so predictable in their location, big, tolerant of casting, leaders, and wading nearby, big, unselective as to pattern, big, numerous, and big. It takes awhile to believe that of the Deschutes, but I believe.
The teaching method on the Deschutes moves in stages. The first stage is in getting your prospective pupil's attention. If they are the proud and stubborn know-it-all type then you quietly catch forty fish to their one and keep doing it until they start to ask questions. Some never do. I usually avoid taking those
people anyway, but you never know. Usually I just pull in to the bank at a choice location and ask, "who wants to catch a big fish".
The second stage is to have your pupil follow you as you work through good water. Point out the rising noses, let him watch the cast, the strike, clear the line onto the reel, and hand the whole problem over to him. Take his rod and keep fishing until he either lands the fish or breaks it off. Do that repeatedly until he can handle fighting the fish. I have had as many as three kids following me at one time, trading off landing fish as I hooked them.
The third stage is letting the pupil actually make the cast. You literally take them by the hand for support, direct them to each exact spot to stand to make each (short) cast, and keep them at it until they have covered the water. You might even take their hand and help them with a tough cast at times. I always tell them to set the hook whenever I yell. Inevitably, they freeze. I direct each of their casts to a particular location and keep them at it until I am satisfied they have covered the possible lies, then we advance together another foot, or ten, or whatever and repeat the whole process until we get a take.
The fourth stage is letting them learn what to do after setting the hook. Usually they shriek and fall in the water trying to set with too much slack, then break the fish off when it comes tight headed downriver. This is the fun part.
What you are doing, frankly, is using your pupil as an alter ego, forcing him to fish the water exactly as you would fish it. If the fish rises to your fly right where you thought it would be, you have all the satisfaction of confirming your intuition. Your pupil, on the other hand, gets an absolute focus of choice
and technique. There's more than enough time to make all the beginner mistakes. Learn this one successful technique here and now.
