18-Wheeling After Salmonflies

Chester Allen describes the manic convergence of millions of 3-inch bugs and thousands of frenetic anglers on Oregon’s Deschutes River, where the annual salmonfly hatch has already begun its upriver march. “The biggest trout of the year – thick, long, broad-tailed monsters that will rip up your tackle and break your heart – stuff themselves with salmonflies. And all those boats and cars and trucks and bicycles and 18-wheelers – I’m not kidding – carry anglers seething with the need to hook a 20-inch wild rainbow trout on a dry fly that is an unruly catastrophe of elk hair, foam, rooster feathers and rubber legs.” In the Washington state Olympian.