Trout Whisperers will brighten your winter solstice.

Don’t let the onslaught of atmospheric rivers and daylight hours of nearly arctic brevity dampen your spirit. Start by putting something to really look forward to on your calendar: Trout Whisperers: Legends of Conservation will happen December 17th at Steeplejack Brewing. The panelists and moderator for this winter solstice version of Trout Whisperers represent a half-century of angling and conservation passion, experience and wisdom:

If some fish that bypass Lake Billy Chinook and the SWW are returning in higher numbers, what role does the Tower have in the future of fish reintroduction?

A look inside the rigorous protocols the DRA’s science team adheres to in sampling aquatic insects.

Dismal as they are, the sockeye and spring Chinook numbers are well within the range of poor returns that have plagued the reintroduction effort from the start. From 2012 to 2023,  the average across all years for spring Chinook: 36: for steelhead: 73: for sockeye: 46. 

On a magical autumn morning twenty some years ago, Joel La Follette was inspired to name some things that had yet to be named. He’d just landed his second Deschutes River steelhead, and was watching the sun clear the canyon rim, relishing and replaying the memory of the moment just past, of the mist that has settled over the water, how that steelhead’s incessant leaping had displaced the wisps of vapor with each jump, as if the battle was the highlight of some elaborately staged magic show, complete with fog machines and fans.

Tuesday, October 15th marked the beginning of steelhead and salmon spawning season in the lower Deschutes. But the river started off this vital period too warm for spawning fish.

In the context of his long tenure on the river, the reality that the lower Deschutes is too often too warm–not because of climate change, but because of poor management of the dam complex upstream– seems to strike Staples as absurd. “We spent 20 years planting trees on this river, why?” he says, harkening back to the 1980’s campaign to restore the river’s riparian zone. “To cool it down.” 

Contrary to her initial misgivings, Amy has seen a massive upside to spending too much time indoors at The Deschutes Angler. “It’s where I meet all kinds of people I probably wouldn’t have,” she says. “On the river, you’re trying to avoid other people. And here of course we try to make you feel welcome.”

The 2023 benthic report is out. Our science tells the tale of a river that's not as healthy as it should be.

PGE in the recent past  has had to do no more than simply ask DEQ for an exception to the rules to be granted one. When it became clear several years ago that the company wasn’t meeting the DO standard, a request for a different DO standard was made. PGE’s rationale was simply that meeting the DO standard would cost them revenue. DEQ quickly obliged. 

Worse, this change was made on the backs of spawning trout. A higher level of DO–a minimum of 8 milligrams per liter– is required by the state of Oregon during trout spawning season. DEQ helped PGE around this higher standard by narrowing the designated window of time for trout spawning, protecting PGE’s profitability instead of wild trout. 

The counts at The Dalles Dam are way ahead of the ten-year average. Will that translate into more fish on the lower Deschutes?

Jeff Perrin has owned his fly shop, The Fly Fisher's Place in Sisters, Oregon for 34 years.

Happy Labor Day Weekend from the Deschutes River Alliance.

The banded juga is endemic to the lower Deschutes River.

What is the ask that the Deschutes River Alliance is making to correct the issues facing the lower Deschutes River?

The DRA and its thousands of supporters are asking for the maximum amount of cold water to be released from the depths of Lake Billy Chinook. Maximum bottom draw would occur for nine months out of the year, from the middle of June until the middle of March the following year. The three month exception would take place from March 15th to June 15th, when water would be released from the surface of Lake Billy Chinook to facilitate juvenile salmon migration.

There’s more to Fin and Fire than meets the eye.