Hello all
I’ll be in portland, OR July 8 - 12. I would like to get any info on what kind of fishing is going on that time of year and where I should go. all help is appreciated.
thanks riz
Great sponsor there, “Jakes Grill”. Look it up on the sponsor page.
http://flyanglersonline.com/about/jakes/
Mike and his wife are both fanatics. Sevral others in the region too. You should call well in advance. 
The Deschutes
Deshutes is a good one.
There is also the Metolius, which is tougher to fish, but the prettiest river I have ever seen.
There is a fly shop in Wlches that might be able to give you some good advice. It is called “The Fly Shop” and their website is http://www.flyfishusa.com .
Hope this helps.
Adam
If all you want to do is fish for trout, PM me. Ill probably get razzed, but the Santiam is only about an hour and half away. I can take you out on Sunday or if you can get into town on Friday we can make a weekend trip out of it. PM me if your interested. By the way if you havent fished Boo yet I can get you “hooked” :lol:
I read Deschutes in the previous post and immediately began thinking of the central OR places I love. You could also try several of the costal rivers (about an 1-1.5hrs) for resident and searun costal cutthroats.
Adam
thanks guys Deschutes, santiam, and metolius, are these rivers wadable or would i need to hire a boat? also it looks like the main focus is steelhead, is that right? what gear, outfit should i bring? flies?
clyde - i may take you up on that sunday trip if i can arrange to be in saturday, which is likely. i will PM you.
JC - thanks for the tip on where to eat. i will be eating there on the trip. it’s great to have a high per diem on trips like this.
any comment about the sandy river?
Too early for steelhead on the Deschutes…
You might wnt to check with Kauffmann’s Streamborn fly shop in Portland…see the sponsors list here…
www.deschutesangler.com
www.flyfishingdeschutes.com
Both of these shops are located in Maupin on the Deschutes. Generally their sites have the most accurate reports since they are on the river every day.
All of the rivers listed can be waded. A boat and guide would give you access to more water on the Deschutes but is not necessary. There should be PMDs and lots of caddis around at that time. As mentioned, it will be trout fishing on the Deschutes then. The North Santiam should have some summer steelhead around. Good luck.
Pretty good steelhead river and conveniently close to Portland. If you stay on the East side of Portland the Sandy River is as little as 10 to fifteen minutes away. The crown Point highway parallels the lower section of the rives and access is abundant. You can pull over and park anywhere along the road or you can pay to park at Dabney State Park. There is parking at the Stark st bridge also however I can’t remember if there is a fee.
If time allows head up to the Cedar Creek hatchery and fish that area of the Sandy. You’ll have to park at the hatchery and walk in a half mile or so but this section of the river contains a lot of returning steelhead and the fishing can be exceptional. The water consist of riffles, runs, pocket water, pools and is very very wadeable. I would fish this section before work in the morning, when I lived in the area and quite often land a nice steelhead. Nice water.
The Sandy River is my ex home water and I fished it weekly when I lived in Portland. For such a great River it doesn’t see a lot of fishing pressure which always surprised me but I’m not complaining 
If your into small wild trout the salmon river up by welches is fun to fish. Nothing fancy is needed there; 4wt rod and some attractor patterns. This is in the Mt Hood National forest and the scenery is breathtaking (as is the scenery on the Sandy river but in a different way).
Good luck, have fun and enjoy your visit to Portland. It’s an incredible city in a beautiful area.
Ok… I should mention that I haven’t lived there in a couple of years and the fishing might have changed. I probably wouldn’t be giving out all this info if you were askin about my home waters here in Maine
Many of the returning steelhead are hatchery fish and if the are putting fewer fish in the river than things would not be like they used to be…
Feel free to PM me if you have questions or post them here if you like
Hi, Welches is definitely a first class fly shop, especially a first class spey shot. The only problem is that they are about a hour from Portland. Kauffman’s (www.kman.com) is in tigard Oregon which is a suburb of Portland, and are owned by famous fly fisherman Lance and Randy Kauffman.
The Sandy River is also another river that is in the area.
The weather stabilizes in Oregon in mid June, so you will be there at a good time weatherwise. Portland is great at that time of year, as is Oregon and the Pac Northwest. I recommend that you get an Oregon Atlas & Gazeteer. There is a book on flyfishing Oregon too that fits in that series, and several other independent books.
July is caddis season on the Deschutes. Generally, it is a strong river with lava bedrock and has a very active discharge of groundwater, i.e. it has holes. You can wade in it but not across it below the dam (at least I have never seen a spot where a normal human could safely walk across).
There are several different reaches of the river. In the area around Redmond and the Crooked River Ranch, above the lake, it is a small wadable river than can be crossed. In my experience, the fish are smaller and browns are present. It is similar around the Sun River area.
