The other week I had an opportunity to get away and fish the Upper Deschutes with a good friend. Having little experience on the stretch of the Deschutes between Little Lava Lake and Crane Prairie, I was opted to go give it a try. The Upper Deschutes is a gin clear, log filled stream full of Brook trout that enter from Little Lava and Crane Prairie lakes, along with Rainbows that are present in this stretch. After hearing reports of large Brook Trout being caught fishing deep with stramers and nymphing, my first instinct was to nymph with small weighted stone flies and tiny beadhead droppers. Nymping deep resulted in success for catching larger sized brookies. Along with nymphing, throwing streamers near undercut banks and log jams can also be deadly. Fishing small attractor dry flies and ant patterens can result in catching smaller fish throughout the day. This is the time to be out there with the weather feeling more like summer. Make sure to have plenty of mosiquito repellent out there and hopefully those large brookies will be lurking in the depths for you....
