Hello everyone, thanks again for looking at the weekly report and I hope it help you plan a great trip, or inspires you to go fishing or even to try a new spot.
The Metolius is fishing quite well on a variety of nymphs and dries throughout the day. In the Upper River from the Headwaters to about Gorge Camp Ground, nymphing a golden stone is important as the hatch will start in about 3 weeks or so. The nymphs get active before the hatch and start moving towards shore. There are a good number of small caddis hatching in the Upper stretch too, so pupa patterns in #14-16 will cover most of what will be in the drift prior to the hatch. For Adult Caddis, stock your box with #16-18 Tan and Olive patterns. CDC Caddis, X Caddis and Iris Caddis are some great ones.
There are also a good number of PMD’s getting more active so you’ll want nymphs (split case PMD #16), emergers (Brooks Sprout, Film Critic, Klinkhammer and Sparkle Dun #16) and duns (comparaduns and parachutes #16). Rusty Spinners will round you out for the final stage of the PMD hatch.
Keep your eyes open for Blue Wing Olives and approach that hatch the same way as I mention for the PMD’s with all stages potentially important. Summer Baetis (BWO’s) are usually a #20 for a match.
The Middle River from the Canyon down to the Lower Bridge add Green Drakes to the box for sure. We are seeing Drakes as big as a size 8, but a #10 is usually the sweet spot for matching the hatch. Middle River caddis and PMD’s are the same as what you’ll see upstream near Camp Sherman.
The Lower River, at least from Bridge 99 to Candle Creek CG is fishing the same as the Middle stretch, but with a high probability of a stronger Drake hatch at this time.
We’ve been seeing great success on euro nymphing techniques all over the river.
The Lower Deschutes is fishing quite well now. With yet another cool and rainy day on the High Desert yesterday and today, it prolongs the hatch a little more. When the heat returns this coming week it will probably finish with one last good session that ought to last 4 or 5 more days. While it is highly possible to get a slamming good SALMONFLY bite on a warm evening coming up, keep in mind more fish are going to bite a smaller Golden or Yellow Sally at this point in the hatch.
There are a number of very good hatches besides these bigger stones to pay attention to. Pale Evening Duns #12, Pale Morning Duns #16, Green Drakes #10, and numerous Caddis Tan #14-16, Olive #14-16, Black or Chocolate Brown #18 will do the trick. Pupa and Adults are on the menu.
Brown Micro Mayflies, Brown 2 Bit’s, Soft Hackle PT’s and PMD Split Case nymphs are really good now.
The Crooked River is down to 140 CFS which is a good flow for fishing, but at least a 100 to 130 cfs less than a normal flow regime out of the dam for this part of the season. The reservoir is dropping fast and that is of great concern for us. There continues to be a good caddis hatch (Olive #16 and Black #16-18) with adults and pupa being good.
PMD hatches are starting up for summer. Most of the PMD’s are a #16 this time of year, and we love the Knock Down Dun, Sparkle Dun and the Extended Body PMD with the Cut Wings. Such a gorgeous fly the fish love to eat on the Crooked.
Midges, Scuds, Perdigons, Micro May’s, Split Case, Skinny Nelson and Soft Hackles are good dead drifted under an indicator (NZ Wool!) or Euro Style.
The Fall River is fishing good too. The next ODFW is coming up the week of June 13th but it has been apparent a lot of anglers this year seem to be practicing Catch & Release, because if you move around on the river and hunt fish, you can find a good number of trout.
This is such a neat time on the Fall River with great hatches of Mayflies, Caddis and Yellow Sally’s on any given day.
The Nymph fishing is really productive and a lot of our guide team are using micro streamers to entice the fish too.
Ants and Beetles are important on the Fall and should be used as a searcher, or used on fish you can’t get to bite other offerings.
The McKenzie has been really quite good for the FFP guides and flows have been a touch high, but very fishable regardless of that. Why do I always mention FFP on this part of the report? Other than them, when I am hanging at the shop I just don’t talk to many private boaters/anglers coming or going to the Mac. So I rely on Steve, Troy, Adam, Ben, Tonn and Eric to keep us at the shop in the loop there.
