Skwala are gone for another year

The Skwala hatch has come and gone for another year on the Owyhee . By far we saw more skwalas on the water than we had ever seen in our 17 years of guiding the Owyhee. Fishing was definitely ups and downs generally due to weather changes. The cloudy days on average were the best fish days. Even though the Skwalas are gone there are still some great BWO hatches showing midday. On the sunny days the caddis are already starting to show in great numbers. Caddis and PMD’s will be the main hatches for the next couple months.

Tight Lines

Skwala Fishing

Opening day is just around the corner, and we’re now less than six weeks away from the entire 100 miles of the Lower Deschutes being open. It’s always one of the most exciting times of the year as the river comes back to life and we kick off another season on the water.

Owyhee Spring Season
Our spring Owyhee season has officially filled up. Thank you to everyone who booked trips with us this spring. We will be heading back out in August for hopper season, and we still have a few open dates available.

John Day Outlook
The John Day bass season could arrive a bit earlier this year due to the lower snowpack. June is also shaping up to be a great time for bass fishing on our camp trips this season.

Steelhead Season
If you’re hoping to fish steelhead this year, it’s a good idea to reach out sooner rather than later as the calendar is filling up quickly. We generally begin targeting steelhead around the second week of September and fish through mid-November.

If you'd like to get a trip on the books or have any questions about the upcoming season, feel free to reach out. We’re looking forward to another great year on the river and hope to see you out there.

Tight lines,

Cory
Deschutes River Anglers
541-771-2288

Spring Fishing

With this incredible (and slightly crazy) winter weather, you’re probably like me and already thinking about fishing. Blue-winged olive hatches have started and are coming off strong, making for some good early-season opportunities.

I’ll be running day trips on the Deschutes through mid-March if anyone wants to get out on the river.

We’re also just six weeks away from our 2026 season on the Owyhee. This will be the first time in the last three years that we’ve been able to fish this early in the season. We have only a few Skwala dates still available in the latter part of March.

If you’re interested or want more details, let me know — I’d love to get you on the water.

Tight Line

Cory
Deschutes River Anglers

That's a Wrap

Hi everyone,

As the days get shorter and the weather begins to change, it’s official my 2025 fishing season has come to a close. That’s also a wrap on my 29th season of guiding, and I want to take a moment to thank each of you for being part of it.

Whether you joined me on the water for the first time or have been fishing with me for years, I truly appreciate your trust, your enthusiasm, and the memories we created together. This season was filled with great conversations, unforgettable catches, and the kind of moments that remind me why I love what I do.

I’m already looking forward to season number 30, and I hope to see you back out on the water next year. Until then, I wish you a great off-season and many good days ahead.

Thank you again for your support.

Tight Lines,
Cory
Deschutes River Anglers

Happy 4th

Caddis season is off to a great start. With hot weather  comes good/ great caddis hatches. The riffles have been fishing great with dry flies. A size #16 elk hair caddis has been doing the trick. The back eddies and slower moving banks have also had some good fish in them and a lot of people overlook them this time of season.  Since they don't get fished as much this time of season, some of the easier fish to catch are in these areas.

Our summer Owyhee season is just around the corner. We will be out there chasing brown trout from  August 10-September 6. This is typically a pretty prime time to be on the Owyhee to do some hopper fishing. We do have few days still available if anyone is interested. 

Bassin

Here’s the short and sweet of it. This is a great time to be on the John Day River. You don’t tend to catch a ton of bass early season, but the ones you do find sure make it well worth it. The real key is knowing where to fish for them.

Opening Day

It’s finally here, April 22nd! The entire Lower Deschutes River is now Open.

April 22nd

It's been wet and wild for a lot of the winter, which at times has made it tricky to find places to fish. Finally the weather is getting nice, rivers levels are starting to drop and fish should be plenty hungry.

One Week from today (April 22) the entire Lower Deschutes River will be open for business. Hatches early season tend to happen mid day. If the weather stays nice watch for some caddis flying around. If the clouds show up look for  BWO's and some left over March Browns. Otherwise your best bet will be nymphing with your favorite stonefly pattern in the riffles. 

Good luck out there. 

