I'm just the opposite of you. I grew up on the deschutes and now live in Aberdeen! As to the salmon fishing on the deschutes.......don't bother. For all practical purposes, any semi-fresh salmon you would catch would be in capitol lake at the mouth of the deschutes. It gets fall chinook and silvers. All fish go to a collecting pond at tumwater falls park. Silvers and the odd, surplus chinook are allowed to continue up the deschutes but by then most are dark and offer poor sport and eating.

The july 1st opener is misleading because they don't even consider letting fish upriver until late sept-oct. You will get some early kings in july in capitol lake but not up in the river.

It's kinda too bad. Years ago (early 80's) the capitol lake fishery was a happening deal and some of the fish were very nice. There were more silvers then too. on any given day there would be 20-30 boats trolling around and up to a couple hundred bank fishermen around the lake. And almost everyone caught fish if they put in the time. Now, in the fall I rarely see much activity when I drive by and it's been YEARS since I fished it. Just another faded fishery like so many others around the state.