I’ll start by saying thank you for all the comments and well wishes after last weeks report. I made it through covid fine, with a few days worse than the rest and I feel fine now but have a lingering cough that is annoying. I was able to get back to the shop the last 2 days and sat with my face in excel spreadsheets ordering all of our flies for 2025.
I am always on the lookout for new flies that attract me. Believe me when I tell you I see a lot of new flies that don’t. Some are simply not meant for the hatches in our region, and others are but just don’t have a special something that says “this is the one”. Some of those “this is the one” flies have become your favorite flies over the years. I love flies, and new ones that get my imagination rolling about a fish in a sparkling run on the local spring creek sipping one of them is always top of my day dreams.
Yesterday I was looking at Howard Croston flies that are tied to balance his Drop Back Bung indicators, and while many of the patterns were more UK Reservoir based, there were some I ordered that I know will slay on the local lakes including some damsel nymphs, callibaetis nymphs and chironomids. All of this to enhance or playfulness on the water. A little advantage here, a little advantage there. The anticipation of having something more dialed in is really fun for me, and I love to share that with you.
Speaking of Drop Back Bungs, my friend and our FFP casting instructor Doug was in yesterday and we were talking about doing a fly tying class that tied a series of flies that matched the Indicators. Let me know if you are interested. It would start in January.

I had a good response too about my brown trout opinions, and I am going to start our Metolius River report by promising a story at the end about Atlantic Salmon in the Metolius and what a wild thing that was. Stay tuned.
Right now the Metolius is excellent fishing. Chester wrote me Thursday after a great dry fly session on the upper river where he fished 4 mayfly hatches and some caddis and put some nice fish in the net, all on dries. And some nice browns too. I know you can easily guess 2 of the 4 mayflies you’ll see this week. PMD’s #16 and Blue Wing Olives #18-20, but the other 2 seem to be overlooked, and they are important. Mahogany Duns #16 are a fall hatch on all the Central Oregon rivers, and on the Metolius I sure love seeing a trout tip his nose up on a Quill Gordon or Upright Rusty Spinner (don’t let that fly name throw you off, yes it is a rusty “spinner” that has not become spent, but it is also a great fly to fish when paraleptophlebia (sp.) aka Mahogany Duns are on the menu. A Purple or Grey Comparadun is also an excellent fly during this cycle. Mahogany Duns are from the crawler nymph family which puts them in the same family as PMD and Green Drakes and Flav’s. The other fly is one we talk about in the spring and again in the fall is a cinygmula (sp.) which in the Metolius are a yellow, 2 tailed #14-16 mayfly that often show strong hatch cycles in October and early to Mid-November, and then trickle in to early December before petering out until Spring Break time. These mayflies are clinger nymphs and are related to March Browns and Pale Evening Duns. They are yellow bodies with 2 tails and that tail identification is one of the ways we as anglers can tell the difference between these and a PMD stream side. PMD’s have 3 tails, cinygmula have 2. The good news for you is a #16 Yellow Mayfly matches both and you don’t need to count tails, just observe (or guess) that is what the fish is eating and tie it on your 12′ Trout Hunter Finesse Leader with 2 more feet of 6x tippet and get after it.
Plenty of caddis out and about and the fishing with Pupa almost any time of the day has been good to very good. Tan #14-16 pupa and Orange #8-12 are the best, but add some #16 olive in there.
My “Chief of Security” Eric was visiting with me yesterday and was raving about a Corn Fed Caddis and how much the fish wanted to eat that during a good caddis hatch a few days ago. X Caddis, CDC Caddis, Edible Emergers and Missing Link Caddis are a few others that come to mind for October days on the Met.
Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs.
Golden Stonefly Nymphs, Perdigons, Frenchies, Walts Worms, Soft Hackle PT, 2 Bit’s, Zebra Midges need to be in the daily selection from now until you’re too old to fish anymore. WINK! Seriously, these are staple Metolius nymphs and fish these well and you’re going to have good days out there.
Bull Trout fishing is quite good on big streamers and also on smaller Jig Streamers. A lot of good fish being caught now and with cooler, gray days the bite extends to being more realistic to target Bulls mid-day instead at low light periods. We’ve got some really great streamers including some custom tied long articulated stuff the fish like to eat.