Cory 
Deschutes River Anglers 
541-771-2288 

It might be mid winter and hard to think about fishing, but it will be here before you know it. Actually there is some good trout fishing to be had in the Maupin area on the Deschutes this time of year if you want to take a break from skiing and pick your days. Happy to show you what we mean. Speaking of the Deschutes, Season starts Warm Springs to Northern Reservation Boundary April ???? The calendar is filling up already, especially prime time Salmon Fly in May and caddis in July. Better to call now, get your group organized now before you miss the best of the Deschutes. These multi-day camping trips down the canyon are such a great time with friends and family. Scenery is amazing, un-plugging from the rat race is needed, and the fishing is really good. Lots of opportunity for dry fly fishing and just fun times catching fat, hard fighting “Redside”

First up ( we jumped the gun a little and got side tracked talking about the Deschutes), is the Owyhee. We will head over to Eastern Oregon on ?????. Staying at the bed and breakfast right on the river is fantastic and is in a great location. Sunrises and sets in the canyon are a great way to start and end a day of chasing brown trout. The spring fishing is a mix of dry/drop, nymphing and when the BWO and skwala hatch gets going, some solid dry fly action. We might even throw some streamers. As we speak we have three sets of dates open, March 19-21st, 23rd to 25th and April 12th -14th. For more information about group size, and details on fishing this beautiful canyon tailwater fishery, feel free to call or email. It is a true gem.

Maybe it is a little early to talk  steelhead, but last years uptick in returns was a blast and looking forward to this upcoming season. Fingers crossed the trend will continue upward and back to the glory days. The Deschutes is such a classic swung fly steelhead playground and we can’t wait to show off how fun this legendary fishery can be.

Over the years , new clients have become friends that we look forward to seeing and fishing with year after year. This is for sure one of the biggest perks to the job, building these lasting relationships and helping make and share memories. We want to help make more and share these trips and experiences with even more folks. So, for a limited of time this season, refer a friend, and we’ll send a sharp looking Deschutes River Anglers hat your way. This hat is a guaranteed lucky fishing hat and will keep you looking good around town. Call or have your friend mention your name and this email and, bam, new hat coming at you.

We are really looking forward to 2025 and the great opportunities it brings. Hope to see you on the water. If we can help plan an Oregon fishing trip or you want more information, feel free to reach out. We are on the water a lot and not always in service, bu we will get back to you as soon as we have service. For updates follow on Instagram or check out fishing reports on the website! Thanks again!

Tight lines,

Cory Godell
Deschutes River Anglers

Fall Fun

This steelhead season was a great uptick from the last couple returns. There has been some really nice 2-salt ( length of time the fish spend in the ocean before they return) fish in the system. Pelton Dam to the Northern Reservation Boundary closes December 31st for trout and steelhead. So there is time for some day trips. Northern Reservation to Columbia is open year-round. Again, if you want to head out and chase trout or steelhead, there is some time before the real snow starts to fly and winter lock down settles in. Give a call or email and we can get something set up for you. 

Winter hasn't even begun, and we are only four and half months away from heading back over to the Owyhee. The spring over there can be really good and a great start to the season. We try to target the skwala hatch ( a smaller stonefly), the days that we don't have skwalas there can be other mayflys for potential dry fly fishing opportunities. Nymphing, dry and drop and streamer fishing can be good as well and tactics that we use. The Owyhee has some really nice brown trout and a few rainbows. it is one of the better places in Oregon to target trophy browns. We stay at a bed and breakfast right on the river and it is a fantastic trip. We have limited availability, so it is not too early to start thinking about those opportunities.

Thanks to all that shared the rivers with us. We appreciate all of you and truly enjoy taking you to some of our favorite places. If you have any questions about trip options, or fishing Oregon in general, do not hesitate to call or email. Follow on Instagram, or you can also check the website for updates.  We are still ready to get out there, if you want to go before the season ends,  give a holler. See you on the river.

Tight lines,

Cory Godell

Fall is in the air

Our Owyhee season is about to wrap up.  The fishing over here started off a little tougher with the the fish seeming like they had lock jaw or where on a hunger strike. I guess they changed their minds or got too hungry, because they are cooperating now and fishing has improved.  Fishing has been good lately on the Owyhee. Just in time.

We are always excited to get on the water with you and spend time watching you catch fish. That is great and all, but I’m not going to lie,  I am looking forward to this trip to the East Coast to chase stripers and other in-shore critters we find. Should be a blast and will be nice to hold a rod for a change.

Once back from that, it is right in to Steelhead on the Deschutes. The numbers still look promising and some good reports. Trout fishing can also be fantastic in the fall as well. Pick your poison. Either way fall on the Deschutes can be fantastic. If you are looking to chase some steelhead of want a fall trout trip, we have limited openings left, better to call real soon.

Thanks again for spending time with us on the water, and we hope to see you soon. If you have any questions abut availability or trip offerings, feel free to call or email. We will get back in touch once we get off the river.
Here is to a great steelhead season! Cheers1

Tight Lines,

Summer Steelhead

We are heading out to the Owyhee in less than a week. The water looks great, and anxiously loading up the fly boxes with hoppers, PMDs and caddis. The Owyhee is a great way to wrap up late summer. Super fun dry fly action for browns. Browns are just built different. Big old mouths, predators. They just love seeing what they can slurp down. Hoppers, beetles, baitfish, maybe throw in a frog or mice for fun, it is all down the old hatch. We love our Rainbows, but having the opportunity to chase browns is a great mix up. They are stunning and talk about photogenic.
We have one slot open for the Owyhee camp, so it is not too late to load up your gear and head on out. Dates available are????

