must admit a certain fondness for theromance of a Hemingway-style biggame hunt. I have no desire to hunt

elephant or lion but have always enjoyedthe notion of traveling with an entouragethat sets up a camp of spacious white canvaswall tents and cooks gourmet meals underthe stars. So when my friend Curtis

Fleming invited me to join him on atrip to the Deschutes River with GourmetFlyfishing Adventures, promising theHemingway experience in the high desertof Oregon, how could I say no?

Fleming is host of the popular fly-fishing television program The Fly RodChronicles, and he had asked me to co-host

a couple of episodes of his show. We wouldbe floating the Deschutes with an entouragethat included country music songwriter ofthe year Sam Tate, his manager JasonMosier, two cameramen, the entire Rentonfamily and two additional fishing guides.The two additional guides just happened toinclude Mike McLucas, known affectionately

A fly fishing expedition on the fabled

DeschutesStory by Douglas M. Dear

Photos by Gene Lewis

I

The Deschutes in all its glory

as the Dean of the Deschutes, due to his vastknowledge of the river that was developedover his 40 years of Deschutes guidingbefore he retired last year. And the secondwas his son-in-law Mark Malefyt, who hasguided on the river for nearly 20 years.

Curtis, his cameraman and producer

Steve Hasty, cameraman Gene Lewis, SamTate, Jason Mosier and I rendezvoused atthe Portland airport on a beautiful late Julyafternoon. As we loaded the rentalSuburban with all the gear, we made quickintroductions and headed out for the four-hour drive to Bend, Oregon where we

would be spending the night with theRenton family. The drive is quite interesting,as you travel in a very short time from oneof the wettest climates in North America toone of the driest. You go from the greenestgreen you can imagine to very browndesert—and it is in this high desert that youfind the Deschutes River.

The Deschutes is one of the West’slongest-running rivers unencumbered bydams. And it is in these ancient waters thatthe famous redside trout have lived for,some say, 10,000 years. Redside trout are asubspecies of rainbow trout that developedtheir incredible vigor and strength fromfighting the mighty flow of the Deschutes.They have fins that are pronouncedlylonger than most East Coast rainbows, andthe strength of these fish is ridiculous. Ihad an 18-incher take all my backing in one

The author roll-casting for redsides

A fine Deschutes redside

12 The Virginia Sportsman Apr/May 2009

powerful nonstop run. And the powerfulcolor matches the strength—a brilliant,deep, ruby red that has almost a fire-likequality.

Monday evening we arrived at thehome of our hosts for the four-day riverfloat, David and Debbie Renton, the ownersof Gourmet Flyfishing Adventures. Theyhad graciously agreed to put us up in theirspacious home and guest house just outsideof Bend. Our float was to begin the nextmorning, so we all turned in a little early.

We awoke at dawn and reloadedthe Suburban with all of our gear, whichwas now packed in David’s waterproof duffelbags. David and Debbie loaded their truckwith all our foodstuffs and hooked on thetrailer with three drift boats and two white-water rafts. As we headed to our put-inoutside of Madras, Oregon, the excitementbegan to build.

I had floated many rivers but neverfor a multiday campout. In planning for thefour-day float I had of course emailed withthe basic fishing questions — what rods tobring, what flies, and what other gear. Ithen decided to call our host to discuss thecamping aspect of the trip. What kind offood will we be having? “Don’t worry, weusually have steak one night, rack of lambthe next night –perhaps veal one night.”What about drinks? “We advise you tobring plenty of wine, and we have coolersand ice to keep your beer cold—we bringplenty of bottled water.” Can we get ashower on the river? “Hot showers in abathing tent every night.” What about oursleeping tents? “White canvas Montanawall tents with comfortable full-size cots—just bring your sleeping bag because it goesdown to 40 at night.” Ok, this all soundsgreat but what about the uh - uh - -

“Bathroom”? “Yes,” I say feeling like a camping

wimp. “Don’t worry—while we are in a

rather remote part of the Oregon highdesert, the state has built solar-poweredouthouses at each of the campsites we will

be using.” Wow! This really is my kind ofa camping!

When we arrived at the put-in, thescene was a bit chaotic—obviously a fewother people had heard about the quality ofthis fishery. There were probably a dozendrift boats and rafts, in addition to our fivevessels, being launched that morning. Butthe Deschutes is a big river, and once underway, everyone spreads out and it is as if youhave the river to yourself.

A very odd law on the Deschutes

is that you are not allowed to fish out ofyour drift boat. Locals say this law waspassed by the state legislature in the early1900s as a way to keep the fishing pressurelow so that the private trout clubs that hadcamps on the banks of several sections ofthe river could keep the fishing to them-selves. Today, Renton believes that this lawhas in fact been the main catalyst in creatingthe incredible fishery that is the Deschutes.Renton’s point is quite simple, “It’s a bigriver and without fishing from the boat you

The typical morning-departure chaos

The sleeping tents, with the green shower tent in the background

13 The Virginia Sportsman Apr/May 2009

are doing well to cover 15 to 20 percent ofthe water.” That leaves the trout plenty ofunmolested water for spawning and fisher-man-free feeding.

Once we launch, we don’t go veryfar. In fact, we just cross to a nearby grav-el bar and start fishing. We tie on a Size 14Snickers Bar also known as a Royal Wolf,and start prospecting, as we do not see anyrising fish. “They love a little candy, andthe Royal Wolf looks like something tasty,”remarks Renton. It doesn’t take long for anice redside to pound the fly and go for arun. The power of these fish is hard todescribe. My first fish could not have evenmeasured 15 inches, yet it took me to thebacking. Strong fish in strong currents are arecipe for a great fight.

