Where does the time go? Even though it seems like May 1st was a few days ago, tomorrow is the 1st of June, the beginning of Meteorological Summer and the beginning of what I consider to be one of the best times of the year to fish our local waters.
There are som many places open and fishing well now and I promise to take you on a trip around Central Oregon explore the places we are fishing and places where our friends and customers are having successes too.
This platform is about sharing and communication and it is fun to be here with all of you who tune in!

It would be a rare report that I didn’t start on our home river, the Metolius. So here we are again, with Lupine blooming, summer hatches in full swing and the river in perfect condition.
It is the heart of Green Drake season, with a good 3 to 3 1/2 weeks left of the big mayflies still to come. Drakes are equally spread out from Canyon Creek to Candle Creek (for our fishing access points perspective, but we realize some of you bushwhack further and good on ya!)
Drake nymphs have been very good from about 11 AM to 3 PM. The Tungsten 20 incher nymph is one we are stocked up on as it is a fabulous match for the Drunella Grandis Nymphs in the drift pre hatch.
Hatch times have been mostly around 4 PM, but could be as early as 2 and as late as 6 PM. Stick with it, and certainly prospect your emergers and duns even if you are not seeing a big hatch. Believe me, the fish want to eat these big mayflies every afternoon even if the hatch is not as strong as it was yesterday. See, you should have been here yesterday. HAHAHA.
PMD hatches are in full swing and will be great for the whole month of June. Fish the cycle of the hatch with nymphs, emergers, cripples, duns and rusty spinners, which come back to the river for the egg laying flight at dusk. The hatch itself will usually see 2 emergences per day now, usually one mid afternoon that happens an hour or so before the Drakes, and look for more to hatch after dinner for a brief time too.
There are still a few BWO’s hatching to be important on a daily basis, especially in the early evening now.
Summer Caddis activity is heating up and fish want to eat the emergers and adults during the hatch times that usually occur after dinner. Fishing Tan or Olive Caddis Pupa as a nymph throughout the day will be a smart choice on any day you choose to fish one. Fat Ass Caddis, and my new Improved FAC with the Pink Bead are the best 2 to tie on, but a Sparkle Pupa and Prairie Dog Pupa are damn fine flies too, and if you are a follower of Gary Lafontaine you know why these are effective with the appearance of a gas bubble that occurs naturally in the real pupa!
I would guess that in the next 7 to 10 days the upper river will begin seeing the 1st Golden Stones of the year, so you know the nymphs are crawling towards the banks already. You have the queue now, fish Golden Stone Nymphs from Riverside CG to Gorge CG because of their increasing activity pre-hatch.
Right now we are seeing a ton of little stoneflies, both Yellow Sallies and Little Olive Stones. We are seeing so many more of these smaller stones hatching that we recently expanded our fly selection to accommodate the importance of both.
We’ve already talked about drake nymphs, pmd nymphs, caddis pupa, and stonefly nymphs, so you are tuned in on the nymph game, but for those of you walking the river with your Euro Nymphs you are going to do really well. Perdigons in a variety of colors, especially Olive or Brown, but Yellow and Orange and even Pink will be good. Think about your bead size for gaining depth and drift when considering which nymph you choose in which water. Frenchies and Walts Worms and Duracells are 3 others to use. The Duracell is offered in Purple and also in Orange, and both are worth fishing on any day of the year on the Met.
You’d change your tactics a lot, but you could literally start at Sunrise (5:25 AM) to Sunset (8:43 PM) and have good potential at any given time right now. This is a special period on the river, I think only eclipsed in September for the quality of the fishing, so get it done and enjoy it.

The Lower Deschutes is our next stop, and with Salmonflies and Goldenstones still on the menu our guide team and lots of our friends have been having a great time with large dry flies. I am pretty confident we will have good feeding action on the big stones the whole week ahead and then it is likely to die out until 2026. What comes next is my favorite anyway, less people, smaller bugs but just classic summer fishing on the Lower D with Caddis, Pale Evening Duns and PMD’s.
Yellow Sally’s are not to be missed or forgotten now either.
FFP guides are doing great with Euro Nymphs and Caddis Pupa, Frenchies, Zebra Midges and Walts Worms. This past week we saw an explosion of Black Micro Caddis around the Weed Beds. A tiny Soft Hackle is a good fly to fish dry or wet when those are in emergence.

The Middle Deschutes seems to have past Salmonfly season, but certainly is in the height of dry fly season with multiple hatches throughout the day and evening with PMD’s and PED’s and BWO’s and Caddis. I love a Purple Haze, Renegades, small Olive Stimulators, Light Cahill’s and Float & Fool’s.
Soft Hackles and Perdigons and Caddis Pupa are the nymphs to focus on, and little Euro Streamers like a Brown Mini Gulp (Crayfish) will be smart options to tie on.

The Upper Deschutes is fishing well from Wickiup to Crane, mostly on heavy nymphs and streamers! Some fine sized browns have been caught through there.
The Headwater section from Crane to Little Lave is even better, with good hatches of PMD’s, Caddis, Green Drakes and dry fly opportunities on Ants and Beetles and attractors.
The best fish have been coming on streamers with a courageous approach to the logs! You will lose flies, but I think you will also hook big trout.
Nymphing the deeper holes with Euro Nymphs is awesome.