The river is very different in its different reaches and at different times of the year. When I lived out there, it was like you had to learn a different river for each season. The caddis season is fun, but it can get hot in the desert in the day and cold at night. Also, a lot of the river is in a canyon with a railroad track running through it, and it can get mighty windy-enough to drive you nuts at night trying to sleep in a tent or trying to cast a fly.
Looking downstream near the Columbia is Maupin. It has a bar up on top of the hill with Black Butte Porter on tap, which is hard to find (the on tap part). The Canyon Fly Shop was there, I don’t know if it still is. There was a little motel there too. The Deschutes River Club has private property with a gate on the road, and in years apst you could walk up that road onto their club and fish. There is a lot of road access to the river at Maupin compared to Mecca Flats, the Junction, etc. It is also a fairly quick trip from PDX out 84 through the Gorge to The Dalles, and then south on Hwy 97. Hood River has a Super Wally mart if you need to stock up on sunscreen, camping supplies, toilet paper, chewing tobacco, etc. It also has a good burger joint, and you will see a lot of “trustafarians” from California that are hanging around for the windsurfing on the Columbia River. The more scenic drive, however, is out Hwy 26 past Mt. Hood. there is a shortcut to avoid the east side traffic on Hwy 26 that would take you from Milwaukie through Estacada to intersect 26, but you will definitely need a map to do it. There are little places just north of Maupin-Tyhge Valley and Dufur-and there are access roads out to the river from there. In my experience, those parking lots get tight on the weekends. IMO, one is better to fish during the week and spend the weekend in town. between rafting and fishing, the river gets busy on weekends.
Did I mention the bar in Maupin with Black Butte Porter on tap? 8)
The Deschutes Brewery is loacted in Bend, and it is a nice stop if you fish around Redmond or Bend.
There are places called Mecca Flats and The Junction that you may want to check out. MF is easy to find, just drive 26 toward Madras until you cross the river and hang a left. You park and walk to fish.
The Junction is an interesting place to fish, and provides some isolation. It is off 97 south of Maupin and north of Madras, not far from the cutoff to Shaniko, and it is a little harder to find. Once there, you can find some seclusion, but that bloody train will blow you out of your tent at night if you camp there. I about soiled myself the first time I camped there and had that light flash in my tent in the middle of the night with the horn blaring. I have heard that one can walk the RR track right of way, or ride a mtn bike, and get a long way from people (as long as you don’t meet the train), but I would not know for sure, because that could lead to trespassing to get down to the river.
March is a good time to fish the river for trout. July is fun because of caddis and the BWO during the day. You can rig a bunch of different combinations of dries trailed by emergin caddis or spent mayfly spinners. The old standard nymphs and san juan worms work well too, and if all else fails, weight it down and get it down there to them-that river is powerful.
I second the recommendation on Kauffman’s, I like it best of the Portland shops. The Fly Box or someone has a shop in Madras and another in Bend if you get to that area and need something.
Other rivers in Oregon: The Wallowa in NE OR, a beautiful area. The Donner and Blitzen way down in south cetral OR, 7 hours from PDX, which is more of a fall river. The Crooked outside Prineville, 3 hours from PDX, The Fall, south of Bend, a little over 3 hours.
You also have the upper forks of the Willamette, The Umpqua, and The Rogue, all pretty and not in a high desert environment. Sometimes it’s nice to be among trees and be in the cool, and not have that crazy wind.
Jakes in Portland is nice. Other favorites: Esparza’s Tex Mex in the NE is great; Geno’s (or Gino’s) in Sellwood, moderately priced Italian; Pambiche in the NE is good Cuban. Genoa and Couvron are two high end restaurants there. The barbecue, or the stuff that passes as such in Portland, sucks.
A fly shop on the Deschutes at Warm Springs…You can sign up for their email and get current reports…
hey guys thanks for all this info. i’ve got enpough to fish for a month, bur that’s OK, i love sifting through all this stuff and deciding on a place to go. i’ll definately get the gazeteer. i’ll also call some shops as it closer to the trip. but i’m also hoping you all will be doing a lot of fishing too and clueing me in.
If your going to the Deschutes area, consider Fall River. It is like the Metolious. Same water height and tempature year round. Both are spring fed. Great access and wadable. Not to scare you but be on the lookout for rattlesnakes when in East Central Oregon. Just use good judgement. The “Fly Fishers Place” in Sisters Oregon is a good central fly shop and can help you with advise and supplies. They have a website. As J.C. said, you want the best food in Oregon, go to Jakes Famous Crawfish. Been there since the turn of the 20th century, you will be talkking about this resaturant for as long as you live. Guiness on tap too, not to mention the good fly fishing advise. Enjoy!