Evening Hatch Floats: Magic Hour on the Deschutes

The sun sliding up the walls of the canyon signals the start of the best hours of dry fly fishing on the Lower Deschutes. The coming darkness triggers fish to move their attention to the surface and become dumb to predation, feeding fiercely on caddis and pale evening duns. The golden rays of the sun, while part of a beautiful day, are harsh bolts of light that illuminate the profiles of fish to birds of prey. The falling sun provides anglers with the opportunity to focus solely on dry fly fishing, which can be difficult to find during the heat of the day.

Experience the Lower Deschutes in a different light with an evening hatch float that opens up new opportunities to target hard-charging redbands. The evening hatch is a fun way to focus on improving your dry fly casting or get an introduction to primarily dry fly fishing in a large river environment.

Sleep in, drink your coffee

The start of the day is leisurely because the focus is on dry fly fishing in the evening; therefore, we usually begin mid-afternoon with the intention of fishing until dark. The relaxed day means there is no rush to push down to our first spot or launch the boat in record time. Usually, most of the other guides and recreational boaters are halfway down the river by this time, and we have the rest of the daylight hours to mosey our way downriver with few to no boats in sight.

Afternoon fishing is a mix of nymphing and dry fly fishing, with a strong emphasis on sub-surface techniques. The afternoon is usually the hottest part of the day on the Lower Deschutes, and the dry fly action is limited to shaded areas and back eddies.

The fishing can be surprisingly good in the heat of the day. There isn't a rush to get downstream, and no competition for fishing spots. The fish have long since reset since the last anglers pulled their flies through the runs, and you can shape up your nymphing game before the dry fly show.

Canyon Shadows

Once the shadows slide across the river, the water's surface awakens with clouds of caddis moving onto the water and fish starting to feed in earnest, intensifying throughout the evening until the final moments of fishable light are gone. Even in darkness, you can still hear the dimples of fish smacking the surface as we take the last few oar strokes to the boat ramp.

The fishing can be good to great during the summer evenings, and there's generally always a good chance of finding willing pods of fish or even doing some blind casting along trees, banks, and eddies for opportunistic takers.

The early evening is spent trying to work as many likely spots as we can before we make our final stops for the true magic hour. The final stop is fished until you can't see your fly or even imagine where it may be, or the fish stop eating. The fishing comes in waves as we go spot to spot; each cast is important to success, and it's imperative to make your first cast the best cast for continued success.

When to Go?

The evening action picks up in the back half of June and continues into September, but the prime months of late June to August present the optimal opportunity due to ample daylight and large emergences of insects. Contact me to book a trip through The Fly Fisher's Place to experience a cocktail hour float on the Lower Deschutes and see the river like never before.