Carl,
My limited testing on the Middle Deschutes shows it will catch fish.
The weather was beautiful. I met ronr for lunch last Thursday in Redmond. He told me the Crooked River I intended to fish was now running at over 1,000 CFS instead of the 100 CFS from 2 days ago. By dinner time it was at 2,000 CFS which is out of its banks in places.
The next day the middle Deschutes was at 72 CFS, very wadable and clear...
RIMG1028 by
William Lovelace, on Flickr
RIMG1033 by
William Lovelace, on Flickr
Unfortunately, this was 60% less water than 2 days prior. I never saw a fish rise that day but swinging flies brought out a few bumps and 2 small Rainbows and 1 Brown. There were March Browns in the air and the RTF was the fly of choice on a 3-fly cast.