I am writing this one at a different time of the day on a warm and very dark night here in Sisters. After working in the garage on some fishing tackle projects, I decided I needed a break from that and wanted to put some of my thoughts about the fishing out tonight, so I’d have time to finish the garage project in the morning when the sun comes up, and hopefully catch those of you looking for the latest reports on the local waters tonight or in the morning as you plan your fishing time.

The Metolius River– There was a guy in the shop today about an hour before closing that said he ran in to a ripping good Green Drake hatch about noon today. This is yet another report of Drakes coming off earlier than we would often expect them, and from people I trust to know what the hatch is and when it normally hatches. When Tina and I fished on Sunday we saw Drakes from 2 to 4 near the hatchery, and that is the time I would most expect them to be on the water.
But like any hatch, they do what they do, so be ready to fish Drakes anytime from noon to about 5. You might even see spinners about 9 or 10 AM and to see a Green Drake Spinner Fall is quite lucky.
PMD hatches are popping on all sections of the river, and can be expected on the surface also from noon to about 5. It gets harder in the fall with the shorter days to predict them past 5, but it is warmer than usual so maybe….
BWO’s are on the menu, more often later in the afternoon and into the evening. When Fall Weather returns (soon I’m sure) they will be one of the most important afternoon hatches in October and November.
To round out the mayflies Mahogany Duns are in their prime hatch cycle now and ought to be around another 2 or 3 weeks. Did you know Mahogany Duns are close relatives to the Pale Morning Duns? Both in the Crawler Nymph family, as duns they share the Crawler family attributes of shape, especially head shape, but 3 tails are an easy way to identify the Mahogany Duns. One of the flies I really like to use on the Met during the Mahogany hatch is a Quill Gordon, but a fly called an Upright Rusty Spinner and a Grey or Purple Comparadun or Grey Sparkle Dun in a #16 are all a great match for this important Fall hatch.
Caddis hatches are awesome now, and there are a lot of them out to be on the lookout for. #16 Tan Caddis seem to be the most important, but October Caddis and Micro Caddis (could not be more different) and good numbers of a caddis that splits the difference, the #14 grey caddis that have been important for quite a while. We see these caddis pretty much all year.
Stoneflies are equally diverse in sizes and colors now, and while the Little Olive Stones are waning quick, I saw fish this week that were keyed on them really tight to the bank line. It’ll be over for these guys once the next cold front come through is my best prediction, but until then, keep fishing that Henryville.
Goldenstone dries: use both a Clarks Stone and Norm Woods Special. These are worth fishing from Wizard Falls up through the Canyon and from the Gorge up the Riverside Campground. Even if the fly is taken for an Oct. Caddis, who cares!
Kokanee in the river big time now. Strangely, a lot of them are really black. We are not sure why, but I have a message to the regional fish biologist to try to suss that out. I have seen them darken at the time they are about ready to get the fungus that breaks down their bodies to river nutrients. But these Koke’s are new arrivals and are already black. Some Green/Red/Green fish too. Many fish already spawning so Egg’s in the drift mean adding eggs to your nymph game. If any of you have insights to the black colored kokanee I’d love to hear it.
Big Black Kokanee also mean big streamers. We got ’em and if Bull Trout are your jam stop in for our custom tied Black Articulated Streamer or the Red/Black Dolly Llama that we sell for these short, but special weeks we have Red Kokanee in the river. Now is that special time.

The Lower Deschutes report is similar to last week in that the trout action is good at some moments, and the overall rating on the fishing is fair to good at this time. The warm days continue to pump out what we refer to as the “summer caddis” which are Tan #16 caddis. Holy smokes there were days last week that these caddis blew our minds. We even had some good customers in today that fished the Deschutes earlier this week and they were talking about the epic caddis hatch.
Chester was down on the Mecca stretch and caught some fish sipping #20 Micro Caddis too.
Don’t give up on the caddis, but start planing to see more BWO’s and Mahogany Duns as we enter October down there. October Caddis, especially the pupa are important for quite a few weeks to come, and PMD’s ought to be making weak appearances for a little while longer so don’t forget the Yellow Sparkle Duns.
Nymphing is the biggest part of the game now. This Peacock Girdle Bug on the Jig Hook with a Tungsten Bead is such a perfect Deschutes fly. It is our Modern Cheeseburger! If you have been following us for 20 years, you know the Cheeseburger Legend. If not, ask me about it sometime.
Caddis Pupa, Perdigons, Eggs, Psycho Prince, Micro May’s, Rainbow Warriors and Red Worms.
Steelhead are now spread throughout the lower river from the Columbia to Warm Springs. They are taking a swung fly well, still on floating lines at this time. Sink Tips will be more useful when it finally gets cold. We know that is coming so we just stocked up on the Airflo T tips coming in early next week.

The McKenzie River is fishing really well on the guide boats and is a definite top spot for us still. All of the guides (Troy-ski, Michael, Tonn and Steve) have had great days on the river over the last couple of weeks.
Chubbies and Stimulators for dries, Perdigons, Possie Buggers, King Prince, Caddis Pupa and Soft Hackle PT’s seem to be our best patterns.

