I was thinking a lot of you might be making plans for the weekend and want to know some of the latest water, weather and fishing trends before the usual Saturday AM report. This report should be good from now well into next week.

Also, I forgot to include the Summer Fly Fishing Schools info at Black Butte Ranch in the last report. So, at the end I’ll have all that info for anyone interested in the Full Day Fly Fishing Schools being taught by our instructor Doug Pendleton. Doug ran NW Fly Fishing Academy in Leavenworth, Washington before moving to Sisters a few years ago. He’s a really good instructor and his classes will be worth taking!

For fishing, The Metolius really picked up for me, and my friends and customers this week. More Green Drake action so far further down river around Bridge 99 and Candle Creek than up river, but I believe it is going to be Green Drake City all over from Canyon Creek to Candle Creek within a few days. (The Lupine blooms are about to burst 😉 )
Yesterday I had the pleasure of hitting the opening day on the Upper River with Camp Sherman Dad, aka Gavin. I started my day with the Euro Rod and got about 8 to the net on Purple Perdigons, Brown Perdigons and an Olive Mini-Gulp Euro Streamer before we headed to the mid-River and ran into 2+ hour PMD hatch that gave me my best dry fly session of the year so far. Besides PMD’s there was a smattering of Tan #16 caddis although I stuck to Purple Comparaduns, PMD Sparkle Flag’s and PMD Film Critics and got about 20 up to eat the dry fly. Good times!
A lot of good action on Green Drake Nymphs through the afternoon, so if you don’t have a good nymph to match it, stop in and we have a few we really like including a Rubber Leg 20 incher that is very Drakey.
With warm evenings in the forecast I expect to see after dinner sessions with Caddis, PMD’s, BWO’s and Rusty Spinners from 6 to dark coming back up.

The Lower Deschutes in the Warm Springs to Trout Creek drift really fired up this week, even on big golden stones despite how cool and windy our week was. I was a little surprised by that, but happy to hear our guides were getting their clients into so many fish on bigger flies. Also mentioned were great PMD and Caddis hatches on the D. The Salmonfly action is going to explode in the warm weather coming in a few days. Are you ready?

The Middle Deschutes should see a few great evening sessions over the weekend and into early next week as the sun set on the 2024 Salmonfly and Goldenstone hatch by mid to late next week. The number are dwindling, but historically I am always amazed how many bugs must be hiding in the rocks and trees and one warm night with some good low light conditions and suddenly they are all over the place for a few more days. Crossing fingers this turns out to be true.
If not, expect PMD, Pale Evening Dun, Caddis, Yellow Sallies and good nymphing action with your Euro Stick.

The Upper Deschutes opened yesterday. We don’t have any reports yet but ought to be good to very good from Little Lava Lake to Crane Prairie, and between Crane and Wickiup (browns x-ing) and floating Tenino to Bull Bend or Lapine State Park to Big River CG.

The Crooked is in the best water flow shape we’ve seen in months. 280 cfs today. Love to see it.
It is caddis time on the river for at least the next 10 to 14 days expect to see heavy caddis hatches on the river mixed with some BWO’s and PMD’s and Rusty Spinners.
Hit it hard though with Soft hackles, Sparkle Pupa, X Caddis, Missing Link, Elk Hair Caddis and Center Stage Caddis.
Zebra Midges, Scuds, Perdigons, Rainbow Warriors, Red Copper John and Flashback PT’s will be good nymphs besides the Pupa’s.

The Fall River was really fishing well for us this week. By far Jig Streamers were our best flies and Zebra Midges were pretty awesome too.
Hatches have been okay, a little on and off but certainly expect PMD’s, Yellow Sally’s, Midges, Olive Caddis, Green Drakes, Ants and Beetles.

The McKenzie is picking up and with the warmer weather I do think it’ll get even better next week. The water may flow a little stronger with some more snow melt, but we are already having great days of lot’s of fish to the net on Euro Jigs and Micro Streamers, and some with a Chubby and Perdigon Dropper.
I hope to see Flying Carpenter Ants on the water here early to mid next week.

