With big weather changes coming up tonight, I thought it might be helpful to make some predictions and talk about conditions before all that happens so you can plan for the weather and make choices depending on how conditions will be over the next couple of days and week ahead.
Starting on the lakes, I think this weekend is going to be a total bust for the most part. Wind. Snow. Whitecaps. Bad roads up to East & Paulina are likely. Bad roads up and over Mt Bachelor. Bad roads up to 3 Creeks. Not for the faint of heart or unprepared!
Could you fish? yes.
Are you prepared to suffer? Are you prepared to get unstuck on snowy roads? Are you prepared to avoid hypothermia? If you are, you might be in store for some good brown trout fishing up in Newberry. If you are not, go fish lower elevations or stay home and watch football.
Speaking of the Newberry Crater, Docks came out at Paulina today (10/21/22). Of course that changes the game for some boaters who rely on docks for their boat usage.
ALSO, there is not a single bathroom to use near the lakes up there. To me, this is unacceptable of the US Forest Service to leave the public without facilities.
With all the cold and snowy weather coming for the next 5 days in the high lakes, beetle season might be over. Scuds and Balanced Leeches and Chub streamers are going to be what to focus on.
3 Creeks MIGHT begin to ice over by sunday with this weather event coming. We will watch that for you. Friends that were there yesterday caught several on Beetles working the edges. The Chartreuse Bead Olive Damsel Bugger and Hot Orange Bead Olive Krystal Bugger has been good around the edges for Brookies. if we don’t get ice, that ought to stay good until Halloween.
I had a good report from the Cultus Channel in Crane Prairie. Stripping Damsels on Camo lines. That was awesome to hear. Leeches and Zebra Midges would be in my box too. Some fish being caught in the Quinn and Deschutes (Resort side) areas too.
Hosmer also might begin to freeze up this weekend, especially the upper lake. Lower Lake ought to be okay for a bit. Leeches have been good there, also scuds and water boatman and damsel nymphs.
I got a good report from Lava Lake, wind drifting leeches has been producing some good fishing days. Water is in good shape and fish are looking healthy. I’m hopeful of a good comeback for Lava Lake and you might recall I thought Lava was a winner for fall in a prediction I made 2 or 3 months ago in one of these reports.
Great reports from South Twin! It would be a spot to hit this weekend as it isn’t big enough to be that bad in a storm, and it’s low enough to probably be more rainy than snow over these next few days.
Suttle Lake is pretty good for Browns and Smallmouth right now. Olive leeches and streamers are the best flies. Not a bad idea in the fall to have an October Caddis dry to skitter the surface with. Link Creek Tributary inflow area, and down in front of the lodge are both good spots to hit now.
With about 10 to 20 days left of the lake season, once this storm passes I know a lot of you are going to want to get on the lakes before its over. Me too.
Spent another day on the Metolius yesterday and had much better success than the last skunking I got. I got fish on Purple Comparaduns and PMD Film Critic and Tina got a couple on Green Drakes and Purple Comparaduns. There are a lot of PMD’s, BWO’s, Caddis, Mahogany Duns going. Drakes are waning fast, but we saw some yesterday.
This weekend the eddies are going to be tough with all the needles and leaves swirling around. Once the wind stops and give it a day for that to wash out and/or sink and things will be back to normal.
Bull Trout fishing has still been good and many people have seen Bull’s hunting down Kokanee! Big Streamers are a must when we see that.
Nymph action is excellent, with a lot of good euro nymph action, plus Oct Caddis Pupa, Golden Stones, Orange Pat’s Rubber Legs, Eggs and Rainbow Warriors.
The Crooked continues to be closed until about 11/1/22. Stay tuned as the water levels return to “normal” (ish) about that time.
The Fall River is fishing quite well. It is a neat time of the year with fall hatches getting fish to look up better. BWO and a smaller Orange Caddis #14-16, plus midges and maybe ants and PMD’s for a while longer.
Small streamers and Euro Nymphs and Eggs are all hot flies under the surface.
The Lower Deschutes is getting the weather we’ve been hoping for. I truly believe this freshet coming is going to make the fish go on the feed much better. I just had some friends do a multi-day trip and while steelhead were nonexistent for them, the trout action was outstanding.
October Caddis and Stonefly nymphs along with heavy perdigons and jigs are working great.
The Middle Deschutes is now running pretty high. Around Steelhead Falls there is some access that is fishable, but this would no longer be on my radar for the time being. Euro nymphing and Streamer fishing would be how I’d approach if I were to go though.
The McKenzie is still quite good for our guide team. Also, with the freshet of rain and some real fall weather, the October Caddis hatch is getting more active. Guides are doing well on streamers and Perdigons on a daily basis.
Be cool to each other on the water. Etiquette goes a long ways to making for a good day for all anglers. How much space do we give each other? How long is your mid length cast for the place you’re fishing? Probably 40 to 50 feet? I’d say mostly yes to that. Multiply that by 2, giving you and the other angler the same space to not overlap. That is fair spacing and good manners on the water around other we may, or may not know.
“No”, we can’t fish the same eddy, even if it has 2 spots where the trail enters the water line. We’d be casting to the same fish, just from different angles. So if you are already there, I won’t even ask if it is OK, because I actually know it isn’t. I will give you space and not bug you or make you feel bad that you are there fishing, and trying to decipher a hatch code that might take some fly changes and time to cover the water properly.
I can’t emphasize enough to be good to the fish.
Use a net large enough to handle the biggest fish you may encounter. A net for Bull Trout is the same you might use for Steelhead. It makes a difference in the release survival of these fish we all love.
Speaking of that, it is becoming glove season. NEVER EVER hold a fish with gloves on please. They end up getting a fungus on their skin and rot away in an ugly death.
We love the fish too much to do that to them.
And for crying out loud, pinch your barbs. Way too many fish I am seeing with flies stuck in their mouths, broken off days earlier on a barbed fly. And way too many trout missing the maxillary (lip) fin, most likely due to anglers using barbed hooks.
#oregonstatepolice needs to be writing more tickets to offenders of the last point.
Be good to fish.
See you on the water and GO PADRES!
Jeff