Through the Desert

Desert Steel...

The Deschutes is downright breathtaking. Every. Single. Time. Due to the natural beauty of the canyon, I've made a concerted effort to make it out to the river in each of the last four summers, fishing for steelhead during the last three. I typically find myself there during the hottest month of the year for both air and water temperatures. Due to these conditions, swinging for steel is much slower than the fall months of September and October. The water temperatures on the lower river are borderline creating a thermal barrier of sorts. This forces some fish to hunker down in the Columbia awaiting cooler weather and others to make their way upriver seeking colder temperatures. Due to this, most of my fishing has been concentrated above Mack's Canyon. Outside of an overnight solo float from Pine Tree to the mouth, I've mostly fished the river on foot. This summer, my friend Austin had a brand new raft, which had us following the railroad on the hunt for steelhead. 

Any overnight trip on the Deschutes should be on every angler's bucket list. The river's scenery, wildlife, and whitewater are worth the price of admission in and of themselves. The icing on the cake is a cold river (it could be colder) teeming with life in the form of redband trout, steelhead, and aquatic insects. Flowing through the desert, this attracts all sorts of wildlife from eagles, big horn sheep, ospreys, deer, mountain lion, chukars, otters, heron, and more. From a geologic perspective, the canyon walls reveal the history of earth. I often find myself staring at these walls, or the wildlife, and miss the tell tale signs of a steelhead's take. At night, the remoteness of the canyon reveals the Milky Way galaxy and an unfathomable amount of stars. On some nights, you are treated to consistent shooting stars as meteors burn their way through the atmosphere. When you share that all with friends, good food, drinks, and a cot under the night sky, the vibes become immaculate. 

Cedar Island

Luke Hatch and Austin Tighe

Getting out to Oregon was different this year. Instead of driving the van across country and slowly making my way to Maupin over the course of two months, I flew out directly for a one week stay. Austin was supposed to pick me up in Medford, but due to the global cyber outage, my flight was canceled. At a crowded and chaotic baggage kiosk, I had to change my entire itinerary via touchscreen. Thankfully, I was able to find a delayed flight to Portland that nearly doubled my travel time. This meant that Austin's plans changed too. I had to Uber from Portland to The Dalles, where we finally made our rendezvous for the last leg of the journey. That evening, we fell asleep at our campsite as a meteor shower lit up the sky overhead. 

Our first float, was from Pine Tree to Beavertail. I missed two fish. With the water temperatures marginal, we decided to change our plans and move much further upriver to do an overnight into Maupin. We made the drive and met up with Luka Hatch and one of his friends. The following two days were epic. A new section, new views, good food, camaraderie, and one big question: "Hey Mark, can you row?". It won't be too bad, but there is a rapid called Whitehorse that claims boats every season". All joking aside, Whitehorse was fun. Luke Hatch caught three steelhead on the float. His first filled us with hope. His second came with a tinge of jealousy. After his third, I asked him to buy me a PowerBall ticket. All came on sink tips and weighted intruders. I continued doing the Lord's work with a dry line and a wet fly or skater. 

Speaking of, one of my favorite moments of 2024 was raising my first Deschutes fish on a skated fly. I'll leave it at that...

Austin Tighe