Happy Monday morning, it’s been a busy last 4 days to (likely) put an end to my 2020 guide season. I was on Paulina (x2), Crane and Hosmer.
It is certainly that time of year I can tell winter is coming soon, as water temp’s in the morning are in the 40’s and on the bigger lakes are warming to the low to mid-50’s in the afternoon. The bite is still on….but how long will it last on these lakes?
Rivers throughout the area are fishing well and I expect them to continue doing so for quite a while.
So let’s summarize the most important places you’ll be looking to fish this week and moving in towards the end of the season coming up on Halloween just less than 2 weeks away.

Metolius River is of course a year round fishery and remains open in all stretches for now. It is fishing well with the predominate hatch being BWO’s. PMD’s are giving way to another little Yellow Mayfly called a cinygmula (PMD’s have 3 tails and cinygmulas have 2). Mahogany Duns are also coming off in the afternoon all over the river, and there are plenty of good caddis hatches.
The Kokanee are getting to the point on being spawned out in a lot of the river. Egg flies remain a solid choice for nymphing.
October Caddis Pupa and Golden Stone Nymphs are excellent fall and winter nymphs.
Bull Trout fishing is good.

Fall River is good but was really crowded this weekend. I guess it was the end of the really good weather and people wanted to take advantage of it.
Really good BWO’s and excellent nymphing going on.
Besides BWO’s you can expect to see some straggler PMD’s, some small caddis and a few October Caddis and midges are becoming more and more important as we move towards colder weather days.
Zebra Midge (come check out our double tungsten bead version that is really a good sinker), Midge Winklers, Century Drive Midge and Griffiths Gnats are all great paired with some 7x Trouthunter tippet.

Crooked River is low but fishing really well. I hope to see the BoR bump flows up once we see some rain and snow accumulation in the Ochocco’s. BWO’s and Midges are important top and bottom.
Soon the whitefish will begin to spawn and eggs will be really important .

The Lower Deschutes in the WS to South Jct area is super good for trout and is producing some steelhead too! We are really excited about this better steelhead run in 2020 and hope you are too. The next 2 months are going to offer many days of good steelheading so don’t miss it.
Our guide team has been doing best on Perdigons and Jigs fished Euro style and keep reporting amazing days.
You’ll certainly still find some rising fish in the eddies throughout the day and as the evening light filters in to the canyon.

Paulina lake was pretty darn good again this week. A watermelon Balanced Leech was by far the best for us.
On Saturday we got some really nice up to the dry fly using a Purple Chubby and a large Peacock Caddis. I had some good friends up there that found good success on Chironomids too.
Water temps are high 40’s to low 50’s. With two 11 degree nights coming up this week it is going to quickly drop temps but we may see a rebound next week, but it is very apparent the season is quickly coming to the end at 6300 feet.

I heard a very good report from East Lake near the EL Camp Ground from a customer who was fishing leeches on a slow sink line off the south bank area. A lot of nice rainbows and browns through there. He also reported some dry fly feeders on the north shore to small ants and black beetles. Just like Paulina, East Lake is nearly 6400 feet and it is going to be very wintery up there later this week and to the weekend. Fish it soon! Maybe next week when it warms again will be the last fishing of the season.

I fished the Deschutes Channel side of Crane Prairie yesterday and we had pretty good success on a small Balanced Leech with red in the tail. The water temps on the flat on the Deschutes side were 48 to 49 for the most part.

Hosmer water temps are low to mid 40’s already. It is definitely slower on the bite now. When we were there Friday we got about a dozen fish, mostly on a red 2 bit hooker. Talked to some guys who found fish on water boatman and another guy on leeches.
The craziest part for me was out of all the trips to Hosmer I did this season, last friday was easily the most crowded day I saw in 2020. I guess the weather was telling people to go before they can’t.

North and South Twin are strong contenders now for the rest of the season. Focus on Balanced Leeches and Wooly Buggers on a sinking line.

A small piece of advice for all of going to the lakes now. On Friday headed to Hosmer I ran into Black Ice from Mt Bachelor to Sparks Lake, and on Saturday near Paulina Falls in those shaded corners up to the lake.
Be careful, especially if you’re pulling a boat around ice. I have to say Friday took me by surprise when I hit that ice and feel lucky I didn’t have any trouble. Once I got past that and was able to slow down to 2nd gear and 20 mph down the hill I felt safe. But going over totally clear roads at 55-60 mph to ice in an instant is scary stuff.

I will play it by ear on guiding the last week of October. This week I am going to work on preseason orders and get all the 2021 flies, lines, rods, reels and other tackle ordered for next spring and summer and do some fishing with a couple of friends on friday.