I always like to keep the stoke level high, and love all of you that read the reports and tell us how much they mean to you and your fishing. Or dreams of fishing!
I am headed to the Metolius until Monday and won’t have the computer, internet or cell service so here is a quick update on the local conditions and a couple of new places for you to add to the list of places to go this September and October.
The Metolius River is not yet seeing any Fall Green Drakes or Flav’s, but the BWO hatch has taken off, along with more and more little Olive Stone’s, PMD’s, Mahogany Duns and a whole bunch of Caddis including #16 Tan, #8-10 Orange, #20 Yellow and some mixed Grey Caddis from #12 to 16 hatching daily. I watched a fish the other day eat numerous Micro Caddis Emergers in a row and when a #14 dark grey caddis floated over him…..gulp. More than once. Gulp.
Oh my, I love that. Weiss’s HT Caddis is my new fave for this.
Rusty Spinners at Dusk of course!
Bull Trout streamer action is very good and only going to improve over the next 10 to 12 weeks.
I packed 2 rods for the weekend. My Sage Trout LL 490-4 and my Echo Shadow X 10′ 3 weight for nymphs. I am certainly running some Perdigons and Caddis Pupa through their paces this weekend.
The Mckenzie River is fishing amazing, just got off the phone with Steve who is there now and lot’s of fish already to the net today. Leeches, Mini-Streamers, Posse Buggers, King Prince, Perdigons, Soft hackles and Copper john’s. Not much for afternoon hatches, but we are getting a few fish on Stimmy’s and Chubby’s.
The Fall River is another great spot now, with a lot of our fish taken on Euro Jigs and Streamers, but great to see good hatches of PMD’s and BWO’s, some midges, some #16 Olive Caddis, #14 Tan Caddis and don’t forget to try that Hot Orange Missing Link.
Ant’s and Beetles and Hoppers and other Rubber Legged Foam Creations will get fish up to the top and also act as a good indicator in some cases.
The Crooked River is our can’t miss spot mostly on PMD’s and small Mayfly Nymphs. BWO’s are getting a better foothold with Fall on the horizon. Fishing is spectacular .
The Lower Deschutes from Warm Springs to Trout Creek is good for trout, with evening dry fly action bette than expected, some afternoon eddy fishing will find rising trout to spent caddis, spent PMD and Rusty Spinners and Midges. Lots of Micro Caddis (#20 Black) mixed with the ubiquitous #16 Tan summer caddis on the D!
Nymphing and small Streamers are great and since most of our guide trips are more mid-day we end up catching a lot of the fish on Perdigon’s, Caddis Pupa, Soft Hackles, Copper Johns, Micro May’s and Girdle Bugs.
Good numbers of Steelhead are coming over the Bonneville and Dalles Dams. A lot of those will turn up the Deschutes and this Fall is going to be the best we’ve seen in years. Fish are being caught on the lower reaches now! Hot wild fish on a swung fly, what is better than that?
Lakes Report:
My Paulina Lake report will be from an email our casting instructor Doug sent me:
Quoting the late John Denver, ” Some days are diamonds; some days are stones.” Which would it be was the thought that floated through our rains as we drove downhill to the Little Crater put in yesterday morning. A chilly wind had already come up at8:30 AM when we cleared the launch. With the 10-15 mph wind there were no paddle boarders or kayakers on the lake. No rises on the choppy surface and no bugs flyingpast in the wind. In fact no other fly anglers to be seen as we motored clock-wise around the shorelinelooking for an area calm enough to get line in the water. We swung around past the group campsite (no one on the beach) and just past the big Willow tree that overhangs the water, we found some calmer water within about 40 feet of the shoreline. It was looking like today just might be one of those “stone” days.
With no surfaceaction, I decided to try a balanced leech under an indicator: “Smart move,” I thought. Bob – ever the optimist– tied a grass hopperhis #5 floating line. A GRASS HOPPER! Yeah, good luck with at, Dreamer! On his third cast into the shallows, there came a bulge at the surface. a monster head erupted and crushed his hopper. Fish On! After several magazine-style aerials followed by deep dives, a stunning 5-lb rainbow slipped into my boat net. Damn! 20+ inches (we guesstimate22″). Turns out, our “stone” had had some real sparkle – kinda like a diamond.
