were off. "The Deschutes fish run 13 to 15 inches, with the bigger one going 17-18." Never were truer words ever spoken about fish size. If you don't believe me, take a tape measure. Now, of course, I catch just as many of the big 20 inchers as the next guy. It's just that I know in my heart they're only 18. Mike McLucas, owner of the Oasis Cafe in Maupin and guide on the Deschutes for 30 years once said the biggest native rainbow he ever saw caught on the Deschutes was 22 inches, and I believe him. On that river, that is an extraordinary fish. Very few of the best rivers in this country have as large an average size as the Deschutes, but many of them have more bigger fish, over 18 or 20 inches. All of which is why we stopped referring to the size of the fish on the Deschutes a long time ago. And it is very easy to use another size designation system on this river because the fish, more than on any other river, tend to cluster in uniform size groupings. Without any hard scientific evidence other than my own experience and observation I will go out on a limb and say that, due to the very constant and predictable food supply, the first three years age groups very distinct and identifiable. Once they reach sexual maturity and begin spawning all bets are off growth-wise from then on. The yearlings, caught only rarely, are 7-9 inches. The two year old fish usually run 11-13, and the three years olds and above are 15-18. Now, which group one tends to catch the most varies with time of year, method, type of water fished, etc., but it is real easy to get into a groove and catch primarily and almost exclusively the latter group. For awhile I tended to get specific and when recounting my day's or evening's fishing, or how I did when I stopped at that neat spot below the island, "you remember the place", I would refer to age group. "I got three three year olds." This got so boring and bland that even I couldn't sustain it for the sake of truthfulness. Then, for awhile, I segregated the fish out intofunctional categories. There were "one handers" and "two handers", referring to what you needed when unhooking them. And, "two handers" sounded sufficiently impressive. But then I got better at holding fish and they all ended up one handers any way. Dave Carlson was the first person I ever heard refer to the Deschutes "hogs" as "hogs". Forget the fact that the term may or may not have been plagiarized from the bass angling sect. Dave was giving me a vivid whole body demonstration of how one of those biggest of Deschutes Redsides, lazing half comatose in near still shallow water in the shade of and right at the root mass of a streamside tree, will startle awake and then EAT, not sip, not strike or slash or hit, but deliberately, you see it's teeth and
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