good morning friends and fellow lovers of all things fishy! I appreciate folks like you and love hearing your stories about where you’ve been and what you’ve been catching them on.
Tomorrow starts our exciting week with Phil Rowley coming from Canada who will be in the shop and on the water with us for 4 days.
With that, the FFP Fly Tying Room will be closed on Sunday for a special event as Phil and the students fill the room for his sold out seminar. If you need tying stuff on Sunday, there will be a window to get it when we break for lunch, otherwise please plan on coming today or monday to get supplies. I feel bad about this, but the room is small and I want to limit any disruptions for our guest, and to the students who paid to be there learning from Phil.
Our Tuesday clinic is sold out and full with 50 people coming to learn how to apply the best techniques to the situations they find throughout the season on our lakes. Central Oregon represents yo!
That what fly fishing is all about? Applying knowledge you have garnered to try to fool a fish. For me, this is the reason I keep falling in love with fly fishing. Never stop learning.

I am happy to see the 8th month begin as we think about fishing on the Metolius. I think we need a weather break to make happen what I expect to happen and I don’t know when that will be? Last week they said by mid next week that the heat wave would be moderating, and now the newest forecast is for more of the same.
Despite the hot, bright days, we’ve had some positive stuff happen this week. A good push of Bull Trout appears to have arrived and I know of some gorgeous fish being landed on big nasty streamers in the last few days. The Golden Stone action continues to be a strong player in the Headwaters to Gorge area. Look for Goldens in the Canyon and below Bridge 99 now as well. Also keep an eye on Salmonflies. Not a huge hatch of the big orange mama’s on the Met, but in August and early September you ought to have a Salmonfly at the ready on the your fly patch.
Mayfly hatches have been more sparse than normal I think because of the heat. PMD’s are the star of the show in Summer, but don’t overlook Blue Wing Olives and in August we also look for Mahogany Duns (upper, middle and lower river) and Ameletus #14 olive (middle and lower river). My friend Chester and I were discussing the rusty spinner fall and both of us agree it is worth going in the early AM to fish spinners since the dusk spinner fall is not hitting on all cylinders like it ought to be. I have enjoyed early AM rusty spinners in the past, and if you have fished these low floating (hard to see) spinners at damn near dark, you are going to love seeing them as the light is increasing in the morning. And if you get there in the morning with no dry fly takes, bring your nymph box and change tactics.
Any day now we are going to have an explosion of tiny yellowish/tan micro caddis in the middle and lower river. #20 yellow Iris Caddis and #20 Tan Elk Hair Caddis are my patterns of choice for these. The #16 Tan and Olive caddis will not only continue this month, they will get better. Remember to fish the pre-hatch emergence of caddis using a Pupa, especially during the later afternoon and evening times.

The Lower Deschutes has been good this week with good caddis hatches and Pale Evening Duns and PMD’s. Don’t forget the spinners of both mayflies with PED spinners often showing up in the eddies in the mid-day, and PMD spinners usually at dusk or early AM. I remember a time on the Lower D, fishing a riffle about 9 am and suddenly a massive wave of rusty spinners hovered over the riffle, and started dropping to the surface to lay eggs. It was one of the coolest 30 minutes dry fly sessions I can remember on the Deschutes.
There are some amazing nymphing opportunities on the Deschutes and I want to remind you that they won’t all be in deeper waters. Look for fish in the weedy edges, shallow bars and seams where caddis pupa funnel through before hatching.
Stonefly Nymphs, TJ Hookers, Perdigons, Frenchie’s, Soft Hackle or Flashback PT, Amber Psycho Prince and Red Copper Johns are favorites to euro nymph, dry dropper style or indicator fishing.
Don’t forget about that good steelhead run coming up. Maybe right now with the heat I’d let the fish be, get them settled and start thinking about some great Fall days that are not actually that far off.

The Middle Deschutes is back in shape after seeing some higher water this week due to an irrigation canal shut down. In the Morning to early afternoon euro nymphing techniques will be your best method. Expect some slower fishing in the mid afternoon and picking up in the evening with hatches of Tan Caddis, PMD #16, BWO #18-20, PED #14 and don’t hesitate to use Purple Haze, Renegades, Stimulators and Float-n-Fool’s on the Middle D.

The Upper Deschutes Headwaters region from Little Lava down to Crane Prairie has a lot of great opportunities throughout summer as the water is really cold and the trout and whitefish hold in the nice pools and seams where you’d imagine them to be. This is nice dry/dropper water and killer areas to Euro Nymph or use a Euro Streamer. We also recommend terrestrials and attractors on this water.

