Marty's Drift December 2002

A New Dog in the Boat
and
A Deschutes River Steelhead Trip

In my last column I talked about the different fishing dogs that have accompanied me fishing over the past 30 years. In this column I want to introduce you to my new fishing buddy, Buster. Shortly after I had to have Zane put down, I talked with Gary Kish at the Oregon Humane Society. Gary said he would watch for a dog. On October 31 he called saying a good possibility had turned up. That evening Joyce, Yukon and I drove across town to check him out. He appeared to be good natured and healthy, and best of all he and Yukon hit it right off. We took him home.

Buster has adapted very well to our house and habits. He gets along well with Yukon and with our cat Bruno. He is gentle and very sweet. He is not nearly as active as Yukon, although Buster is only one year old and Yukon is four. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we took Buster on his first boat ride. We were spending the holiday weekend at our beach house, close to the Nestucca River. We started our drift at Three Rivers and floated to Cloverdale. The weather was fantastic, perfectly blue skies and 60 degrees. I rowed in just a T-shirt all day. Buster was great in the boat; by the afternoon he was napping with his head on the bench.

Although we have had very little rain so far this year, I saw three chrome bright winter-run steelhead. Neither Joyce nor I had a hook up, but the sight of fish was encouraging. I expect the coming two or three months should be good.

Deschutes River Steelhead

A little over a year ago I went to the Grande Ronde River with Gene Hering, the producer of Fly Fish TV on OLN. In October Gene invited me to go on another filming trip. Gene had arranged to film a segment for his show on the Deschutes River with Rob Crandall of Action Anglers. (1-800-370-9417, www.actionanglers.com)

Gene and I left Portland early Sunday morning on November 17th. We met Rob and Randy Sholes, the Cortland Line sales rep, on the way over Mt. Hood. By 8:30 we were at the Trout Creek boat launch and shortly on our way down river.

Rob and Randy were the featured anglers in this segment of Fly Fish TV, and it didn't take long for Rob to display his knowledge of where steelhead hold in this section of the river. The first place where Rob stopped he and Randy both hooked and landed steelhead.

By mid November the water temperature has dropped dramatically from its summer level. I checked several times and found it to be between 46 and 48 degrees. Rob changes his approach and technique based on the water temperature. Instead of floating lines Rob switches to sink-tip variations. During our trip Randy and Rob were using Cortland 555 floating lines with Climax Polytaper sinking leaders. These were the 8-1/2 ft., type 6 leader with 10-lb. tippet. The presentation was made by casting straight across stream; throwing a big mend in the line and letting it swing. Sometimes slack line was mended into the swing to allow the fly to sink deeper. At other times Rob would take a step or two downstream during the swing to get the fly deeper. The fly patterns we used were small black Articulated Leeches and bead head black Woolly Buggers.

Our first camp of the trip was made at Whiskey Dick. Rob's camp was one of the nicest I've ever experienced. We had big wall tents with heaters and cots. One tent was for sleeping the other was the cook tent. Nights in November can get pretty cold, but we didn't suffer at all with the heated tents, and they were so spacious we were able to bring our waders and boots inside to keep them from freezing. I've done many camp trips on my own on the Deschutes over the past 30 years and I have always dreaded jamming my feet into frozen wading boots in the morning.

When we finished breakfast on Tuesday morning Randy and I hiked up the railroad tracks for a little fishing while camp was being broken. It was one of those perfect steelhead fishing mornings. There was no wind and the sky had a thin overcast instead of the bright, harsh sun that can often put fish down. As Randy came through the top of the run a nice wild steelhead hen took his fly and gave him a good long battle.

The person running Rob's gear boat was Gil Muhleman, and I was his passenger along with a load of gear. As we floated, we would stop and fish certain areas where Rob had no plans to fish. This was a good opportunity for Gil to test fish spots he had wanted to try, but had not had the time to try.

We pulled into one spot he told me he had been eyeing all summer. Gil invited me to give it a try, but I declined. It was only right for him to try it first, and besides I wanted to get some photos. Gil didn't let me down; within a matter of minutes he was playing a beautifully-colored wild summer steelhead.

After Gil landed the fish, we made a mad dash for the take out. Gil was running late for an afternoon appointment. When we reached Dutchman Flat (now Harpham Flat) we quickly unloaded Gil's boat so he could be on his way. The afternoon was mild and warm, and, as I waited for Rob's boat to arrive, my mind ran back over the past days and the past 30 years of Deschutes steelhead fishing.

Give Marty a call at: (503) 655-9532

You can also call Idaho Falls at (800) 394-1345.