Chalk this one up for the ages, a year when the Steelhead just didn't show up on the Deschutes river. It's not that no fish showed up but it has been considered my most the lowest return to the Deschutes in forty years. Due to an extremely hot spring and summer in 2015 combined with near zero snow pack the Deschutes, the Columbia and many other river ran too low and too warm for the class of 2015 steelhead to make it to the ocean. The class of 2015 that did make it to salt found poor conditions adding lack of escapement. The end result was catastrophic losses to out migrating steelhead smolts leading to a near zero return of one salt fish to the Columbia river basin. The good news is we had a seasonably cool spring and summer in 2016 and good flow down the Columbia all spring so the class of 2016 out migrating smolts should fare much better and 2017 will be closer to normal. I say closer to normal because if the class of 2015 really didn't make it we will see a shortage of two salt fish in 2017. For the record, the Deschutes, John Day and Grande Ronde are all primarily one salt fisheries.
My season is starting to wrap up which leaves me some holes in my schedule and I thought I'd take a few minutes to post up a couple fish pictures and formally thank those who weathered the storm with me in 2016. The fishing was tough this year but I know folks had a good time anyway, the Deschutes is a very special place and I look forward to seeing my old friends and my new friends again in 2017.
Sincerely,
Sam Sickles
