It’s Sisters Folk Festival weekend and that is always a highlight weekend around our lovely little city. The Rodeo, Quilt Show and the Folk Festival are the big 3, but Sisters does a fantastic job with all the other events like the Harvest Festival next month, the Christmas Tree Lighting and Holiday Parade and others. We are lucky to be in such a nice little town.

This week I will go through the normal report and talk about the rivers and lakes and flies we have seen trending well out there, but I also want to talk about some things I have been learning about the Fulling Mill Drop Back Bung Indicators because they are so cool and I am finding way too many people are not understanding the way to use them and making it too complicated on themselves. I will touch on other indicators here too, as it is such an important part of our stillwater repertoire.

The Metolius River is absolutely a golden opportunity this time of year. Is every single day a home run? No, but the is the sweetest time of the year for me on the river followed by the period of early May to the end of June.
So if you haven’t been out there playing chess with smart trout, mastering hatches, perfecting your nymph drifts or swinging an articulated streamer to a big Bull Trout, what in the world are you waiting for?
Mayfly hatches continue to be a lot of fun to match, with Green Drakes #10 and Flav’s #14, PMD’s #16 and #18, BWO #18-20, Mahogany Duns #16 all in the hatch cycle on different sections of the river throughout the day. We ought to see the Flav’s for another week or so, and the Drakes for about 10 to 14 more days, the other 3 mayflies will be with us all of October too. Don’t forget the Spinner falls… Especially Rusty Spinners #16, and #14 for the Flav spinners. It’s Rare to see Drake spinners, but the Autumn hatch is the most likely time you will see them so bring a spent wing in the box in case you run into them, and expect that to be more of a morning event.
There are a ton of Caddis out, from meaty October Caddis #8-10 to Micro Caddis #20 and a bunch of Tan #16, Olive #16-18 and Grey #14 in between.
The Little Olive Stones #16-18 have subsided but they are not gone, and may become important to the fish on any afternoon or evening. And here’s the thing, you’ll use a #16 or #18 Henryville (caddis) for the imitation and that my freind is just a good fly one way or another.
Golden Stones #10 are quite a good searching fly all over the river with Golden Stones and October Caddis being matched well with a Clark’s Stone.
We’ve had super good good days on the Euro Rig! Brown or Olive Perdigons #14-18, Jig 20″ #10, Caddis Pupa #8-18, Soft Hackle Jig PT #16-18, Walts Worm #14-16 and Purple Perdigon #18, plus Golden Stone Nymphs and Eggs!
Has anyone seen any Kokanee yet? I haven’t yet…. They ought to appear any day now. Get your eggs ready.
Bull Trout fishing is good and the fish are after big streamers more than anything so bring your 7 and 8 weights to the Bull Fight and leave the little rods for the rainbows. It’s not a bad idea to have a sink tip at this time too. It depends in the fly of course, but for the most part a sink tip will likely be more productive as it slows down the drift of the swing, and puts the flies deeper for longer.

The Lower Deschutes was really good this week for the FFP Crew. We had another 3 day Camp Trip, and lots of Day Trips to enjoy.
Dry Fly Fishing was quite a bit slower from the reports I had (Chester wasn’t on the river because he went to Yellowstone and there is not a better dry fly guy than that dude).
Nymphing with Soft Hackle PT’s #14-16 and Tan or Olive Caddis Pupa #14-18 was the ticket mostly, but add October Caddis Pupa #8, PCP Nymphs #14-16, Rubber Legs #6-10 and Golden Stones #8-10 and #14 to the list for sure, and don’t forget some small Euro Jig Streamers like a Brown Mini Gulp.
Steelhead are certainly spread out over the 100 miles of the Lower Deschutes now, and there are fish up to Mecca. With the warm days and all, swinging a traditional steelhead fly like a Freight Train, Green Butt Skunk, Euphoria and Muddler on a floating line is good stuff. Soon, when the colder and more grey fall days are upon us, get out the sink tips and the leeches and also a lot of nymphs under the indicator!

The Crooked River is one of the best places to fish in Central Oregon right now. It is just really hot fishing and with good PMD #16 and BWO #18 hatches you can also expect to see good dry fly action.
Swinging a Soft Hackle has been fabulous, and nymphing a tight line/euro rig or indicator action with a NZ Wool kit is great. Micro Mayfly Nymphs and Skinny Nelsons #16-20 are the best, Perdigons #16, Fire Starter #16, Scuds #14-16, Zebra Midges and Winkers #18-22, Psycho Prince #16 Orange.
On the Dry Fly Side I love the Extended Body Cut Wing PMD’s in 16 and 18, Furminksy’s BDE #18, Knock Down Dun Olive #18, Sparkle Dun #16 Yellow and #18 Olive and Parachutes, including Purple Haze in #16-20. We will get a couple of weeks here with Mahogany Duns mixed in with the other 2 mayflies, so add a Quill Gordon #16 and an Upright Rusty Spinner #16 to match that hatch.

The Fall River is a special place this time of year, with a good afternoon hatch of mayflies, usually some midges in the morning and evening and caddis mixed in depending on the weather of the day.
These fish love a good crippled mayfly on a 6.5x or 7x tippet and it is such a fun thing to match the hatch right here and get that confident take of a fish that thinks it is just feeding on yet another helpless, bedraggled emerging dun! As I write this my mind wanders to the visual of that, and I can’t wait to get out there soon. Sean, are you ready?
The Caddis are best matched with an Edible Emerger #16 Tan, Orange or Yellow Missing Link Caddis #16, Tan X Caddis #14-16 and a Henryville #16.
Midges are abundant and require 7x tippet, patience and a good selection of emergers and adults in Black or Grey #22-24. A Red or Black Zebra Midge is a very good fly.
Perdigons, Eggs, Micro Jig Streamers. 2 Bit Hookers, Squirrel Streamers, Balanced and Jig Leeches, Jig Minnows and Olive Mini Gulps are a bunch of stapes for us.

