I returned home last night to the Redmond Airport just before sunset, after leaving the Patagonia Baker Lodge just after sunrise on Saturday. It is a long journey, but to me it is so worthwhile. I find my soul in Patagonia and this trip to Chile was second to none for the new lodge, its staff (including the dog Picasso), the food and did I mention how good the fishing is on the Baker River? Holy moly that place surprised me a little on how productive it is. Plus some neat lakes in the area too.
Besides the fly fishing, I enjoyed some birding and a visit to the new National Park donated to Chile by Doug and Kris Tompkins. What a place!
I plan to go back next season, so let me know if you want to join the group.
Our group this year was great, 2 couples from Portland (David and Pam and Carter and Jenny, and John Z formerly from Sisters but back in the Bay Area for work again). We had a blast together with good conversations and wonderful fishing experiences to share each day.
I can tell you the Caddis hatch is good in the afternoon and especially in the evening on the Baker River, and that a lot of big trout are in the eddies looking for them when the hatch is on. Otherwise, how does a #4 foam beetle work for you cast along the shoreline? Oh my god is that a blast!

Closer to home, I spent the day getting reports from Staff, Friends and Customers so I could accurately account for what is happening on the local waters. Despite some cold days here (on & off), it sounded like the last 12 days I was gone were good on the Metolius, Crooked and Fall.

On the Metolius River I got reports from 2 Phil’s. Phil #1 fishes the river as much as anyone I know (he’s retired but going to be working part time at FFP this season) and had a lot of success on Tan Caddis Pupa, Bead Head PT and BWO Emergers after lunch. Phil #2 has a real job (more than one really) and loves to fish the Metolius on his days off. He went on one of the really cold days a few days back and had this to report: Braved the cold and got out on the Met.  Took a new friend and he hooked a big bull trout the first 5 minutes we started fishing despite it being 9deg!  There was quite a bit of action that day.  I got another one late in the afternoon and managed to get it into the net when it popped off!  Took a sz14 pink butt blowtorch style fly I tie.  Saw another guy land a smaller bull and he said the guys there before him caught two.  
And thanks to Matt for this: My son and I spent the long weekend on the Met, focusing mostly from Allingham down to canyon.  Mostly nymphing but some dry fly action for a 1 hr window in afternoon, PMDs and BWOs.  Caught a lot a large whitefish on eggs and golden stone nymphs.  My son caught a really nice 16” redside, I caught a couple browns (#18 rainbow warrior trailing off golden stone nymph).  Cold fishing but a lot of fun.
So as you can see the diversity of the fishing is strong from Dries and Emergers, to Nymphs fished Euro or Indicator Style and Streamers for Bull Trout. That’s pretty typical but also pretty cool. I love February as a month to fish the Metolius too, it seems the biological activity, meaning growth and movement of the insects is ramping up for spring that is just a short month away.

I saw a lot of friends were out on the Crooked River since the water dropped to a lovely 140 CFS and the fishing is good. It seems like most anglers are getting in the 10 to 20 fish an outing right now, and most of the action has been on small nymphs like Perdigons (a Purple one is a great choice, plus the Fire Starter is a shop favorite), 2 Bit hookers, Micro Mayfly, Zebra Midges and small Eggs.
Keep an eye out for a good Midge hatch around 3 PM and have emergers and dries and either 6x or 7x tippet to get the best drift with such a small fly.
At the shop today I heard Aaron was talking to a customer about a trip he recently had on the Crooked and doing well on black leeches too. Fished Euro Style for him of course.
***Just as I was about to hit the Publish button, my good friend Chester called me as he was driving home from the Crooked. He said the afternoon midge hatch was epic today. Tons of midges hatching and the fish were feeding heavily on dries from 2 to 3 ish when he left. They were still going strong but he said it got cold and he was done for the day regardless of fish rising or not.

And finally on the Fall River the fishing reports were also mostly positive with a few slow days here and there, but no one was getting skunked, just occasionally getting a low fish count for the day. And that is OK. It can’t always be about the number, it has to be about the experience.
The usual suspects of micro streamers, eggs, perdigons, 2 bits and Micro Mayflies but here is a story I love from the weekend. Our friend Megan is just leaving the shop after fishing today on the Met with Sequoia. I saw Megan was out with her husband on the Fall from an instagram post on Saturday and I asked here what she was using. One of the flies was a little silver streamer we sell from Fulling Mill, but the other is inspired from a popular Rio pattern we all love called the Baby Got Bead. Only Megan did hers with hair from her cat. HAHAHA. I love story’s like that and the personal touch fly tying brings to the sport.

We’ve been in quite the dry spell with a High Pressure Ridge over the Pacific NW for too long. That looks to be breaking down later this week and snow is coming back to the mountains and probably even to Bend and Sisters and at least the 2 spring creeks but maybe not the Crooked. I love it, we need the snow and Winter weather needs to make a better appearance before we get to spring.

Let me know if you’re interested in a Fly Tying Class. I am interested in teaching on a Saturday or Sunday in February where I want to tie 10 flies I found highly effective on the lakes last season.
I could also get Mattias to do a class on Bull Trout Streamers and Gavin said he wanted to teach a class on Classic Streamers and add a Framing/Shadow Box element to the class to it if there is interest. Let me know….

Phil Rowley Classes are essentially at capacity. I’ve got very little wiggle room there, but do reach out if you want to be on a waiting list.

Guide Trip Bookings for the 2025 season are coming in great! The trips to get booked early are Deschutes Multi-Day as we already have several weeks booked.
Here are dates you might want to choose from that are left:
May 13-14-15, May 20-21-22, May 27-28-29
June 3-4-5
July 22-23-24, July 29-30-31

It’s good to be home but I also wish I was still in Chile fishing in summer weather and enjoying the view of the rugged Andes.

Be well!
Jeff