How big do they get! Deschutes Redsides

dewfish · 05-25-2006, 03:47 PM

What is the largest reside you have caught or seen in the Deschutes. We, as my friend and I saw a very large 20" plus redside come out of the water, last weekend just above maupin. I dont believe it was a steelhead but the Deschute's reside monster. Heavy flows of a back eddy flat and out from the bank about 15 yards. What a fish! Made two jumps and was gone to lurking the deapths. Lets here your storys.

etacada · 05-25-2006, 03:55 PM

I've got a photo of my friend with redside that was 19" caught near maupin.

Fishing and hunting mag had a pic a few months ago of a man with a truly enormous Deschutes redside. looked well over the 20" mark.

their in there.

cb

Bull7x6 · 05-25-2006, 05:03 PM

Quite a few years ago, lower river, enjoying the "magic hour" right before dark. I had already landed a 17" and a 16" in about 20 mins. Hooked up on a pig with a tiny, might of been a size 18?, emerger pattern. All I could do was hold on and hope it wouldn't decide to hit the fast water. At any rate, what seemed like many minutes later I managed to work it close and put my net to use. Marked the handle for length and upon returning to the truck found it was a hair under 19 1/2".

As I said that has been quite a few years ago, in the last few the biggest has been 18".
Have lost a few that I never got a GOOD look at.

D3smartie · 05-25-2006, 05:09 PM

when my dad was in law school at Willamette he used to fish the D almost every weekend. The biggest he claims to have caught was 21.
I have got 2 @ 19 inches. But nothing breaking 20.

Wingdam · 05-25-2006, 05:38 PM

In all the years I have been fishing the D my biggest is 19". My wife landed one several years back that was just over 20" and a guide friend said he caught one right at 21".
The population of large fish seems to be cyclic, some years there are fish in the 18" range others its hard to get one over 16" (maybe thats just me?). All the really large fish I have seen caught, or caught myself while trout fishing in the spring and early summer were dark spawning steelhead. Somtimes these fish are mistaken for resident fish.

Wing

Thomas Gilg · 05-25-2006, 07:02 PM

I understood from a fisheries biologists long ago that the Deschutes redsides have an unusually intense spawning behavior, and it is partially responsible for the Deschutes redsides rarely breaking 20 inches.

Thomas Gilg

Wingdam · 05-25-2006, 07:12 PM

Sometimes surprises happen! Years ago on July 18th in the warm springs stretch I latched into what I thought was the biggest redside of my life. 4 weight rod, 6x tippet, size #18 caddis pupa, 100 yard chase, and bingo a fresh 6lb steelhead! I have caught several fresh steelhead in the fall while trout fishing but never in mid July up that high. Sorry about picture quality as I had to scan it in. That was in the day before digital cameras, gore-tex waders, and all the grey hair I have now. :depressed:

rock bottom · 05-25-2006, 08:41 PM

Here is one I caught probably 4-5 years ago. Didnt measure it, didnt have to. I knew it was the biggest I had ever hooked in the D. This was below Mecca a little ways in that magic hour before dark.

Two Fister · 05-25-2006, 09:01 PM

I've seen a picture of one that taped 23" and it looked every inch of it. I saw one jump at Morrisons during the salmon fly hatch a few years ago that was built like a coho. Huge shoulders and a giant head. I'd guess it was over 23". It was right in the middle of the river where you couldn't hope to reach it with a fly. I tried with a spey rod and a salmon fly and I still couldn't get out there. Just an absolute monster.

Biggest I've ever landed was just a hair over 20". The difference between 20" and 21" is amazing!
TF

Ryan Pultz · 05-25-2006, 10:47 PM

It was not the the Big D but it was a redside on the crooked and it was my wife about 4 years ago right at 16 1/2 inches. rp

kimmosan · 05-26-2006, 06:33 AM

I caught one that stretched out to 21" about 4 miles up from the mouth. Pretty sure it wasn't a steelhead, as it was built like your typical redside, coloration, white tipped fins. But I could be mistaken. Didn't have a camera that day. I found that while the trout on the lower river are far and few between, they tend to be bigger. I've caught several in the 16" to 18" range on that part of the river while steelhead fishing. Most of my steelhead fishing is with nymphs, pheasant tails, rubber legs, etc. so I probably tend to catch a few more trout than other anglers.

jschainsaw · 05-26-2006, 10:08 AM

Last year below mecca I hooked and landed a 22 incher- fought it for over 10 minutes!!! It was awesome!!

