The Fall River is so clear in some stretches, anglers can basically select their fish.

Just a few feet away from the trout-filled tanks of the Fall River Hatchery, fish sit plainly visible in the river itself, seeming almost to be taunting eager anglers.

Bend’s Mike Coughlin was casting at some of those rainbow trout last week, hoping to land a few on his tungsten bead and mayfly nymph setup.

“You can see them,” Coughlin said of the fish. “You can kind of sight cast. It stays a pretty consistent temperature, so there’s always fish.”

The Fall River, located just southwest of Sunriver, is one of the best places to fish for trout in Central Oregon during the winter. The spring-fed river maintains a constant temperature throughout the year, meaning the fish will remain active even in periods of bitter cold.

Lined by meadows and dense pine forests, the Fall River emerges from surging springs and runs northeast for eight miles before flowing into the Deschutes River between Sunriver and La Pine.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife stocks the Fall River several times a year with 8-inch rainbow trout. The river also supports wild populations of rainbow, brown and brook trout.

The crowds of anglers common at other times of the year thin out during the winter, but the icy banks of the river near the hatchery last week were still well worn from anglers’ boots.

Rainbow and brown trout typically range from 10 to 14 inches in length in the Fall River. Anglers will often locate larger fish in the crystal-clear water and drift their flies past them.

Coughlin found a sizable rainbow trout and did just that. After landing three smallish fish, he finally brought a good-sized rainbow to hand.

The angler’s reason for fishing that stretch of the river is simple.

“I’m not an expert. I just fish from down there to here,” Coughlin said, noting a stretch of about 200 yards of the river that flows past the hatchery. “There’s fish in here. And they don’t move much. This is a place I go to get some confidence.”

The Fall River is restricted to fly-fishing only with barbless hooks, and no weight can be used to get flies deeper in the water. Many anglers, like Coughlin, use a heavier tungsten bead nymph and trail it with a smaller nymph, usually in the No. 16 to 20 size range.

Light flourocarbon tippet, in 6X or 7X, is helpful to prevent the fish from seeing the line.

Coughlin, who landed several fish that day, watched his strike indicator float downstream, lifting his rod gently when the indicator dipped under the water. The bites can be subtle in the wintertime.

“You’ve just got to be quick,” Coughlin said. “They suck it (the fly) in and spit it out pretty darn quick. Those first few casts are so important because they get fished so heavily in there.”

Coughlin said he does not fish the Fall River during the summer, when anglers crowd the banks near the hatchery.

“You have cars out to the frontage road,” he said. “It’s just a nice place to come for a few hours in the middle of a winter day.”

Bob Gaviglio, owner of the Sunriver Fly Shop, said anglers should employ a two-fly system when fishing the Fall River during the winter.

“A larger fly off a No. 16 to 20 nymph, or a heavy nymph trailing a 16 to 20 nymph,” Gaviglio said.

He added that dry-fly fishing with emergers, midges or blue-wing olives can be effective in the afternoon.

“What’s nice about the hatchery stretch, there’s different types of water, and you can practice different ways of fishing,” Gaviglio said.

Smaller streamers, he added, can work in deeper holes. In the flatter, calmer stretches near the hatchery, dry-fly fishing is often the best tactic.

But in the Fall River, if anglers can see the fish so well, the fish can probably see the anglers, or at least get a good look at the fly.

“They get fly-smart in there,” Gaviglio said. “Presentation (of the fly) can be very important.”