Good morning, the weather is going to be glorious this week, so if you’re not planning to fish, you should change those plans and go fishing. It is certainly possible to have gorgeous and warm fall weather for a lot of October, but we never know, so you put off raking needles and leaves, going to the dump and cleaning the garage to experience days like this.
The Metolius is still really good for dries. One frustrating thing you’ll notice though is suddenly in the area the ponderosa pine trees have a lot of dead needles to shed and those are now slowly falling into the river, where they collect in the eddies and that can make getting a drift frustrating. I am guessing that any windy day in October the eddies are going to be really difficult to get a cast in around all the needles. But, there are other places to fish, and fish we will.
When I was on the river Friday it was great to see so many friends also enjoying the river. Mr Steele was landing a lovely trout on a Flav Sparkle Dun when I walked past him. Besides Flav’s, there are still Drakes hatching and the fish want to eat them in the late afternoon. I am guessing we have 7 to 10 more days of fish eating drakes this fall.
PMD’s, BWO’s and Mahogany Duns (the latter being what I caught fish on during my short session Friday) and a whole lotta caddis and still a fair number of olive stones which won’t survive these frosty nights for too much longer.
The Upper River is seeing some nice fish come up on a Clarks Stone.
Clarks Stones have served us well as a good imitation for October Caddis too, so don’t put them away for a long time to come.
Euro nymphing is really good on the Met now.
Bull Trout ought to be done with the spawn and just hanging in the river waiting for the Kokanee. But where are the Kokanee? Late this year?
The Lower Deschutes is seeing a decent return on Steelhead it would appear from reports from friends and guides on the river. I am personally looking forward to some October time with the spey rod.
Trout fishing the Warm Springs to Trout Creek run is good, mostly on euro nymphs, jigs, 2 Bit’s, October Caddis Pupa, Girdle Bugs and Stonefly nymphs. Fishing euro style or under an indicator have both been productive.
Trout Spey is good too, I know some of the FFP guides have been enjoying the swing for redsides and getting fish on Sculpins and leeches.
The Middle Deschutes is in great shape and ought to fish quite well for most of October. If I was going now, I’d carry my grandpa’s old aluminum Orvis fly box with 5 magnets, on one magnet I’d put some yellow sparkle duns and yellow parachutes #16, on another magnet I’d put an Upright Rusty Spinner/Quill Gordon/Brown WinnaSpinna, BWO’s (#18)on the 3rd, Corn Fed Caddis and X Caddis on the 4th and Renegades/Purple Haze and a Purple Stimulator or small Purple Chubby on the last magnet. Hiking in to canyons it is so good to travel light and I’d feel like that is all I need to be confident on dries. Od course If I was carrying the euro nymph rod I’d have a box of perdigons and jigs too. One of the things I like to do is to use a super versatile rod like the Echo Shadow X 10′ 3 weight and use it for both dries and euro nymphs with a simple change of leader on the water. If you haven’t tried that rod for both techniques, you need to. It excels at both and is not a compromise at either.
The Upper Deschutes is now mostly closed to angling due to the fact the calendar rolled past 9/30. Below Benham Falls is open all year and there are certainly some great spots to fish there for the month of October.
The Fall River is fishing well and is seeing an increasing amount of BWO’s as we get more into autumn. I love october and november on this spring creek and especially for the dry fly fishing.
Look for little amber caddis flies hatching soon, they are about a #14 on average and the fish love them. We have a hot orange Missing Link Caddis that was really good for us during that hatch last season.
Tan X Caddis and Midge Winklers, Griffiths Gnats, Olive Sparkle Duns, BWO KD Duns, BWO Knock Down Duns, Film Critic, Klinkhammer.
Eggs, Zebra Midges, Sculpins, Perdigons, Jigs, Rainbow Warrior are all great.
The McKenzie is excellent nymphing right now. I know Adam, Ben, Steve, Troy and Tonn are all excited for October guides trips on our river to the west! Are you booked? Now is the time.
The Crooked River is closed until November.
Three Creeks Lake is a good choice for tubers, and bank angling. This is the time of year you can work the bank lines with a slow sink line or floating line and work the drop offs, creek inlets and shorelines with olive leeches, and chironomids. Not a lot of dry fly activity but they will eat a beetle, hippie stomper and ant, and keep an eye open for midges too.
Paulina Lake is good. Beetles and Ants and Hippie Stompers on top. There were some #18 callibaetis hatching this past week and something I thought was quite weird, we say (3 tailed) mahogany duns. There is a possibility these actually hatched in the creek and there were just some landing on the boat….Typically mahogany duns are in the crawler nymph family and are stream dwelling species.
The fishing was good this week on Balanced Leeches under an indicator and we got some good fish stripping leeches on intermediate lines too.
There are zero bathrooms to use at Paulina Lake CG boat ramp areas. I truly do not understand the USFS closing bathrooms with a month of fishing and boating still with us. I can see winterizing the bathrooms that are there, but bringing in portable’s for the time left in the season. What are your thoughts on that?Personally I dont like seeing toilet paper in the trees near the boat ramps. This is avoidable with basic service provided by our tax dollars.
East Lake is great choice for bank angling and tubing. Sadly, with the USFS closing the Cinder Hill Campground and locking the gate, access to the best and most usable ramp to launch a drift boat in over. I suppose I may use Hot Springs, but the rocks are pretty bad on that one. Still possible, just be mindful of your trailer. I’m again frustrated that USFS isn’t seeing the big picture that the lake is low, and that they could have closed the camping but left the ramp open just like they do at Paulina Lake. I want to have a Forest Service that understands fall is some of the best fishing of the year, and that closing everything more than an month early is not helping tourism, not helping locals who “get it”, not helping guides. We need services like ramps and bathrooms.
I have seen people drop a drift boat in at EL Campground. That drop off from the end of the concrete seems sketchy to me.
On the fishing side, it is good up there and ought to be all of October. Chub looking streamers, leeches and beetles are the way to go.
Hosmer Lake ought to be good. I have no reports, but the weather is fantastic, pressure has been really light and water temps are optimal.
Last week I made a mistake in thinking that South Twin was accessible. I am sorry about that. In checking the Deschutes County Sheriff’s website on evacuations from the cedar Creek Fire, it showed Twin Lakes as Level 2/Be Ready. I assumed that meant it was not in mandatory evacuation. But the road was closed.
Hope to see those open soon in October.
I just can’t see why in October with the rain we had, the longer and cooler nights that the Cedar Creek fire is going to make any huge advancements. So why keep the Crane Prairie Resort side closed? And Twin Lakes closed? 2 weeks ago I understood, but now it seems like they are not thinking of the public and that is a shame. Taking Road 40 or South Century to Crane Prairie Resort and than having a blockade past those turnoff’s seems reasonable at this time. Again, what do you think? I know I have people reading this report with some serious knowledge of these matters and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
See you on the water!
Jeff