Chas · 05-26-2006, 12:28 PM

May 1971 19" on lower Kove Creek Island, Salmon Fly, Hardy St. George, almost got spooled, did a little swim for the chase. 8:00 pm or so on my Fathers Birthday and I still have that fly! Never seen a 21" on the big D but witnessed Judge Langtry hook into a monster at Tom Allen in June of 74, but who knows, someday I just might get a chance to stand on that right rock!.

----------------------------------
"My birthday began with the water"
Dylan Thomas

Riverkeeper · 05-26-2006, 01:01 PM

Hey rock bottom, that is a nice fish. But that is MY hole, you'd better not let me catch you there.

The best thing about Deschutes trout is that, since you have to release them, they seem to get longer and longer (just ask Tillamook Chinook). I have caught countless fish in the 18-19" range, but only a couple over the years that I would guess hit 20. I have seen people get very excited about landing holdover 5-6lb steelhead that they swore were trout.

However, the bigguns do exist. Try to ignore the controversy in the thread, but just appreciate the fish pictured in this WESTFLY THREAD from last year.

D

Ryan Pultz · 05-26-2006, 01:19 PM

Ahh Yes riverkeeper them are some nice fish from forbidden water. I would love to fish that some time. rp

Mr. Sturgeon14 · 05-26-2006, 10:43 PM

my biggest was a 19 1/2 incher that i caught a few years ago and i have cought many that went 18 and 19 but that was my biggest red side.

rock bottom · 05-27-2006, 07:45 AM

Hey D, that hole has produced some dandys over the years for us. I have foung though that the last few years people are catching on how to fish the spot so its got people in it most of the time. Oh well its a big river with lots of spots to fish. Hope to see ya over there in a few.

clacksteel · 05-27-2006, 08:01 AM

This is my biggest redside I caught while swinging flies for steelhead:

Not sure of the size but it was a pig.

Super Fluke · 05-27-2006, 09:38 AM

Nice fish.

dewfish · 05-27-2006, 05:16 PM

Well the fish i saw come out of the water looked like rock bottoms fish but a little longer and thick,broad and a redside. The color cant be mistaken. It was a horse and i have a witness. The only thing is that it was on the west side of the river. Maybe one day he'll switch sides so I can catch him. I cant catch them worth a darn but i have fun. I hope you all have a good time flogging the water as much as I do. Thank you for your input.

fishnfun · 05-27-2006, 06:08 PM

My largest was about 18 inches, in a backeddy.

Mad Mikey · 05-27-2006, 08:41 PM

I have not cracked the 20" mark. Have had three that were 19" or a hair above and all of them were caught the same year, two on the same night!!! All in water that gets pounded by rafters too.

Have seen my share of 20+ inchers but usually they were covered with fungus and almost belly up in the slack water.

A friend of mine caught a 26" fish in the boil by OS hatchery and it fought like a log. Later on he talked to one of the DFW guys there and can't remember exactly HOW but there were some old brooders that either got out(?) or were released there that just hung around.

One evening a few years back I was on an overnighter, had a great campsite and good steelhead water to boot.

BUT, the wading in this particular spot was absolutely insane, downright dangerous so we said the heck with it and tried for trout up above a ways.

When we got to a place we could cast the water was frothing with fish bigger than I've ever seen in 15 years on the Deschutes, unreal.

They didn't want the dry, we had only THREE emerger patterns between us and that's what the fish wanted. I had 5X, friend was using 4X and all three flies we used were blasted then snapped off in a heartbeat.

Darkness swiftly closing in we just stood and watched these immorally oversized trout slapping the water in utter amazement.

I have passed by that spot a zillion times since but haven't camped there again since I'm usually trying to get to the take-out by that point in the float.

I'll get back there again someday and try to see if I'm right, it was like watching a pool full of steelhead taking caddis. Even my friend who knows his "D" trout better than I couldn't believe the size and numbers of these fish we saw that night.

And that was well before we started dumping toxins down our gullets too.........

KillerDave · 05-28-2006, 06:46 PM

My personal best was a 21" specimen caught on a salmonfly dry right off the side of the road above Warm Springs. Years later, my wife caught a fat 24" redside on a #3 black spinner.

