Winter Fly Fishing on the Lower Deschutes - Heritage Landing
I picked up my first fly rod in August, thinking it would be the perfect hobby to accompany me on all my mountain bike trips. Fast forward 6 months, and I’ve fallen hard for the sport of fly fishing. Every trip, every day on the water, I learn something new, I get better, and sometimes I catch fish.
The regulations for trout fishing in Oregon are complicated, with most of the rivers and streams closing on Oct 31st. Around this time was when I was starting to ramp up my fly fishing and starting to understand what I was doing. I was catching bigger fish, learning to read the water, and, more importantly, discovering new rivers.
I’ve long heard about the fly fishing on the Deschutes River; I’d often see fly fishermen lined up on the water casting into riffles before I knew what a riffle was. To be honest, it always looked boring to me. I prefer the smaller streams, scrambling around rocks, and hiking deep into the unknown. The Deschutes River is one of the few rivers near Portland that stays open all year for fly fishing, so as the weather turned, I thought it was about time I gave the big D a shot!
The Deschutes River is broken up into five segments which you can learn about here. Living in Portland, the closest access point on the Lower Deschutes is at the Mouth, accessed from the Deschutes River State Park Recreation Area and Heritage Landing. Both give access to only 20+ miles of the river by foot or bicycle.
The following images and observations are from a recent trip to the west of the river accessed via Heritage Landing.
The drive through the Columbia Gorge is beautiful but can be really treacherous. You can use TripCheck to look at live cameras and get info on the roads.
On your way out, I recommend stopping by the River Daze Cafe for breakfast and lunch. Also, just down the street is the Big Y Fly Co, which opens at 7 am and has all the Fly Fishing gear you’d ever need! Seriously they’re the best!
I’ve been told that winter Fly Fishing is all about nymphing, so I recently bought a Redington Strike Euro Rod which I proceeded to break 5 minutes from the van! Ironically this is the 2nd rod I’ve broken on this part of the river doing the exact same thing. I was riding my mountain bike with a rod in hand, and well I think you can guess what happened next!
After biking back to the van through the freshly packed snow I grabbed my 5-weight and set it up with an indicator. I am a big fan of Redington and this particular setup was a 9’6” 5-weight Classic Trout rod with a Rise Reel and Elite Rio Gold Floating Fly Line.
There is something special about winter fishing. The river was empty, dusted in fresh snow, blue skies, and endless water. Trout are super lethargic and slow during the winter months and I’ve found the fishing to be pretty tough. I look for slow water, back eddys, and foam.
After fighting the wind and cold hands all day it was nice to finally get a fish in the net. I found this beautiful Deschutes Redband in a faster section of water hiding in some rocks. This was the moment I realized that even in winter I should be fishing the faster water that has structure. Yet another lesson learned!