The Crooked River has been outstanding this summer and we see this trend continuing. Our best fishing has been on many different brightly colored perdigons, but not ignoring the match the natural drift of smaller mayfly nymphs and scuds and midges.
Afternoon shadows and evening light will usually get the PMD’s, Mahogany Duns and Tan Caddis hatches moving and that is a good time to fish dries, and also the Crooked is a decent Grasshopper spot, so a Tan or Yellow hopper is a good fly to fish there too.

The Fall River overall is fishing well, but it is getting a lot of angling pressure from 9 to 2, so keep in mind there are a lot of options to combat that. Spread out. Not everyone needs to go to the Hatchery or the Campground. Go earlier in the morning. Go later and stay to dark. All of these will make your experience nicer.
PMD and BWO’s are the main 2 mayflies, fish all stages there: nymphs, emergers, cripples, duns and spinners. Olive Caddis #16-18, Tan Caddis #16, Hot Orange Missing Link, Yellow Sally, Ant, Black Beetle, Hippie Stomper, Grasshoppers, Perdigons, Micro Streamers, Eggs & Zebra Midges.

The Mckenzie River is getting a little low but the fishing is holding up great. Guides are noticing a little bit more banging through the gravel bars and more maneuvering the riffles and rapids with rocks to navigate around.
Stonefly nymphs, Perdigons, Caddis Pupa, Soft hackles, Stimulators, Chubbies, Elk Hair Caddis, Light Cahills and Parachute Adams or Purple Haze.

LAKES REPORT

Patience paid off nicely for me last night at Three Creek Lake. When my friend Chester and I got there about 5:30 there were a whole lot of Callibaetis Spinners hovering over the lake and hitting the water, and fish increasingly fed on them for about 40 minutes but I will say that the risers were spread out and inconsistent with how many bugs on the water. I got a very strong and well conditioned rainbow on a Black Butte Callibaetis. Chester stripped soft hackles and got a few takes and one to the net.
At sunset the lake lit up nicely with an expected black caddis hatch and I ended up getting a bunch of fish on a #16 black X Caddis.
Morning to early afternoon has been reporting better Callibaetis hatches.
Damsels, Ants, Beetles, Red Hippie Stompers, Chironomids and Balanced Leeches. If you troll in a tube with a hover or intermediate line, a Sheep Creek Special, orange head Olive Bugger, Flashback PT are the good ones to use.

Upper Hosmer Lake is staying in the cool zone and Brook Trout are happy. The lower Channel and Lower Lake will be places you absolutely need to take a water temp on to make sure you are being respectful to the fish we love and release. More than likely over the next 2 weeks those areas will not be areas we should fish.
Damsels, Callibaeits, Chironomids, Ants, Beetles, Watermelon Leech, Water Boatman, Scuds.

Crane Prairie comes with the same caveats as Hosmer. I know you can find cold water, but be responsible in that choice. Is the Channel cold? yes. But do you have to bring a fish up through 72 degree water to land them. If yes, then I don’t think it’s the right place to be fishing. But there are places in the Deschutes and Cultus area to completely avoid that temperature swing and stay in the safe zone on this hot days,. Also, go early.
Balanced Leeches, Red 2 Bits, Black Double Down, Chironomids, Damsels Adults and Nymphs, Scuds and Water Boatman.

Paulina Lake was tough for me this week on the one day I was up in the Crater. We caught fish on Chironomids, Balanced Leeches, Callibaetis Nymphs, Grasshoppers and Beetles, but none ever took off as the standout. Working hard for fish is a necessary part of the game, and tough days remind us we need a lot of arrows in our quiver to eke out a decent day when the going gets tough.

East Lake continues to be good, and the 2nd brood of Callibaetis is beginning and should be with us through mid-september. I love this hatch and so do the trout.
Damsel activity remains strong and you don’t want to miss the opportunity to fish nymphs on the bank lines (wading is best for this) and dries. I like extended body damsel adults and also blue chubby’s.
Chironomid fishing in August is great. Usually Red #14-16-18, Bloodworms, Black #14-16, Olive #16 and Chromie #14-16 will do the trick. Look for that to be best in 15 to 18 feet.

Todd Lake will be a fun short walk in spot to wade or to carry a float tube the 1/4 mile to the water from the parking area. Ants, Beetles and Callibaetis and Damsels will all be contenders.

Travel:

2 Spots are still open for the Belize trip the 1st week of November. Join me. About $4200.
My Argentina guide has every week of the season with availability from November 1 to April 1. This is a great, relatively inexpensive way to fish Patagonia for a week at around $4000 +/- with 6 days of guiding and 7 nights lodging.

See you in the shop or on the water. I’m headed to teach casting at Black Butte and need to wash the boats today. The road to Three Creeks is dusty!

Jeff