Bob’s firstginormousRainbow was just the beginning of an entire “Diamond Day.” As we crawled counter-clockwise along the lees shore casting our hoppers right into shore and out to the drop-off, action never stopped. Past the main boat ramp, we landed several nice fish in water so shallow, it seemed we could have waded ashore for a beer at the lodge (but we too busy catching fish, so we took a pass).
After we took a 10-minute break towoof down lunch, the excitement continued as we inched along the north shore toward the slide – againcasting into the shallows and out over the drop-offs: My eye caught a swirl in the shadows just a few inches from a shore-side log. I made the 45-ft cast: Another swirl… and a miss. I cast again. Another swirl but no take. A third cast and a third swirl. But this time deep bend was imparted in my #5 Z-Axis rod and the fish headed for deep water. An epic battle ensued and I was only hoping my 4X fluoro tippet would hold. It did and fifteen minutes later another 5 lb trout slipped into my boat net: this one a 22″ brown beauty. Diamonds everywhere!
Our day on Paulina Lake yesterday turned out to be one of the most spectacular diamond days of trout fishing either of could recall: 30+ trout to the net. And that’s not counting all theLDR’s(Long Distance Releases) and missed takes when we took our eye off the fly. All were on dries. In fact, all on terrestrials. In fact, all buttwo on hoppers(the other two were on beetles).
Some days are diamonds and some days are stone. You just gotta get out on the water to find out which one your day will be. That’s the magic of fly fishing!
East Lake was good yesterday for my guide trip with Byron. We worked hard and kept adapting to condition and food source changes and I will tell you the Callibaetis hatch is VERY STRONG still and belike it will remain so for at least another 14 to 20 days, with stragglers into early October unless it turns very cold early.
Yesterday afternoon about a half hour before I usually have clients reel up for the last time of the day I decided to return to the North Shore and see if we could get any more risers to a terrestrial. Early that day we got fish on Hoppers and Jiggy Twist Beetles, and a couple of dandy Browns on a Red Holographic Jig. When we returned close to 3:30 as the breeze came up there was a great little Fly Ant hatch and Byron ended up rising about 15 to 20 more fish on an RP Ant and landed 5 more. Worth the extra time on the lake and my guess is with the hot weather the next 3 days that flying ant will be around for a few more days. I used to use that RP Ant everyday as my clean-up hitter after the Callibaetis hatch was over. It is a pattern to add!
Our friend SC Phil has a hell of a day at Hosmer this week as did our friend John. John did best on Damsel Nymphs and Phil works his Hover Line and a Red Ribbed Double Down! Hatches are waning at Hosmer, so leeches, blobs, chironomids, damsel nymphs, soft hackles, callibaetis nymphs, water boatman, scuds and SJ Worms will do magic. Possible to get fish on a Callibaetis for a while longer, the big hatches are done though. Ant’s, Beetles and possible a Chubby or Hopper is a good bet.
Crane Prairie is fishing well. All Channels. Leeches and Chironomids, Chubby’s, 2 Bit’s, Water Boatman and Damsel Nymphs.
I wasn’t sure how to approach this, but you know I like to share good info with you. Little Lava Lake is the sleeper that has woken up and I have been up there with amazing fishing.
It is small, easy to read and figure out. Deep Water Chironomid fishing un a Midge Tip or under the indicator is great. Red Blood Worms, Chromies, Black Ice Cream Cones and Double Down with the Red Rib.
We hammered fish on a Red Holographic Jig under a Red Tarantula.
Callibaetis are hatching after lunch and fish are eating all stages of the hatch. They also love a Jiggy Twist Beetle and a Red Hippie Stomper.
I am in love with the lake right now and seeing a lot of nice Cranebows, and then sadly some ugly hatchery fish that have Copepods (lice) and they don’t look good at all but are a small percent of the daily catch.
Lava Lake is good too. About the same flies are working here as Little Lava but definitely add Orange Head Bruised Leeches and Watermelon Leeches. Lots of Chironomid Action under the indicator over the Marl.
Finally, Three Creek Lake is on another level. I have not seen it hold up so well as it is this year. Callibaetis hatches continue to be epic. Black Butte Callibaetis and Extended Body Callibaetis are the 2 to take! Great action on Balanced Leeches too when the mayfly hatch is not quite on.
OK, I am out! See you on the river or in the shop.
Related
Discover more from The Fly Fishers Place
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