The fishing at the Fall River is much better than average, and we’ve had good guide days from the Headwaters to the Camp Ground, and near the Hatchery. I also like the Tubes/Falls area and access there provides a lot of cool water with some favorite spots to fish.
BWO hatches are taking off for fall, so make sure to have KD Duns, Knock Down Duns, Sparkle Duns, Purple Comparaduns and Film Critics for these Baetis in a #18-20.
Fish these with 6x and 7x tippets. It makes a difference…. the smaller you go, the more fish will eat your fly.
There are also PMD’s in a #16 mixed in, and Amber Caddis #14-16, Midges #22 and a lot of opportunities for Beetles, Ants and Hoppers with the warm weather.
Streamer fishing is great! Nymphing is also highly productive and we prefer to Euro Nymph the Fall River. I heard a tip from someone I trust that have been having good luck with a Red Chubby and running a nymph 2 to 3 feet off the bend of the hook for their dry/dropper rig. They said about a quarter of the fish crush the dry. Hmmmmmm. I like this. I won’t be there until October 8th, but I will try it then.

The Crooked River is outstanding fishing on nymphs and dries. The afternoon mayfly hatch is a mix of #16 PMD’s and #18-20 BWO’s. Noon to 4 is the best bet for timing the best hatches of the day.
Nymphing is red hot, either the Euro method or try a NZ Wool Indicator or the (newish) tiny Oros indicator with a single nymph for great strike detection. Micro Mayflies to imitate PMD’s are brown #16, and either Olive or Black #18-20 to show the fish a BWO nymph imitation. Micro May’s are an old Northern Cal fly, invented by Mike Mercer and have proven themselves in every river mayflies and trout coexist. If you don’t have these little tungsten nuggets in your nymph arsenal, you need to add them.
Do you tie flies? I love to tie a little simple mayfly nymph pattern that have proven itself on the Crooked a lot. Here is is: #16-18 Short Shank or 1XL Nymph Hook. 2.8 or 3.2mm Gunmetal Tungsten Bead. Coq de Leon tail. UV Ice Dub Brown (in the package it appears purple to our eyes). Rib body with Silver Fine Wire and build up the thorax just a touch with the same Dubbing as the body. I usually tie it with black 6/0 thread, but have been playing with Red 6/0 as it adds a subtle Hot Spot. I learned about the Red Hot Spot from a Garret Lesko podcast and I like the hot spot being a little less “hot” than fluorescent orange on some of my flies. Try this fly. It works on all the rivers, but is one I go to on the Crooked more and more.

The Upper Deschutes closes at Sunset on Sept 30th. So if you’re headed to the Headwaters (which is fishing well), or any section above Benham Falls, do it by Monday or wait until May 22nd, 2025.

The Lakes Report:

Hosmer Lake is still doing really well overall. I had a guide day there on Wednesday which was the day the strong cold front passed. We arrived to pretty skies and a warming morning sun and pretty good fishing for a short while. But the weather changed quick, and the bite did as well.
Last week, with Sean we were hammering fish using the new Fulling Mill Indicator and the Olive/Red Chironomid I wrote about before. This week, it started out the same, with about 6 fish coming quick on that same set up, but for us it turned off like a switch as soon as we heard the wind coming up through the trees.
On the same day, our guide Tonn had a little better luck at continuing to find fish on a Chubby with a the Red Holographic Jig and a Red 2 Bit Hooker as a dropper 3 or 4 feet off the big dry.
There was a guy there in a Jon Boat that absolutely had the fish’s number on speed dial. We watched him net a lot of fish and noticed he was stripping flies. Upon closer inspection he was not only stripping his flies, he was ripping them quickly through the water. He passed us in the channel and I asked what he was using and he said an Olive Streamer. Because he wasn’t really willing to spill the beans I am not sure which olive streamer specifically, nor do I know the size or weight of the fly he had, but I am intrigued by this. I hate getting beat, but getting beat gives us opportunity to learn and expand what we know and what we can take to the water on a future trip. Anyway, this guy was good and I am still a little jealous with how much better he did that we did that day. I salute you Olive Streamer Guy.
We saw Zero Callibaetis on Hosmer Wednesday…..But read my Little Lava report and it makes me think it is not over quite yet.
BTW, one of the fish Mike caught I did a throat pump on, and the trout was loaded with tiny scuds. Loaded! We caught fish on a Tan Ice Cream Cone #20, Olive/Red Chironomid, Red Holographic & Callibaetis Cate.
Like I said, the weather was an issue and man did the front hit us with heavy and cold rain showers and a lot of wind and big drop in temps. The bite was not kind to us the longer this went on.

