Fishing

Fishing has been important to the Maupin area economy for many thousands of years. The Tenino, or Warm Springs Sahaptin, are the people identified as living in the lower Deschutes River area in historic times. Salmon, especially the chinook, was the most important food source used by the Tenino. Fishing was done year round and fishing methods included the use of weirs, dams, traps, spears, baited hooks, and dip nets. Bone pointed harpoons were used to spear fish from the riverbank. Newspaper reports from 1915 describe that the famous annual spring salmon run at Sherar’s Falls would attract hundreds of fisherman. In the 1920’s, Oak Spring Fish Hatchery, then comprised of just one pond, began raising and releasing fish back into the river.

Today oak springs produces 1.5 million steelhead, 4.5 million rainbow fingerlings, & 250k legal size rainbow trout. The Deschutes River continues to be known for some of the best trout, salmon and steelhead fishing in the contiguous states.