The Lower Deschutes has been a lot of fun for our guides and friends this last week on the Warm Springs to Trout Creek drift. There is no doubt about the steelhead being up there.
The water levels bumped quite a bit from the low 3000 (cfs) to the mid 4000 (cfs) and looks to be at 4400 cfs today and I am going to guess will stabilize there for our average winter flow. That is usually around the flow from the end of irrigation season until we get a flow increase due to rain or snow melt.
With that, I do think we are quickly moving away from floating line steelhead to sink tip steelhead, and nymphing steelhead. By all means, a floating line and a favorite swinging fly like a Muddler, Euphoria or Green Butt Skunk will still be good. I can remember a story from Brian O’Keefe years ago in late fall and he was swinging an Orange Polar Shrimp on a 24′ Sink Tip and had an epic catch day on the D with that. I would have never tied a Polar Shrimp on for a Deschutes day in the 1st place, but it is hard to argue with an O’Keefe experience. I’d be confident in leeches and intruders in the similar set up.
There seems to be very little in the way of Dry Fly action on the Deschutes now, so it is a nymphing game with eggs, stonefly nymphs, caddis pupa (green #16, tan #14-16, grey #18, orange #8-10), and of course a good selection of Perdigons with bead sizes and colors to fish best in higher flows and changing light conditions. Micro Streamers like Mini Gulps, Soccer Moms and Sir Sticks a Lot are doing well and is another option to find fish. A brown mini gulp sure looks like a small crawdad or a sculpin!

The Crooked River is stabilized at 106 cfs and the fishing is super good with a nice hatch of mayflies in the afternoon. Nice to see the PMD hatch holding on and mixing in with increasing numbers of BWO’s. I am a big fan of that Furminsky’s BDE Dun, Purple Comparaduns and the Knock Down Dun, and a #18 Extended Body Cut Wing PMD is a wonderful dry fly to match when the masking hatch is occurring.
Nymph action is the best, and PT’s, Zebra Midges, Olive or Black 2 Bit Hookers, Skinny Nelson, Amber Psycho Prince and small Perdigons.
There is a good reason in low water with the lanes in the weed beds to use an indicator and a single fly. Euro nymph in the runs where is deepens up and has some lengths to cover, and be more precise around the weed lanes where a lot of the fish are hanging out for cover and food.

The Fall River continues to be a super good spot for all of us, and from the Head Waters to the Camp Ground to the Horseshoe to the Hatchery and the Tubes to the Falls is good. Remember below the falls is closed until next May.
Hatches are fun in the afternoon with BWO’s dominating what you’ll see. But, PMD’s and Mahogany Duns are 2 you ought to run into this week, and Amber Caddis #16, Midges #22 and don’t give up on an Ant, Beetle or Hippie Stomper quite yet.
Micro Streamers are excellent and will be fished dead drifted as a nymph or swung, or stripped depending on the water and how the fish want to see it. Usually dead drift with some twitch action is sufficient to get the eat. Euro Nymphing is super effective, and certainly add a Mop and an Egg to the nymph section with other hatch matching colors and sizes of nymphs like 2 Bits in Tan #16, Olive #18, Black #18, Zebra Midges in Red or Black #18-22

The Upper Deschutes from Benham Falls up to Little Lava Lake is all closed unti 5/22/25
The Middle D has some options with Euro Nymphs and Streamers but watch the higher water now for wading safely.