Steelhead numbers on the Deschutes continue to look better than we have seen in a while. Reports trickling in about fish even being caught above Sheras. Typical for this time of year the main action is Mack’s to the mouth. Excited for the fall and the opportunity to chase steelhead, should be a good season. Fall trout fishing  is always good, so either way October  fishing on the Deschutes is a blast!

For more information or to scoop up the last Owyhee slots of 2024, give a call or email. For updates follow us on Instagram or check the website. See you on the river!

Tight Lines,

Steelhead

We have some good news. Steelhead numbers are looking very good so far. Dam fish counts  We are ahead of last year and the ten year average so far. That has us super excited. Chasing steelhead is by far one of our favorite things to do, and it has been a little tougher. Hopefully we keep tracking in this direction. Another word of hope and positive thinking is if you look at low numbers in the 80’s, the fish did rebound and the late 90’s and early 2000’s were really good. So fingers crossed we are working our way back. Just thought we would pass along a ray of hope. If you have dates already on the books, it could be a great season. If you don’t have dates, now would be the time to start locking down plans. We will be back from the Owyhee River latter September and starting to focus on steelhead for the remainder of the season. We can fish for trout as well in the fall and it can be really good as well. But for those looking to target steelhead or do a combo trip, the time is coming quick.

Trout fishing has been really good on the Deschutes and crowds are long gone. Normal summertime action in the Canyon with lots of caddis. There has been days of really fun dry fly and working fish. We have a couple more weeks of summertime Deschutes fishing, so if you are looking for a break or need to get on the water, let us know. From there it is off to the Owyhee. Water levels and the season looks real good.  We have few a few open dates in October and November when we return, hopefully the Deschutes will be full of grabby steelhead. 

Thanks again for another great summer on the Deschutes! Come see us this fall, could be what we have been waiting for. If you have any questions on trips, availability, or fishing in general shoot us an email or call. We will get in touch once we get off the river. For updates follow us on Instagram or check reports on the website. See you on the river!

Tight lines,

Cory Godell
Deschutes River Anglers

John Day

Water levels are dropping quick, and time is running out to float and fish the John Day. Streamers can work great but if you like bass and some serious top water fishing now is the tIme to hit the river. Popper, wiggle worms and chubby chernoble are all good bets. Get there while you can

Summer Time Trout/ Bass

We wait and wait all winter long anticipating the salmon fly and summer in the canyon and it seems like winter lasts forever, and "BAM" before you know it here we are, July is staring us right in the face. The big bugs are long gone and we are seeing caddis, and some PMDs. As much as we love throwing big dries, it is nice to see the crowds go as well and settle in to some of our favorite time of year for chasing trout and having the river basically to ourselves.  Fishing and trips in general have been great. How do you not have a good time with friends and family camping in this amazing place? This canyon and sharing it  with our guests never gets old.  

It is always a roll of the dice these days, but steelhead numbers in general look promising. Yes it is early and it really counts the most that numbers are good or high when HISTORICALLY the bulk of the run shows up, and it is early. A promise of the possibility of good things to come is exciting. Cross your fingers and lets hope that we work our way back to not too long ago and some of the funnest summer steelheading around. 

The Owyhee late summer/ early fall trips are not too far away as well. We have limited spots left and this is a fantastic way to wrap up the summer before we focus on steelhead back on the Deschutes. The variety of tactics to chase these browns and rainbows keeps the days interesting. We could be throwing big grass hoppers along the bank, ripping some streamers, of searching with a dry and a drop.


If you have any questions or we can help plan a trip, please reach out. We are busy and it might take a day or two till we get back in service, so bear with us, but we will get in touch with you.  For other updates check us out on Instagram or our fishing report on the website. Thanks again and hope to see you on the water.

Tight Lines,

Salmon Fly

The Deschutes is in the late innings of the salmon fly hatch, so there is a little time left. Maybe a couple weeks. It has really creeped along and hung in there, which has been great. Just how we like it. The solid dry fly fishing should continue as we are seeing the caddis really ramping up. Some PMDs are showing as well. So make some space in the fly box for those patterns instead of one only stuffed with salmon flies and stones.  As the caddis and PMD hatches increase and over lap with the big stones, if you are working a picky late in the salmon fly hatch, “been there, done that” on a chubby Chernobyl fish that is up, working, and snubbing all your big flies, throw the curve ball with a caddis, PMD or often overlooked yellow sally.  There have been a very few Green Drakes spotted as well. If you ever hit one of these isolated and often short lived hatches on the Deschutes, you will know and cross your fingers you hit one. Some years it happens or you are in the right place, right time. Other years it seems they just don’t come off very well. It makes a good Green Drake hatch even more special. Make sure to at least have a few Drakes just in case.

