This week I was lucky to spend 2 days on my own fishing the Metolius with Tina one day with friends, and guiding on the lakes the last 4 days. Lot’s of time on the water and some good reports to share from me and the FFP guide staff.

Starting locally, the Metolius has been solid with good hatches all week. PMD and Green Drakes will make up the best of your afternoon hatches from noon to 5. BWO’s are after that in the evening most days. Caddis and Rusty Spinners in the evening. I’d guess the upper river will see the beginnings of the golden stones next week or so…
Nymphing all the over the river has been excellent. Golden Stones, Zebra Midge, Perdigons, Frenchies, Micro Mayfly, 2 Bit Hooker, Caddis Pupa.

3 Creeks Lake has been stocked now and is fishing well. Just starting to see a few callibaetis, but if you are going this week be prepared for the callibaetis to really turn on. Leeches and ants have been the best and the black caddis are coming on strong too.

The McKenzie has been awesome for our guides Ben and Troy. They both talked about PMD, Yellow Sally’s, Green Drakes and strong Caddis hatches bringing fish to the dry fly, and Ben said the nymphing was lights out.
A good mix of Wild Rainbows and Stockers now below Finn Rock.

Down on the Lower Deschutes the guides are reporting a lot of Caddis and PMD’s. X Caddis and Sparkle Pupas have been our best flies, but look for fish under the trees and in the eddies on spent caddis from the previous egg laying sessions. PMD hatches have been matched well with Sparkle Duns, Parachutes and Purple Haze.
Nymphing is outstanding especially Euro Style.

Our Guides Mary Ann and Adam report the Crooked was very good this week on Euro Style nymphing, using small mayfly nymphs mostly. A Split Case PMD Nymph was Mary Ann’s best fly this week. Psycho Prince, Micro May, Perdigons, Frenchie, 2 Bit Hookers, Zebra Midge and Scuds.
Some fish up on the top on #16-18 Adams, X Caddis, Parachutes and Purple Haze. Also, try a small Royal Wulff on the Crooked. It can be a hell of a dry fly there in the morning and evening when the shadows hit the water.

Our guide Troy reports the Fall River was “impressive” through out the week. He said this week there was more action on Midges and Caddis than anything else. Small Parachutes Adams, X Caddis, Ants, Zebra Midge and Euro Nymphs. PMD’s should be better, but apparently the hatches of PMD’s was light this week compared to normal.

East Lake turned on with Callibaetis finally. Yesterday we had a really great dry fly day starting with Griffiths Gnats and Adams in the morning, moving to Callibaetis Emergers and Duns late morning and early afternoon and moving to Beetles after the callibaetis hatch ended.
Yesterday was not as good on nymphs as it was Wednesday when we got some great fish on Red Ice Cream Cones, Callibaetis Nymphs, Chromies and Zebra Midges. Every day the lake is a new game and that makes it fun.

Crane Prairie was a trip this week. From freezing our asses off and being bundled up like Mountain Climbers Tuesday, to wearing short sleeve shirts on Thursday, it was nice to see a change in the weather.
The fishing I would call challenging both days, with moments of greatness, if you could find the action. We caught most of our fish on small black or chrome chironomids, several on damsel nymphs, and mixed in a bunch of fish on balanced leeches throughout the couple of days. The algae bloom has started to take off and water temps across the lake range from high 50’s in the Deschutes area to mid 60’s away from the channel.
One thing to practice for the lakes: Learn a hand twist retrieve.

My weekly “Jeff’s opinion” piece. Yesterday at one of the lakes, I was in queue to use the ramp to launch for the morning. As I sat parked waiting for the previous boat to leave the dock another truck and boat drove in, going the wrong way, pulled a U Turn and proceeded to launch before me. Besides the fact he needed 4 tries to get the boat down the ramp and into the lake, he also got the last parking spot for the size truck and trailer I have and wasted about 20 minutes of my clients time as fish were rising to the last of the morning midge hatch.
I can’t possibly understand the selfishness of this. One needs to look around, understand the flow of the parking lot and the ramp and see if there is someone waiting to go before just jumping ahead and doing that and cutting someone off who was there long before you. I get the guy wasn’t trying to be rude and he was a novice at all of this. But to me that is even more of a reason to be aware, not less.
I beg everyone to understand the culture of a lake (or pond, reservoir, river, creek or ocean flat) and be part of that culture and “vibe” out there.
That includes music or other noisy things that others may hear if they are fishing near you.
I’ll give examples.
This spring, on the Fall River I met some friends on the river in the late morning to hit the BWO hatch. It was busy but not packed near the headwaters. There was a group of guys there from Bend, and I recognized the truck as a friend of a friend. Ok. When I got to the water one of them had a speaker and was playing music loudly enough I could hear it from 100 yards upstream as I was trying to settle in to the rhythm of the hatch and the fish. It was very annoying and not what I go to the river to experience.
More and more I see this on the lakes too. Some boat has music playing and you know how sound travels across the water. Music is personal, and I don’t think anyone should be playing music on a fishing lake. Especially a trout lake in the mountains. Does that fit the culture and values of the other users?
I recently saw 2 young guys at Crane who were in a local guide service boat (recognized by their OSMB decals). They pulled in 200 feet away from me and were obviously enjoying their day off with a few brews, some fishing and music blaring. They were dancing in the boat. But guess what, it was obnoxious as hell and totally inappropriate for a place like that.
Peace. Quiet.
Values of fishing that need to be forever learned and appreciated.