Good afternoon, I am home tying up loose ends, doing my last big orders for the 2022 upcoming season and getting ready to hop on a plane and go fishing in Mexico.
I was out a few days this week locally, and the FFP guide team is still busy all over the waters here. It seems busier than normal for this time of year, both in the shop and with the guides out. We will take it and be thankful!
I am not going to talk much about the lakes, like Crane, East or Paulina just because it’s about over for the season. Crane is closing on Sunday, East and Paulina are open until the USFS and Deschutes County Road Dept closes the Mile 10 gate. I expect that to be soon.
I talked via email to a customer who went to Crane yesterday and got fish on Balanced Leeches. All ramps other than the Crane Prairie Boating Site ramp are shut down for the season. Water temps were 44 yesterday. That is a good temp for a bite, but fishing is certainly not red hot anymore. It will be again in May! I’m already stoked.
I saw one of my friends was up on Paulina yesterday and got a wonderful Brown. Honestly I wasn’t even sure what access is anymore, but he was there catching fish.
East is a good option for walk and wade along the shoreline from EL Camp Ground to the White Slide. Should be some great fish cruising the shorelines.
I still like the options of North and South Twin Lakes, Suttle near the Link Creek side and Haystack for now and into November.
Balanced leeches are going to be key on all of these waters.
Don’t give up on Chironomids on any of these places, and think about Damsel Nymphs, Scuds and Water Boatman too.
The Metolius is transitioning from PMD’s to the 2 tailed Cinygmula Mayflies now. We should see more of them and less of the PMD’s. That being said I fished a PMD hatch last December and was blown away to see them so late. The fish probably don’t know (or don’t care) about the difference between a yellow mayfly with 2 tails compared to a yellow mayfly with 3 tails.
Blue Wing Olives are another mayfly you’ll see a lot of on most days from here on out through the Fall and Winter. Usually they hatch about 12:30 to 3 and can provide 20 to 60 minutes of nice dry fly fishing.
Lot’s of great October Caddis hatches going, and fish are popping some adults on the surface, but the pupa is the more consistent fly to take fish during the emergence.
For the Smaller Caddis try X Caddis and the new Prairie Dog Pupa. Such a cool new fly!
Golden Stone Nymphs, Frenchies, Perdigons, Jigs, Lightning Bugs and Zebra Midges now and for the rest of Winter will be killer.
Eggs are definitely a good nymph right now post kokanee run.
The Bull Trout fishing is just seemingly getting better by the year. Lot’s of fish around and worth the effort to string up your 8 weight and toss some large streamers. We’ve got some killer streamers now, including some custom stuff we like to fish on the Metolius.
The Fall River is good, there is a nice emergence of BWO’s that (from what I saw a couple of days this week) just kind of consistently pumps out a few bugs, enough to get the fish looking up but never enough to make it crazy, but because of that it lasted 4 hours or so both days instead of being a heavier, concentrated hatch all at once. Who knows if that will be the same next week? No one. But interesting.
Still seeing some pretty cinnamon caddis in a size 12/14 fluttering about, and we got fish on a matching X Caddis.
Nymphing is great, the usual suspects with Perdigons, Jigs, Frenchies, Zebra’s, 2 Bit’s, Micro May’s and Eggs.
My customer Milt got an awesome brown on a Euro Streamer with me a couple of days ago which was a highlight for both of us.
The Crooked is fair. It is low and off color a bit, but the fish are responding well to small scuds, zebra midges, midge winklers, perdigons, rainbow warriors and skinny nelson’s.
When the hatch happens in the afternoon look for the fish to hit a small Purple Haze, BDE BWO, Knock Down Dun and Comparadun/Sparkle Dun. Midges like the Griffiths Gnat and other midge emergers that float in about a #22 will be good late afternoon in the softer water.
Our guide Troy reported a good catch rate on a #18 Purple Haze with a 3 foot 6x trailer to a small mayfly nymph this week. The Haze was a fly and an indicator, and even though the fish ate the nymph more often, fish did eat the dry too. Otherwise, I would use the NZ Indicator the same way, with one fly to avoid excessive weed cleaning and fish that way.
The Lower Deschutes for Trout is good. Keep in mind starting Monday 11/1 that there is no access to fishing on the Warm Springs Reservation (Until 4/22/22).
Warm Springs to Trout Creek access on the East Side of the Main River Channel is open until 12/31.
Maupin Area is year round and access on either West or East Banks is good.
October Caddis Pupa, Micro Mayflies, Stonefly Nymphs in both Golden and Black, 2 Bit’s, Perdigons and Jigs are all great now.
We are still hearing (and seeing) people who are ignoring the steelhead closures and without doubt are swinging for steelhead. It just isn’t cool. It’s just not. Go to the Rogue where there are abundant steelhead this year and fish for that run. That would be cool.
The Middle Deschutes popped up water level wise a lot this week. It is still fishable but wading is pushier now. Its a great time to fish streamers now. Nymphing Tight Line/Euro Style is also killer now.
I’ll be gone next weekend so I probably won’t update again until 11/12 or 13, but unless it gets really really cold over the next 7 to 10 days (which is not in the forecast) this report and the patterns and trends talked about will hold well into November.
Be well!
JP