LAKES REPORT

The 3 that are top of my list are Paulina, East and Three Creek Lake.
Wade fishing Three Creek and East is a great bet in the late fall like this and can offer great afternoon fishing, easy and quick access without a boat, and get off the water and not struggle with the wind. Brook Trout come in close to the shore where the creeks come into Three Creek Lake and love a bright streamer like a Micky Finn or a Hot Headed Damsel. Floating line is 95% sufficient, but if you have a hover bring that too.
I’d also use scuds and a Red Hippie Stomper.
Wade fishing at East Lake from EL Camp Ground to the White Slide is also a perfect option for this time of year. I even know a few guys who have taken the Pyramid Lake approach and brought a small step ladder up there.
Diamond Lake Special, Olive Sir Sticks a Lot and Olive Mini Gulp on a Hover or Intermediate from shore is great, also a Balanced Leech with a Scud dropper or a Red Holographic Jig dropper is a good bet under the indicator.
I would also feel a lot of confidence with a Beetle and Chubby and Hippie Stomper as dry flies for the rest of the month at East and Paulina.
Paulina Lake doesn’t have great bank access (it has some) so I am more inclined to launch my drift boat and fish the flats and the edges there for the rest of the month. Balanced Leeches and Minnows, Red Aero Leg, Flag Ant, Jiggy Beetle, Purple Chubby (sometimes Red is great too), Lighting Bug, Rainbow Warrior, Red Holo Jig, Olive Zebra, Scuds are patterns I will start with a plan and implement throughout the day for the rest of the season.

Hosmer Lake is slowing down but will be fairly good for the rest of the season access is open. This week should be warm enough to enjoy some days up there. A Chubby with a Damsel nymph dropper or Red Holo Jig is good, also a Tan Ice Cream Cone #20 matches a lot of the late season chironomids. Scuds and Water Boatman (including dry fly boatman) will be good there this week.

Crane Prairie seems to be slowing down but fish are being found. Our customer Lance said he was wind drifting with an indicator and a balanced leech and giving it a strip/twitch once in a while and got several fish on that method. Seemed the movement was way better for him than static.
Scuds, Waterboatman, Leeches, Chironomids, Red Holo Jig are all patterns to fish this week for sure.

I do not have reports from North or South Twin, or Little Lava or Lava Lakes. Curious to know access at Lava?
All of the smaller lakes ought to be good fishing the rest of the month especially for all our friends and customers with a tube or pontoon boat. Fish the edges with balanced leeches and work over the weed beds with smaller, more natural nymphs like balanced damsels, red holo jig, spicy squirrel and scuds.

Here is a blast from the past story that kind of ties in to the Brown Trout story from the last blog, although with a much different long term outcome.
As some of you know I started working at a little fly shop in Bend in 1986 called the Fly Box and learned so much about fly fishing and the fly fishing business in those early days. Back then ODFW raised the Atlantic Salmon destined to be stocked at Hosmer Lake at the Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery on the Metolius. For a while, a surplus of Atlantic Salmon created some opportunities to stock them at East Lake (that was fun) and even some went to Lost Lake on the Santiam Pass near Hoodoo.
One February (I will guess 1989 because I went to explore this event with my boss Alan Stewart after he bought the store from the Helm’s, and our customer Bob from Sunriver) we got word that Atlantics had been put in the Metolius and needed to check it out. On a warm, sunny winter day Alan I loaded up in his old green Ford Bronco and drove to meet Bob at the hatchery. We actually passed Bob getting a speeding ticket from OSP in Tumalo hahaha. Bob deserved it, he drove too damn fast all the time. Anyway, we strung up our dry fly fly rods (mine was a Sage 390 RP 2 piece with a Hardy LRH reel) and tied on Olive Comparaduns. We hiked from the parking lot to the Dolly Hole and found fish already rising to the hatch. All of us ended up catching a bunch of 14 to 16 inch Atlantic Salmon that day. For just a few more days reports came in of other anglers catching these weird salmon. Those fish had no idea how to survive a place like the Metolius, and the otters, bull trout and birds of prey cleaned them out in no time.
It was a weird time to be on the river back then, with a lot of stocked rainbows that ate old flies like stovepipes and muddlers and flies tied to look like popcorn or cheetos.
I like the Metolius way better now but I am curious if any of you remember this salmon story or parts of it?

Lastly, have you bought your tickets to the Last 100 Miles Movie Wednesday at the Sisters Movie House? It is going to be a great film about one of our most important rivers. We hope to see you there!

JP
On the mend
10/19/24