns and the trout were feeding with reckless abandon.

On the Deschutes, fishing was steady, although slower than over here in the Valley for the most part. Scott and a lucky client did encounter an amazing fish, the likes of which you don’t see all that often over there.

Over on the coast, the low water conditions made the fall chinook salmon more vulnerable to fly presentations than in recent years.

If you didn’t get a chance to wet your line, or if you just want to relive some of the magic, here are some images from the last few weeks. Does it get any better than October in Oregon?

The 2011 season was particularly special for me because for the first time, I was joined in the adventure by my wife, Aimee, and my daughter, Haylee Ann. It was literally a dream come true to share this magical place with them. All of my Mongolian “family” got to meet my American family.

The fishing as usual was awesome. Check out some photos in the album “Mongolia 2011,” or just click on the photo here:

It’s that time of year again, when a (not so) young man’s thought turn to chasing monster taimen in Outer Mongolia. Tune in towards the beginning of October for a fresh report from the Land of the Giants.

In the meantime, Scott is manning the oars around home for the month.

Tight Lines!

Whether angling for trout or steelhead, the fishing has been on in the last few weeks here in the southern Willamette Valley.

On the Willamette, steelhead and trout action has been steady. Most trips are turning up a fish or two with some magic days mixed in. Earlier in the month, it was Charlie Greenwood and his nephew Jason who hit that magic day. In an all-day drizzle, they rose seven steelhead, hooked five and landed three along with numerous nice wild trout. People often say, “you should have been here yesterday.” Well, as I told them that day, “today was ‘yesterday!'”

On the upper McKenzie, hatchery rainbow trout along with a healthy number of wild redsides have been abundant, providing consistent action on dries and wets. One day last week, Charlie Greenwood (who else?)and his brother Lee had a day which featured a hatchery fish-fry lunch, several nice wild redsides, a brief encounter with a summer steelhead, and a spectacular encounter with a determined osprey. Quite a day! Charlie is rewarded every year for his willingness to put dates on the calendar in the prime season and roll the dice. See you next year, Charlie!

Scott Nelson and Colin Carr floated from Macks Canyon to the Mouth twice this week. The fly fishing for Steelhead was consistent but slow. Their guests got up early and stayed out late polishing up their spey fishing techniques and were rewarded with some beautiful Wild Steelhead.

The fishing should continue to improve over the next few weeks as the fish counts are ticking up. Additionally, water temps in the Columbia River are warming, so more up river fish will take thermal refuge in the lower reaches of the Deschutes River.

These straying fish mixed in with the Deschutes Natives provide an opportunity to angle in some of the highest concentrations of Steelhead anywhere in the world. Throw in the unreal rimrock canyon light and you have a truly magical fishing trip.

We prefer to spend 3 or 4 days camping and floating through the canyon, but there are 1 day trips available. Either way, this is one of Oregon’s Blue Ribbon Fisheries that needs to be seen to be believed. Heres a few photos that might help:

There’s an old adage in Oregon fishing: if it rains in the summer, go fishing.

Case in point: Yesterday, I was joined by the Duffy family, Dennis, Kathleen, and Eric, for their first float on the lower McKenzie. The forecast was for clouds giving way to sun in the afternoon. However, we were treated to sunny warm conditions from the start. Fishing was fair and we got some nice trout in most of the places we swam the flies.

In the early afternoon, the clouds filled in, and soon we were donning the rain gear for what turned out to be a real gullywasher of a rainstorm. With the rain came an explosion of mayflies: PMD’s, Grey and Green Drakes, BWO’s, all took advantage of the wet calm and warm conditions. The trout took notice as well. In the heart of the storm, the grab was on! Dennis and Eric hooked and landed several beautiful oversize Redsides and got bit just about every time they dipped their soft hackles in the water.

By the time we hit the landing at the end of the day, everyone was soaked and stoked in equal measures. Here are a couple of those nice redsides in the rain:

The river levels have been rising and falling like a yo-yo on both the McKenzie and Willamette this spring thanks to the heavy precipitation resulting from the La Nina weather pattern. That being said, the McKenzie has continued to fish well throughout these fluctuations. The same can’t be said of the lower Middle Fork Willamette, where steelheaders have been frustrated by the high flows for most of the last month.

On Thursday, the 12th, Steve Pailet returned for a long-overdue engagement with the trout of the lower McKenzie. Despite the weather being too nice for great fishing (bright and sunny–nice problem to have!), the fishing was steady and entertaining primarily with nymphs. Steve reveled in the day on the water, connecting with lots of cutthroat, rainbows, and some magnificent whitefish.
Check out a couple of shots from the day:

Deschutes salmonfly season is upon us. Scott and I will be splitting our time between the valley and the Deschutes canyon for the next month or so. Looking forward to some of the best trout fishing of the year!

The weather has finally mellowed out, the river has been at a steady flow, and good mixed hatches have got the resident trout in a feeding rhythm. On a recent 2 boater, Jeff Besecker ended up riding solo for the day in the front of my boat. This is the ideal situation for working on dry fly fishing tactics as all the air space above the boat was all his. In almost every spot, start to finish, a native trout responded to Jeff’s offerings. It was pretty easy to get Jeff’s cast tuned up and when we found free rising trout, he was all over them.

Over in Matt’s boat, Greg and Taylor chose to avoid back casting conflict by sitting back and swinging wet flies for most of the afternoon. From our angle it looked like a good choice. I dont think I ever saw them put the flies out and not catch something. At one point we saw Matt’s boat beached on a gravel bar with Matt out in the water and Greg and Taylor laughing and high fiving. We boated in for a closer look just in time to see the second release of a double up catch of over sized rainbows.

We all enjoyed being out for the 3rd nice weather day of the year. To top it off we stopped in at Mazzi’s for some homemade pasta and Taylor treated us with two perfectly complimentary red wines. I love my job! Thanks everybody and check out the photos: