My tradition is to fish the Lower Deschutes on December 31st, closing day. It has typically been a good outing as there is little angling pressure. This year I only had a half day and I walked down from Mecca. I quickly remembered why I don’t do that, where did all those people come from? I did not find a steelhead, but I did land this bull trout, and it was a pretty sunrise.

I was the first to arrive at Mecca but there were 16 cars in the lot when I headed home about noon. Something new to me was that on the walk out I encountered eight men speaking a Slavic language casting spinning rigs using slinkies and beads. They each had five gallon buckets holding a number of whitefish and trout. Ugh. Where’s OSP when you need them?