It’s hard to believe, but 4th of July is next saturday. This week will surely be busy on the waters as people are coming over to fish and camp on the rivers and lakes around Central Oregon.

I’ve had quite a few people tell me they like the new format of the reports all being in one place. Thanks for the feedback.

Over on the Metolius, the Drakes are about done until the September hatch. Would I carry a few Green Drakes this week? Absolutely. Certainly you can see a hatch, perhaps short and isolated but important none the less.
Gavin from our shop saw a good number of mahogany duns (i’d guess Nixe not Paraleptophlebia at this time), Yellow Sally’s, PMD’s and Golden Stones in the upper river. There are numerous caddis hatches now, especially in the evening, along with some BWO’s about 5 to 7 PM and Rusty Spinners at Dusk.
Nymph fishing is very good all over the river with Golden Stones, Copper Johns, Lightning Bug, 2 Bit Hooker, Micro Mayfly, CDC Hares Ear, Olive Hares Ear, Perdigons and Euro Jigs.
I have not heard of any Bull Trout this week but did see a few photos on Instagram of some local anglers that caught some sizable Bull’s.

The Lower Deschutes has been extraordinary this week with Caddis. There are Pale Evening (heptagenia) and Pale Morning Duns (ephemerella) hatching mostly in the evening. X Caddis, Iris Caddis, Sparkle Pupa, Kryptonite Caddis, Soft Hackles, Purple Haze, Light Cahill, Yellow Sparkle Dun, PMD Parachutes and Knock Down Duns will do the trick. Our Euro Nympher guides are killing it on Jigs and Perdigons.

Crooked River is fishing quite well, mostly on small mayfly and midge nymphs with some rising fish to a mix of PMD’s, Caddis, Mahogany Duns and Midges. We’ve had incredible days of euro nymphing lately.

Our guides are doing really well on the McKenzie, with a lot of dry fly fishing from the boat. I wish I had the time to go over with one of them! They are picking up fish on PMD’s, Drakes, Caddis and Chubby’s.
The Nymphing action has been great too, with the Possie Bugger, Mega Prince, and Jigs picking up a bunch of fish.

Fall River is good, but quite busy right now with lots of anglers. Remember the hatchery access is still closed so that makes the other areas more crowded.
PMD hatches have been strong. Mix in some midges, caddis, BWO’s, ants, beetles and some rusty spinners and you’ll see good dry fly action throughout the day. We recommend 7x.
Nymphing is very productive.

I’ve been on Crane and East most of the week. Friday at East was magical. One of the best dry fly days I’ll probably see this year.
So let’s start with the East Lake Report. First off, there is a big algae bloom. It’ll be a week or 2 for it to go away and may get worse before it gets better. Water temps are perfect in the low 60’s. Callibaetis all 3 of the days I was on the lake were between 10 and 1. Some days early in the week were tough fishing. Not awful, but hard work to get fish.
Besides Callibaetis the Ant and Beetle fishing is a good bet. On the bottom a chironomid rig under an indicator is good too. I’ve recently had best success on a darker chromie pattern, but a red ice cream cone was responsible for a few nice browns this week too. One thing that has not been hot for me (yet) is wind drifting. I sometimes make a living on that method, drifting either a Hover or more likely an Intermediate or Type 3 full sink with at least 2, maybe 3 trailing nymphs (my favorites are a flashback PT and a poxyback Callibaetis) but it has sucked. How about any of you? Any success wind drifting?

I was on Crane Prairie yesterday and it was tough for us. Windy. Not a good bite. My client got 10 fish on a mix of leeches stripped on a Hover Line, Balanced Leech under an indicator or Chironomids under an indicator.
Recently have had incredible reports of 20 to 30 fish days on Chironomids and also a Rowley’s Balanced Minnow (the olive one). Everyday is a new day. I’ll be back tomorrow and I was at the vise today tying some cool leeches.

3 Creek Lake is fishing really well. It is packed up there, especially on weekends with campers and day use people. Be prepared for crowds that you may have never seen up there before. Callibaetis, Black Caddis, Midges, Ants, leeches and damsel nymphs are all good.

I’ve got no real gripes this week. I know, that is a surprise but people were awesome all week everywhere I went. Thank you and love to all. I’ll update again next Friday or Sunday depending on my work and fishing schedule.