The next day I brought Mike to Little Lava Lake and we started out in a cold fog. This is a good time to remind angling friends to be careful driving to the lakes in the morning. I wasn’t surprised to see icy roads, but was shocked when an F150 with a pontoon boat in the bed passed me in those conditions. Maybe they didn’t recognizer the ice from Mt Bachelor to Devils Lake, but that rain the day before and the overnight clearing and heavy frost made that mostly black ice. Slow the F**K down in the morning and recognize the conditions. Anyway, sliding off the road and wrecking your truck and boat, and probably yourself is just going to screw up a lot of fishing and now that this rant is over let’t talk about how good the fishing was at Little Lava once the sun poked out. Just like fishing, Luck runs its course.
As for the fishing, once we safely arrived driving slow it was really good. Different than the last time I was there which was just over 3 weeks ago when we were still in full summer mode. How was it different? We did not find many fish along the shoreline looking for terrestrials. What we did find was out in 5 to 10 feet of water, with a mix of marl and weed beds were a plethora of hungry trout.
Indicator fishing a Silver Lighting Bug and 4 different Callibaetis Nymphs was really really good.
I throat pumped a couple of fish, and early in the day they were only eating a tiny (probably size 24) Olive chironomid pupa, but later it was evident that callibaetis nymphs were moving more prior to the hatch. Just after lunch that callibaetis mayfly hatch was excellent, but we never found an emerger or dun the fish would eat for us, even though they were most certainly eating in the film or even on the surface. So we adapted to that and set up the Fulling Mill Bung and two 2.3 mm bead callibaetis jigs, one at 2 feet under the indicator and the other at 4 feet down. The fish may have slighted us, okay, outsmarted us at the surface, but we kicked their tails on that bung rig for another 45 minutes or so.

Paulina Lake is really getting good for fall. Browns are starting to school up in preparation to spawn, and rainbows are enjoying the cooler water temps on the ledges and edges and are looking to some afternoon hatches of callibaetis, biblio’s, ants, beetles and even hoppers and chubbies.
Balanced Leech, Red or Tan 2 Bit (sometimes I fish a red on the bottom point position and a tan on the dropper tag under an indicator and I call the set up the 50 cent piece), black double down, balanced minnows, scuds and chironomids. Docks are coming out by mid October I hear. Grrrrrrrrr. Should be in to October 31st to coincide with fishing season, not to make it part of the USFS schedule of convenience.

East Lake is not at the top of my list right now. Kind of green murky the last time I was there and we need a cold snap to get the last weeks of the season to be good up there. With the warm days ahead for another few days here, I would look for callibaetis from EL CG to the White Slide and would also fish some scud and terrestrials on the bank access stuff. EL Report removed the private docks yesterday, so for me this makes EL a Drift Boat only launch.

Crane Prairie is fishing great in all areas of the lake. Purple Chubby (as an indicator for shallow zones), Red Hippie Stomper (as a damn good dry fly), Balanced Leech’s, Chironomids, 2 Bit Hookers, Water Boatman and Damsel Nymphs. Have you tried a Blonde Leech here? It is a pattern I have been playing with good success some days. Fish are in great shape and October is a prime month to hit CP. Docks are also scheduled to be removed in Mid October is the word I got. Did I say Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!?

You know who leaves docks in until the end of the season? The Umpqua National Forest does at Diamond Lake. Boom. Good for them. And good for tourism and showing that fishing and anglers dollars to communities matter. Because they do.
Diamond Lake is fishing great too. Leeches and chironomids I hear. I gotta go.

Three Creek Lake is for the most part okay. It is no longer summer at 6500 feet and the hatches of everything have slowed way down. Leeches and Scuds, Blobs, Boatman and Damsel Nymphs are patterns we think to go to in Fall. I would add Callibaetis nymphs and Ants.
My friend Phil came to the shop late this afternoon on his way up there and I suggested the RP Ant for him. I texted him a moment ago and asked how it was and he got one on the 3rd cast with the RP. Cool. I’d fish 10 am to 4 PM for the best bite of the day. Let it warm up a little and get the fish moving.

Heavy on my mind is the passing a really talented young fishing guide named Michael Shufeldt who was involved in an accident while guiding the Columbia Wednesday. Luckily all 6 of his guests survived. Michael, like so many young anglers would visit the shop. Micheal was one I could tell was addicted and was going to be someone who made a career out of fishing. I loved that he came to Sisters every spring break and would visit the shop with his mom. Seriously, this melts my heart thinking back on those days. I know Micheal found the love of his life and not only started a great guiding business but got married and was happy. I had not been in contact with him for a long time, but knew he was successfully guiding full time and was a total pro respected by the other guides.
It makes me think of all the young men who have started their fishing careers at my store. Alex, Taylor, Christian, Ross, Robert, Jared, Drew, Kincaid, Gavin, Mattias and maybe some I am not remembering tonight but truly hope I didn’t forget anyone, because all of these kids are special, and they are all unique and special in who they grew up to be, or how they continue to grow up and do great things on and off the water.
I love to see young men like Micheal grow into this job and thrive. I am sorry to know his passing leaves so many shocked and saddened by the sudden loss. I hate accidents that leave us with sudden loss.
For me, this one is a little different, as I had lost touch with Micheal and other than his visits to the shop I didn’t know him well. But I grieve because guides are like brothers. We are in this together. It ain’t easy and we need each other for support. More than anything, I grieve knowing his mom and wife, family and friends are missing someone who was truly special to them.
Here’s to Micheal. Rest in Peace and look after us other fishing guides from up there if you can.

JP
9/27/24