As the day progressed, we

hopscotched the banks, searching and find-ing rising fish. Parts of the river bank areIndian tribe-owned, and a special permit isrequired to fish from there. Other sectionsof the river bank are privately owned andonly members of several trout clubs havethe right to stand there. Fortunately, thebulk of the river banks are owned by thestate and open to anyone with an Oregonfishing license.

And the feast began—we allrendezvoused at a sandy beach and pre-pared for what would be just a typicalstreamside lunch for the rest of the week.Today it was homemade meatloaf sand-wiches on rye bread with chips, salad andgourmet cookies. I probably had not had ameatloaf sandwich since I was 12 years old,and wow, was it delicious! To me, that is

part of what makes a trip like this sospecial. After swapping a few stories andresting up a bit, we shoved off and headedback onto the river. The scenery is sobreathtaking that after a while you almosttune it out and then you come around abend and are just awed all over again by theincredible natural beauty.

Filming a trip like this for televisionadds a whole different dimension as you arenot just trying to catch fish, but hoping tocatch them on camera. Often we had onlyone camera on two fishermen, so inevitablyyou catch the best fish when the camera ison your partner. That afternoon was noexception to this rule. In fact, Curtis and Ihad sent the cameras with Sam and Justin,and we had planned to just fish easy andmaybe drink a cold beverage or two. Then

FRC host Curtis Fleming, master guide David Renton and cameraman/director Steve Hasty trying to catch the big one.

14 The Virginia Sportsman Apr/May 2009

it happened. David Renton spotted several pods

of rising fish along the far bank. We pulledthe boat in and Curtis went one way afterone pod, and I went the other way afteranother group of rising trout. The caddiswere coming off like clouds of smoke andthe fish were sipping away at them. Iworked my way up the line of risers andpicked off a nice 14-incher, then a 15-incher—both typical hard-fighting redsides. Butthen I saw a monster give a sip with a head-shake that made me think of Jaws. By thistime Curtis and David had walked upbehind me. We were all awestruck. Thefish had positioned himself right below atree branch that was about 12 inches off thewater. A tough cast to be sure. I carefullyworked out a little line and promptly castright into the branch. I was heartbroken asthe fly dangled half an inch above thewater.

As I prepared to rip my line out ofthe tree with all my might, David whispered“Leave it.” Just then the monster came outof the water and took not only my fly butthe whole line right out of the tree. Then itwas off to the races — he shot straightacross the river in the first of severalpowerful runs. After plenty of give-and-take, all 23 inches of this fine trout wasfinally brought to the net. Curtis and I wereall high-fives. “Just another Deschutes red-side,” said Renton. “Where’s the camerawhen you need it?” shouted Curtis. Yes,and this was just the first day.

We loaded back into our drift boatand headed downstream to camp. As wecame around a bend, I saw our camp ofwhite-peaked tents in the distance. “Youcan grab a shower if you want; then we willhave appetizers and cocktails under the bigtent,” said Renton. The big tent was acircus-sized, high-peaked white canvasopen-air tent that covered several largedining tables. All of our gear had beenplaced at the nicely spread out group oftents that each contained two large sleepingcots. Days were hot, 90 degrees or warmer,

15 The Virginia Sportsman Apr/May 2009

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but you needed your sleeping bag at nightas temps fell into the 40s. Appetizers thatnight consisted of blue cheese and Vidaliaonion miniature pizza baked on top of thepropane kitchen stove in special ovenboxes. “I can cook just about anything withthis portable kitchen,” said Debbie Renton,our camp chef. Debbie’s words provedprophetic as we dined that evening on rackof lamb with fingerling potatoes and adessert of freshly baked Key lime tarts.

Under the stars after dinner, countrysongwriter Sam Tate entertained everyonewith acoustic renditions of his many number-one hits such as “Moments,” “If You’reGoing through Hell,” “Shut Up and Drive”and ”Somebody.” He even had a littleaccompaniment from one of our expertguides, Malefyt, who was also an awesomemandolin player.

For four days and nights, thismovable feast continued—dry-fly fishingfor hard-fighting redside trout by day, eat-ing gourmet meals by night, relaxing underthe stars and sleeping in the naturally air-conditioned canvas peaked tents. TheDeschutes never failed to deliver for even a

minute during our 50-mile-plus float. Thefinal treat came after the take-out and allour gear had been packed in the truck. Weended with a Renton family tradition of ahand-scooped milkshake at the OasisRestaurant and Motel. As we cooled offwith the delicious shakes, the talk turned tofish that were caught and fish that got awayand, of course, when we would be backnext year to do it all again.

To find out more about fishing theDeschutes and other destinations withGourmet Flyfishing Adventures, seegourmetflyfishing.com.

Douglas Dear, a frequent contributor to TheVirginia Sportsman, is the owner of RoseRiver Farm (www.roseriverfarm.com), apopular trophy-trout fly-fishing destinationlocated on the Rose River in MadisonCounty. He also serves as chairman of theboard of Project Healing Waters, a non-profit organization dedicated to healing ourwounded veterans through fly fishing.

Left to right from the back: Gene Lewis, Knute Renton, David Renton, Debbie Renton, Curtis Fleming,Jason Mosier, Douglas Dear; front row, Mark Malefyt, Steve Hasty, Mike McLucas and Sam Tate.

16 The Virginia Sportsman Apr/May 2009

Guided Fishing Tripsfor Trout and Smallmouth Bass

In the Shenandoah Valley

Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing School

5 Private Stretches of Trophy Trout Water

www.mossycreekflyfishing.com

Published in the April/May, 2008 issue of The Virginia Sportsman

www.VaSportsman.com