LAKES-

Crane Prairie is fishing well especially on the Deschutes Cow Camp Side on the flat and through the trees off the channel. Cultus is also very good and I hope to see the 1st Callibaetis hatches on the flat near the Cultus River mouth this week. Certainly a Callibaetis Nymph on a hover line or Clear Camo is going to be good as a dropper with a leech or damsel nymph.
Chrionomids, and Bruised Balanced Leeches under the indicator is always a good bet at Crane.

South Twin Lake was good for my friends this week as part of their Fly Club outing over the past few days. Yesterday the Chironomid bite was strong. The days previous to that it was a mix of fish on leeches and prince nymphs.
North Twin is fishing well too.

Paulina Lake continues to fish really well so far mostly on Balanced Leeches and small nymphs as droppers (black double down, chironomids, callibaetis cate, red PT).
Fish are starting to look up for ants and beetles! If you read my fishing reports often, you know I am smiling writing that.

East Lake ramps are accessible. Hot Spring is totally clear. Not positive about EL CG ramp, but I know people have been using it, snow or no snow.
Fishing is also very good on East. Leeches have been the best, but chironomids, Callibaetis nymphs, scuds, ants and beetles are good throughout the day.

People are rumoring about going to Three Creeks. I don’t think so. The Snow Gate is still locked and it would be over 7 miles of walking round trip to get there, and the last bit would certainly be snow covered for now. No way people are walking up that far. When the USFS opens the snow gate, it will be a short walk, but for now, let’s all wait and be smart about our trips.

Hosmer Lake still does’t have access. The highway part of the road from Lava Lake (south access) is open for sure, but the road back in to the ramp is snowed in still.

Still hearing reports of good afternoon hatches on Haystack. Callibaetis!
Leeches and Damsel nymphs and Chironomids too.

Places I don’t personally fish much but got a good report on Davis for Bass, and a few slow reports on Wickiup. No fish.

Summer 2024 Fly Fishing Schools-
we are excited to add to our private casting lessons and the Crooked River class to offer an even more comprehensive fly fishing school this summer. Just starting out? Or you’re really new and need to know more? This is for you.
For the 1st time ever we are also doing a full day youth fly fishing school for kids ages 12 to 17 at Black Butte Lake on either June 25th or July 16th. Cost is $250 per student and minimum class size is 2, maximum is 8.
We are also offering a class at Black Butte Ranch Lake called the Legacy Fly Fishing School which was named in honor of our long time relationship teaching fly fishing at BBR since Harry Teel started the clinics in 1986 and Jeff Perin took over in 1990 and also taught many years of an Orvis Fly Fishing School in the 90’s. We have met some of our best and most enduring friends while teaching these schools. That my friends is “legacy”.
These are private classes that can be set up for 2 people and can go to groups of 8. Cost is $295 per person.
Here is what you can expect the day to include:

Morning Session: Learn the Basics of Fly Fishing

• Discuss fly fishing definitions, e.g., What is a “fly,” fly lines, leaders, tippets 
• Learn the food items in a trout’s diet and observe preserved samples of trout food
• Use a D-Net to collect living sample of trout food from the lake
• Examine and identify collected samples and observe their living movements 
• Match these living “bugs” with artificial “flies” to learn what trout food each fly imitates
• Understand how a fly rod and line delivers the “fly” to a target
• Learn the proper casting stance, learn to grip a fly rod, and how hold the line 
• Cast a yarn rod to learn the principles of the fly-casting stroke
  • Cast a fly rod to learn loop control, the open loop, closed loop and “Perfect Loop”

• Learn the Straight-Line Cast (the first fishing cast) 
• Learn the change of direction cast
• Practice line management techniques to land the fly on a specific target.
• Learn how to present a fly to the water subtly to attract (and not spook) a trout
• Partner up with another participant to play the “Fish-N-fisherman” Game to practice how to present your fly to a target, set the hook, play the fish into your landing net, and then carefully release a “trout” unharmed

Afternoon Session: Learn when and where to fish Black Butte Lake

• Learn to attach a recommended leader & tippet to a fly line
• Tie two essential fishing knots: the Clinch Knot and the Surgeon’s knot
• Observe and discuss recommended flies for the lake
• Review recommended lake-fishing casts
• Observe and discuss various lake retrieves
• Understand how to set the hook, play, net, handle, and release fish unharmed
• Get hints for where and when to fish Black Butte Lake
  • Discuss opportunities for learning to fish local waters