The Crooked River is great, I am so happy to see this after the lengthy run-off we had this year.
The Mothers Day Caddis hatch madness is over, but there are a number of good summer caddis hatches to enjoy, along with BWO’s, PMD’s and Midges. The Crooked is the type of river a Renegade or a Purple Haze is going to draw fish to the surface.
Of course the Crooked River is a nymphing playground, and we’ve been having great success with Perdigons, Rainbow Warrior, Scuds, Zebra Midge, Micro May’s, 2 Bit Hookers, Psycho Prince and Soft Hackles. Indicator, Euro or Drop Shot will be good. Pick your poison (elige tu veneno) mi amigo o amigas!

The Fall River is on the circuit this week and every week, and ODFW has of course been dropping fresh rainbows in at the hatchery and campground, so holdovers, wild fish and fresh hatchery stockers are all available.
The last 2 weeks we have seem some Green Drakes in the afternoon and I expect to see them on and off for another few weeks. They are not as big as the biggest Metolius Drakes, usually running a #10-12 on the Fall this time of year.
PMD’s are the main Summer hatch to match now.
Yellow Sally’s, Midges, BWO’s and Olive Caddis #16, and add Ants and Beetles to the list for a complete dry fly selection.
Eggs, Rainbow Warrior, Zebra Midges, 2 Bit Hookers, Tung Micro May’s and heavy Perdi’s for nymphs, plus Euro Streamers and Sculpins for the carne lovers.

The guides on the McKenzie are picking up a lot of fish on Possie Buggers, Caddis Pupa, Jig Stones, Bigger Red Copper Johns, Jig Napolean’s and Micro Streamers. On the Dry Fly side, Drakes, Light Cahills, #10-14 Elk Hair Caddis, Parachute Adams and Chubbies.
Fishing is solid.

LAKES

Hosmer Lake is fabulous. Fish in both ends of the lake and in the channels too. Callibaetis are just getting off to the 2025 start and the best is coming over the next 4 or 5 weeks, with a 2nd brood returning in August.
Damsel Nymphs, Soft Hackles, Scud, Alderflies (use a Black Elk Hair Caddis in #14) and Chironomids (especially Red Ice Cream Cones #16 and Red Holo Jig). Balanced Leeches are often really effective in the lower lake and add Blobs there too. You can strip or indicator fish with either and perhaps run them as a combination rig.
I think it is entirely possible to see flying ant there this week with the warm days coming.

Little Lava is off to a good start, with balanced leeches, red ice cream , Holo Jig, Spicy Squirrel, and Callibaetis Cate Jigs. Hippie Stompers and Jiggy Beetles are picking up fish on the edges.
Lava Lake is also fishing well and the western edge from the resort to the rocks on the north end seem to be holding a lot of fish. Same flies as Little, and I hope to hear the Callibaetis are hatching soon.

I had some very good reports from Crane Prairie the last few days, especially in the Cultus Channel. Balanced Leeches.
Certainly the Chironomid action is consistent at CP, and Damsels are knocking on the door for the summer emergence.

East Lake has been good, with some varied conditions to consider. We are seeing some pretty skinny fish, so winter wasn’t as easy for EL fish as it was for Paulina fish. More on that in a moment.
Scuds and Callibaetis nymphs are likely your best bets in the shallow zones.
Add Chironomids once you get out to 7 to 14 feet of depth. Black/Red, Red, Olive all #12-18 plus hanging with my Chromies or the original Chromie with the more silver body and peacock thorax. Red PT and Callibaetis Cate for the indicator fishing is great. Ants, Beetles and Hippie Stompers (red) are good dries during the day, and Purple Haze in the evening. I would hope to see the 1st Callibaetis hatches of the season by this time next week….

Paulina Lake is off to a wonderful start! This week we even started to get fish on dries, using Beetles, Ants and Flying Ants. The trout are fat and healthy and wintered over super well.
By far for my boat this week the best fly was a Jigged Red PT in a #16 or 18.
We also did well on Jigged Callibaetis Cate and Red Ice Cream Cone both on a #16 hook.
Double Down Black, Balanced Leeches, Scuds, Jig Minnow, and Ants and Beetles will cover the lake for the entire day.
I will tell you we were fishing side by side round indicators next to Croston’s Bungs, and the Bung is so much better. Takes are more easily detected and you will put more fish in the net. The disadvantage to the Bung is wind, they are hard to see in waves and even blow over. And you MUST use two 3mm beads to balance the large size Bung, and two 2.5 mm beads on the Medium Bung. So you need to know your bead sizes to set them up to balance correctly.

I have heard good reports from North Twin Lake this week. Callibaetis hatches were on top and fish were rising. Leeches and Chironomids and also damsels on the reed lines.
South Twin is perfect this week for tubes and pontoons and all the same flies from North will apply to South Twin, with the added advantage of a Chocolate Milkshake at the Resort. Just sayin’.

I’ve got 2 spots left (of 8) for Argentina December 6-13 with an exciting 3 day 2 night camp trip on the Rio Caleafu, then the last 3 days in San Martin de los Andes on the Rio’s Chimehuen, Collon Curra and Alumine.
Now, I am also adding a week there in January and have chosen January 10-17 or the next week with me there. Our camp trip will likely be on the Lower Collon Curra to take advantage of the “minnow hatch”, then all the river listed above will be enjoyed on the other 4 days.
$4950 per person.
April dates for my Hosted Belize trip are about half spoken for, so now is the time to get on the list to do a week in Belize during a PRIME permit season.

I always love hearing from you, getting feedback, fishing reports, love. It’s all good my friends.

Jeff