The Arctic terrorizer that had locked in over us for most of January has finally moved out. Currently in Sisters it is mid 30’s and raining and this weekend is supposed to be in the 50’s through monday with rain tomorrow. This is good and it might be bad for rising waters. Let’s take a look.

The Metolius is the one river I am concerned will see some rising waters today for a few days. A lot of snow sits in the basin and with rain falling on snow we will see surface run-off I’d think. I don’t think the river will be unfishable, but I do think flows will be stronger than average.
Despite the weather this week with ice, we did have some warm afternoons and fishing was quite good. BWO’s have been hatching pretty well most days and around 1:30 to 3 is the zone you will see the hatch. It won’t be an hour and a half of mayflies rolling down the currents, but you likely will witness 15 to 40 minutes of hatch and, in the right place at the right time fish looking up.
Of note, the current hatch of BWO/baetis that are coming off are kind of light, many folks describe them as a hue of tannish. They are pretty solid #18 and have tall wings. A lot of folks are wondering if they are PMD’s but you can use your entomology skills and count tails and look at the eyes and tell the difference. The main identifier will be if it has 2 tails, which baetis (sp.) have 2 tails. Little orangish eyes usually and more on top of the head will be another way to tell if these are baetis, and not cinygmula which have a flatter head and the eyes are black or another dark color and are more to the sides of the head.
You might recall before the cold snap we were talking a lot about tan caddis pupa. They’re back! It’s been an awesome fish catcher this week. October Caddis Pupa and Snow Sedge and Silver Stripe Sedge Pupa are also important now.
Eggs, Golden Stones and Micro May’s, 2 Bits and Rainbow Warriors, Perdigons, Frenchie and little and medium sized Euro Streamers.
Speaking of Streamers…Big ones for Bulls is doing the trick and ought to be even better with some higher flows which we typically equate to a better Bull Trout bite.
Access and Parking are not ideal. Plenty of snow in the parking lots with LIMITED parking spots at the Hatchery, Allingham and other areas. Walking through soft snow through the forest and along the banks is a chore. A few people have made the drive to Lower Bridge. I personally would not try that now. If you do, bring a tow rope, chains and a shovel, and a Garmin Inreach in case you need to text a buddy to come pull you out.

The Fall River report is going to start this way: We need to establish some rules of the road, aka etiquette and basic fishing friendliness again. People are really getting rude with the crowding out of anglers who were there 1st.
Here is a good rule of thumb for what is too close. Is my downstream drift overlapping with your upstream cast? Are we both casting to the same fish? Let’s say the average cast is 30 feet (that’s probably long but in places it can happen) so 30′ up means you might also drift your fly 30′ down. That means I should give you at least that much space AND never ever cast over a fish that is in that 60 foot zone. That is polite and that is what makes the world go round and keeps disagreements from happening on the river.
I also think guide services (I have one of the 7 USFS permits to guide the Fall) should not take a big group all to the same areas. If they have 10 people with 5 guides put one or two guides on the hatchery, one at the HW, one at the CG and one at the Tubes. Spread ’em out and I am going to encourage my FFP guide team to be cognizant about that. In fairness, a typical trip is one guide and 1 to 3 clients. But group trips occur and I see the issue that is being talked about in the forums. That said, the forum folks are blaming the guides a bit for overcrowding, and I am not sure that is entirely fair. Guides are taking the public fishing. Public just like you and no one owns the river so we need mutual respect. I am not aware of any FFP guide getting in a disagreement over water etiquette but we don’t want that to happen.
BWO’s, Midges, Little Black Stones are hatching and bringing fish up during the hatch. Bring 6.5 and 7x tippet!
Micro Streamers, Perdigons, Zebra Midges and Eggs are your good nymphs for the river.

The Crooked River has been quite good this winter with just a short time during the freeze where it shut off.
Midges at all stages are the name of the game, but BWO nymphs with a few light smatterings of a hatch some warmer days, scuds and perdigons.
Afternoon dry fly fishing will occur from 3:30 or 4 to about dark and make sure you have a good selection of dry #22-24 black midge emergers and adults and some 7x.

No word on the Lower Deschutes in our camp….

The Middle D is high and cold and I’d wait until at least Mid February to see if we get a warming trend on the waters and some of the little black winter stoneflies to hatch.

Be good to other fisherfolk, be good to the fish and be good to yourself!

Jeff