I was lucky enough to get on the river WS to TC over the weekend and again tuesday and while I didn’t personally get any steelhead, my wife did and some friends did as well.
Remember the west side of the main channel is now closed including the reservation and some of the islands so be aware of where you can and can’t stop to fish and respect the WS Reservation closures.
The Oregon reg’s this season state Trout Fishing remains OPEN until Dec 31. This is a change as it used to be only Steelhead after Oct 31.
We’ve been doing well on Cheeseburgers, Stone Nymphs, Girdle Bugs, 3 Dollar Dips, Caddis Pupa, Oct Caddis, PT’s and Frenchie’s.
Very little if any dry fly action for a while. Seems like warm days in January and February down in Maupin will get some fish looking up, but until then it is going to be a nymphing game.
We are swinging small purple or black patterns, mostly on sink tips. Leech type patterns have accounted for many of our steelhead this season, but really the majority of the steelhead we are catching are coming on trout nymphs.