Bike Fishing

Phil and I hit the lower Deschutes last Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning for some steelhead fishing. Although it is still a bit early in the season, there were fish available and we did tangle with a few of them.

I thought it was only a two-hour drive from Bend to the mouth of the Deschutes, but thanks to some road construction it was closer to three hours. When I arrived at about 5 pm on Tuesday, Phil had already scored one of the last campsites available at Heritage Landing Campground, so we immediately proceeded up the river on bicycles to see if we could catch a steelhead or two before it got dark. Unfortunately, I had just gotten rid of my mountain bike a couple months earlier, so I had to borrow one of Phil's.

Anyway, we rode up an old railroad grade for a few miles -- there is no motor vehicle access on this part of the river -- then cut down to some nice holding water below a set of rapids. Phil caught a steelhead the week before at this particular spot, and he graciously gave me first shot at it and then walked to a hole about a quarter mile down river.

I brought along both a fly rod and a spinning rod, but it was way too windy to fly cast, so I broke out the spinning rod and tied on a silver-bladed spinner with a green body. I proceeded to wade out into the river so I could get into position to fish a deep slot just in front of a small set of rapids. I then casted my spinner into the aforementioned rapids and let it drift into the deeper water just downstream. The spinner was only in the water for five seconds or so before a steelhead pounded it.

The fish immediately took to the air for a couple jumps and headed upstream for a little ways. I was in shock for the opening moments of the battle, given that I had never hooked a salmon or a steelhead on the very first cast of a trip before. But I eventually grabbed hold a bit and got the fish closer to shore and into shallower water, which caused it to make a long run back toward the middle of the river.

After about a five-minute fight, I brought the fish close enough in to see that it was a hatchery steelhead -- and therefore a keeper -- so I got the fish as close to shore as I could then tossed it up onto the bank. A few minutes later, Phil walked back from downstream and snapped the photo on the left.

We rode back down to camp just before dark, then got up at about 4:30 the next morning and began biking back up the river while it was still dark out. We stopped at the same area we fished the previous evening; and in no time at all, Phil hooked a steelhead on a spinner. It was another hatchery fish that was about the same size as the one I caught the day before.

A few minutes after landing that fish, Phil hooked a much larger steelhead -- probably in the 14-pound class -- which immediately took him quite a ways downriver before breaking off. The fish was probably one of those Idaho-bound steelhead that stopped off in the Deschutes for a bit to enjoy the cooler water and to steal Phil's spinner. We fished for a few more hours before heading home.

Anyway, it was a great trip and I look forward to the next one.