Chubbies, Parachute Adams, Light Cahill’s, Jigs, Mega Prince, Possie Bugger, larger olive or orange perdigons, and Caddis in every stage will cover you. It’s such a fun river, I need to get one of the guides to take me and Tina down there again soon. I personally haven’t been since the fire.
On to the Lakes. Places I have been a lot lately.
Paulina Lake is fishing really quite well. I’m not getting many fish on beetles or ants yet, water temps are still in the low to high 40’s, likely not inviting for trout to rise to dries much at this time. But the trout are feeding well on Chironomid Pupa #14-18 (olive and red were my best colors this week), #18 PT’s, Balanced Leeches under an indicator and non balanced on an intermediate line were good all week.
Seems the fish moved a tad off the edge and into some slightly deeper water over the weed beds too.
East Lake is fishing good too. The Hot Springs area with a brown or tan leech on an intermediate line has been hot. Chironomids under the bobber through there is great. I’d choose a #14-18 red for the bottom fly and a Black #16 for the dropper and concentrate on water between 9 and 12 feet now.
Stripping a callibaetis nymph is recommended. Not really much hatching quite yet, but they will soon and the fish are looking for the nymphs.
Scuds, Beetles, Damsel Nymphs and keep an eye open for March Flies (bibio) on the East Banks and try an RP Ant if you see them hatching and fish eating them. About 4 or 5 years ago there was a mega hatch of these little suckers and they are hard to match the hatch but the fish like to eat them.
There are no docks planned to be installed at East Lake CG, Hot Springs or Cinder Hill CG this year. This is upsetting and I think a mistake on the USFS part. We would at least encourage them to put a dock in a Cinder Hill, possibly using a piece from an unused dock from another area and bringing in a back hoe to move one or two rocks to make launching easier for us peeps with bigger boats. I may end up using the East Lake Resort launch ($5 fee) or using my smaller boat this season if needed.
I would expect the lake level to pop up some as more snow melts off on that volcano. That would help. It’s so interesting how Paulina is so full that the trails are under water on the east side of the lake, yet in the same caldera, East is suffering low water again.
No doubt the USFS will need to reinvest and retool the ramps and docks there if this is the new normal. But when will that happen?
In the mean time, if you are upset about no public docks at East for 2022 please look at the Fly Fisher’s Place Instagram or Facebook post from 6/3/22 and get involved with a phone call or a letter to the agency that is in charge of the area.
I did have a very good and hopefully productive talk with the District Ranger in the Bend office yesterday. It may be they can’t do anything this year due to drought. But I think a little effort to make Cinder Hill work for us is possible!
Hosmer Lake is now open!!! Yeah. Steve has our 1st trip of the season there today, so at this point I have nothing to share except you can get in and launch a boat. It should be good.
Crane Prairie was stinky again for me this week.
Signs of life on Callibaetis hatching. Not many risers though.
We got a couple of fish hooked (and lost) on Flashback PT’s on a slow sinking line.
Leeches, Damsels, and Chironomids are all on the menu. We stayed in, but fished all over the Deschutes channel North side this trip. Most guys we spoke to also experienced slow action. What’s up with this?
No Access to 3 Creeks Lake yet. Maybe next weekend it’ll be a short hike to fishing? Often, over my 40 years here it was the same weekend as the Sisters Rodeo this was possible. Will the trend continue?
North Twin received a fresh batch of big trout from ODFW recently. They like Olive Wooly Buggers I am hearing.
South Twin is fishing good on leeches and damsel patterns. Chironomids are good. Look out now for an afternoon hatch of callibaetis. Should be a great place to tube this week.
My friend Christian who loves Davis Lake says there is enough water to launch a smaller boat near the Lava Dam. I will collaborate this info, but that would be cool if correct. Should be good for Bass and big rainbows now.
I always love hearing from people who share their own info with me, it is valuable and useful to share in these reports.
Thank you for all of your support.
Jeff