Meandering Angler: Fall fishing in Oregon

It was another cold, cloudy morning in Bend the week before last as Dottie and I drove south on Highway 97 out of Bend following a pickup driven by our guide Brendan Cushen for our second day of Oregon fishing.

Light sprinkles marked our windshield as we turned off the highway just past Sun River and headed west on a narrow winding road through the woods.

Our destination was Fall River, an 8-mile long spring creek that is a tributary of the Upper Deschutes River.

We parked next to a large complex of buildings that was part of a working trout hatchery.

My first thought was, “A hatchery right next to the river. How bad can it be?”

By any measure, the Fall River is not river-sized. It is a small creek and wadable in most places. It meanders through dense woods and no apparent efforts have been made to clear the numerous trees that have fallen into the crystal clear water as it winds its way toward the Deschutes. It was like fishing in a narrow, water-logged obstacle course.

It is also very pretty and loaded with big, fat monster trout, many of them probably escapees from the hatchery.

Dottie and I could see the trout and we were certain they could see us. The trick, as our guide Brendan explained, was to not get too close, and try to float a fly so that it virtually hit them in the nose. I guess the theory being that, if for no other reason, they’d bite at it like we might swat an annoying mosquito.

When we were successful in annoying the fish enough so that it bit the fly and hooked itself, then we had the challenge of keeping it from tangling the leader on any number of snags, branches and tree trunks in the water.

It was an intriguing morning of playing cat and mouse with trout. Both of us hooked big rainbows, managing to bring in only two of the several we hooked. Of course, we let them go, meaning they’ll be even smarter and harder to catch for the next angler.

It wasn’t the best fishing I’ve ever had, but it was most certainly interesting. The fall is a lovely little stream and close to Bend. The wading is easy and the fish are plentiful, although difficult to catch.

Brendan, whom we hired through Deep Canyon Outfitters, is not only an excellent guide, but a really nice guy. If you decide to fish that part of Oregon, I highly recommend you check out Deep Canyon Outfitters and ask for Brendan Cushen.

High winds, red flag warnings and fires combined to keep most anglers close to home and I have not seen any current fishing reports for local waters, including the bay, ocean and lakes.

Further north, fishing on the lower Sacramento River near Redding is great right now, as is action on the Klamath River. Good fishing is reported on Hat Creek and Fall River, California also.