Last year there was a picture of a 12lb redside taken below Pelton Dam. The salmon steelhead journal ran a picture of it too, just because it was so dang big. The water below the dam is suppossed to be closed, but you can bribe your way on sometimes.

It's been well documented that bigger fish shift their diet from insects to crawdads and sculpins, so not many get caught. How many of us beat the water for days on end with 4" long flies for that one trophy? I don't. Maybe I should, but I like to catch fish and those broad shouldered 16" to 20" redsides come often enough on small flies to keep things real interesting.

Back before my Fly Fishing days, I used to fish with a couple guys that would use big wiggle warts in the deep back eddies and catch some really big redsides. Four pounders were pretty common, and the biggest one to date was a 27" brute.

They are down there...

Slow and Low · 05-29-2006, 12:56 PM

I have tapes 2 fish exactly 19.5. One behind the ranch at south junction the other below washout. The fish below washout was two short and fat to be a juvenile steelhead but lacked the redside look they have above the falls.

Biggest fish I have seen was in a picture on the wall in "Doug's Bugs". I don't think Doug is there anymore but that was a giant bow anywhere on the planet think he got it on a salmon fly dry behind the house there.

frankenfish · 05-29-2006, 06:20 PM

Two years ago my friend and I were fishing a back-eddy on the Deschutes. I had gone all day with only one small fish. John had landed 2. It was dusk and I decided to throw caution to the wind and fish with a #6 Wooly Bugger for a bigger profile as the daylight dimmed. I had a split-shot on about 18 inches above it and an indicator 4 feet above the split-shot. I had a net with a fabric ruler built in to the net.

What happened next was amazing. In perfect ascending order, over about 45 minutes, I landed 6 fish, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 inch Redsides. John landed two, a 16 and an 18, after he changed to a black wooly bugger. My last two fish were landed after the sun went down.

I have never even come close to duplicating that. But, from that experience I do know that resident Redsides can get up to at least 22 inches.

ajfishfinder · 05-30-2006, 08:00 PM

Which back eddy :smile:

FishonDon · 06-01-2006, 06:05 PM

23", and no it was not a steelhead. The fish broke me off the first time I hooked it. I had all the immediate emotional ups and downs of hooking a monster then losing it. But I wasn't giving up. Sat on the grass for a while, and slowly tied on another fly. Rested the water, then 20 minutes later went back to the same piece of water, and incredably hooked the same fish again. This time landed it, and promply removed my earlier fly from the coner of its mouth. Thats how I could tell it was the same fish. Put the tape to it and it measured a whopping 23". Released it unharmed by the way. Have a photo of it around here somewhere, just have to find it. Caught it in late spring (I think in May sometime) between Warm Springs and Trout Creek.

Moldy45 · 06-01-2006, 06:25 PM

[/quote]

Are you Tom Hanks? :grin:

Wingdam · 06-03-2006, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Are you Tom Hanks?

Everybody has a twin they say.

strictlyRUM · 06-03-2006, 01:02 PM

Ive caught many in the 19" range but when you get one that breaks that 20 mark you know you did something right. I have caught four over 20 on the big D all midday fish and all in the same year except one. Last year in the golden hour on my majic #22 cadis pupa. The largest being 23"...
strictlyRUM

fishnfun · 06-04-2006, 10:00 AM

While fishing yesterday I stumbled across one sipping something in a backeddy. He looked an honest to god 20-22 inches, and as soon as I tried a cast he spooked and sunk into the deep.
I did manage 6 other fish though. All on dries.

Fishrite · 06-15-2006, 10:14 AM

My son and I have fished the Deschutes for many years. There are not too many 20" redsides. On one trip we caught 15-20 trout apiece. My son caught back to back 19" redsides on his own tied salmon fly. We caught 7 fish between us that taped 18+ that day....but that was an exceptional day. We have never done that before. Years ago I caught a 22" redside that Mark Bachman said was a "bacholar" (never had spawned)...I think that he said that because its fins were the longest fins that I had ever seen, and were perfect in shape. I caught that fish on a PMD sipping a foam line. What an experience!! I watched that fish take a tiny size 20 fly. Doesn't get any better than that!
Well, maybe it does....my son took a 24" redside on the Rogue last year!!