We are about ready to slide into the summer caddis routine and pattern, which is great time to be on the Deschutes and the crowds thin out. There are still some slots open for trips, both one day and multi-day camp trips. We are also looking forward to late summer and early fall on the Owyhee, especially after the spring season got so jockeyed around with the ever changing flow that the powers that be at the dam served up for us this spring. Space is limited already on those trips. If you are interested, give a call and we can go over details and open dates. The dry fly fishing, and potential hopper fishing along the banks for nice browns on this small, wade friendly desert river is really a summer time treat.

Opening Day is just arond the corner

Rivers in the spring can be volatile with run off and storms. We get that. The beauty of fishing tail-waters below a dam is consistency. Consistent water temps that improve hatches. Consistent predictable flows to make scheduling trips easy. Well, throw that out the window for the Owyhee this year. Right now she is cranking at 8,100cfs. Yep. you read that correctly. That is 2x the normal-ish Deschutes flow in a river that is a 5x-ish smaller. That puts it in perspective. The folks at the dam that are playing with the buttons say it might be down and fishable in June? But who knows they cranked it up a couple weeks ago. We canceled trips. They dropped it back down, we rescheduled trips and it began to fish. Then they really opened the flood gates. Rollercoaster for sure. Pretty sure she is done for awhile. Turn the page and move on.

Good news, the Deschutes will open top to bottom ( Pelton to Reservation boundary) April 22nd. The section by Maupin is open year round and has been fishing well, but this is the main “ kickoff” to the Deschutes season that we wait for. Early spring trips can be fantastic. If you can’t make the salmon fly hatch, try an early season multi day, or June- July trip. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Quick update, time to unpack the Owyhee camp and get ready for the Deschutes. Contact us for help planning a trip or Central Oregon fishing advice. For updates follow on Insta or the website. See you on the water.


Tight lines,

Owyhee is a Flowing

It’s just on of those years, the Owyhee River has more water flowing down it than we have seen in years. Normally this time of season the river is flowing something around 25cfs, as of today the river is flowing a whopping 8100cfs. All rivers need a good flushing from time to time and that’s what we are getting. This should do nothing but help the Owyhee in the long run. Owyhee Irrigation is guessing river levels may not drop below a 1000cfs until June.

We will keep you updated when we get more info.

Tight Lines

Cory

Deschutes River Anglers

August Update- Owyhee and Deschutes...all good..

Packed up and ready to Head out to the Owyhee. We are excited to be headed east to this cool canyon brown trout playground. On the docket is throwing hoppers, beetles and other “junk” along the banks to tempt that big old alligator mouthed brown out of his liar. Seeing that-inch-wide snout poke up, the hopper disappears and the frothing eruption in skinny water on the hook set is so much fun. If they aren’t playing that game, we have options.  Like early morning Trico action, then on to PMD’s and caddis later in the day. Mix in searching with a dry -drop rig or stripping streamers and you pretty much cover all the bases and ways to trout fish. Good times. A few slots open, so if you need a summertime trout fix, we might be able to help you out. We will be over there and love taking advantage of all the time and opportunity we can to have fun with this fishery.  We have mixed service at “camp” (a really neat bed and breakfast… roughing it), but we will check in when we can, and happy to help figure a way out to get you on the Owyhee.  Expectations are high for another great late summer season over there.

In the meantime, the heat wave that has been blasting us, might have made it miserable to go mow the lawn (why aren’t you fishing anyways?), has made the caddis go bonkers on the Deschutes. Dry fly and head hunting Redsides under the trees with all the caddis has been fantastic. Which is perfect… super-hot out and you get to go wet wade and dry fly fish?!! Can’t think of a better way to spend a ho summer day.

Speaking of the Deschutes, more good news, steelhead numbers are above the 5-year average over Bonneville. ODFW has opened steelhead up for now and will re-evaluate in September. So, we are tracking in the right direction. Fall trips on the “D” for trout can be fantastic, the nymphing can be on fire and dry fly opportunities are present as well. Fall camp trips fill up quick. For more information or to discuss the steelhead opps, give a call.

So far, the summer has been great, little pressure and good, consistent caddis action. For more updates, give us a shout, follow us on Instagram or check on the website for more detailed fishing reports. Come join us on the Owyhee or the Deschutes, we enjoy sharing these special places we call home. Hope to see you on the water.

Tight lines!

Cory Godell

Deschutes River Anglers

541.771.2288