The Middle Deschutes is about to see its 1st bump in water levels this week with the ending of some irrigation water to the farms. By mid-October it gets a bit high for my taste, so if you have it in mind, this week is the time to go until next spring.
Purple Haze is one of the best searching dries here you have in the box! PMD and BWO and Tan Caddis hatches are expected.

The McKenzie River is fishing very well, especially with small streamers. Troy had my friend Fred on the river with his son Jason and they smacked hard on little olive jig streamers.
October Caddis and some other random smaller Tan and Grey Caddis #12-16 and a few Yellow Mayflies #14 are out and about. We ought to be seeing some hatches of Fall Green Drakes too. Keep an eye open for them.
Leeches and Perdigons are great with the deadly side drift method, and swinging a Caddis Pupa and Soft Hackle is also good just about anytime on the Mckenzie.

I like Fall for the Creeks, so keep Tumalo Creek and Whychus Creek and even the Upper Mckenzie and North Santiam and Marion Creek in your thoughts as you are looking for fun places to fish and enjoy. These can be places of great solitude, and offer fun dry fly fishing in the Fall. Don’t forget your Renegades, Beetles and Ants.

Lakes Report-

I fished Paulina Lake 4 days this week and 2 of the days were quite good, and the other 2 were average. Certainly the fish were on terrestrials, looking up for Beetles and Ants mostly, but we had one day where the Pink Grasshopper was outstanding, and I think 3 of the 4 days we got at least a few fish up on the Hopper. A couple of days ago an Amber Hopper also had game.
Brown Balanced Leeches with an Orange Bead under an indicator also accounted for a number of fish on the drop off’s.

East Lake without the docks is no longer good for me to launch the big boat, so my next excursion there will be with the Drift Boat. The resort has removed the docks for the season, and FYI the USFS is closing Cinder Hill on Sunday which is the most gentle and rock free ramps into the lake. Hot Springs is the best option, and EL Campground is decent with a drift boat
Callibaetis are dwindling quickly. Tis the season at 6400 feet. Beetles and Ants will remain good for the rest of the season until it gets very cold, and even then I will tell you of days fishing Beetles on the shoreline with snow falling and having incredible days.
Balanced Leeches, Tui Chubs, Olive Zonkers are great stripped or with an indicator.
Red PT, Double Bead Black, Chironomids (here is an educated guess on what to cycle thru: #14-18 Red Ice Cream Cone, #16 Black Ice Cream Cone with a Red Rib, #16 Hanging with my Chromies, #18 Olive Zebra Midge, #12-14 Blood Worm, #16 Assassin which is a Brown Chironomid with a Red Butt and a Black Bead. Its subtle and matches a lot of the “hatch” we see on local lakes)

Little Lava Lake was good yesterday but was also the slowest day I have had there all season. We never dialed in the nymph bite. We got a couple on Balanced Leeches (Bruised with orange bead) and Red PT under the indicator. But the fish were active on the Love Scope and doing what I normally see during a Callibaetis emergence which is feed above the weed beds and chase from the bottom (say 9 or 10 feet) up the water column to 5 or 6 feet under the surface. This has always been good for me on a few different callibaetis nymphs, usually the CB Cate and the Croston’s CB Nymph taking the prize. Not yesterday. I had on of the finest casters in my boat I could ever have yesterday, and I had him on a Type 3/5/3 parabolic full sink and a Booby with a Peacock Diawl Bach dropper and he caught a nice Brookie on that system. His son also caught a nice Brook Trout on a Red PT under the indicator just before that.
In the afternoon the Callibaetis hatch was good. The fish were P.I.C.K.Y. to the Max. The best fly was a Timberline Emerger with floating to keep it as a dry fly. A Harrop’s Captive Dun Callibaetis was also effective. They wanted that emerging profile for sure. And then the Beetle Bite happened and it was not epic like it can be, but it was good enough to provide some exciting takes and fish to the net.

Hosmer Lake is good this Fall and I always like it there in October, especially as a Brook Trout fishery. It is hard to beat an Olive Chironomid or Red Ice Cream Cone now. Scuds, Water Boatman, Leeches, Damsel Nymphs and Callibaetis Nymphs are all good too, and consider fishing them mostly on an NZ Wool Indicator, or Bung for sensitive eats.
Callibaetis hatches are not totally over so look for enough of them to create some opportunities for emergers and dries mid-day. Beetles and Ants are good, especially along the reeds.
A Ghost Tip or Emerger Tip (3 to 5 feet of clear sink tip) is a good line for Hosmer, and a Hover or Camo Intermediate is another deeper approach for leeches and scuds. Also, an Olive Zonker is a good one to strip, the Brookies are aggressive pre spawn and will attack that fly. Tuck a Micky Finn in the box too. And with the sinking lines give a Blob a whirl. It can be a good one here.

Crane Prairie is good, especially in the Deschutes and Quinn areas. I am headed there tomorrow and look forward to being back on the big reservoir !
My game plan will include leeches and chironomids mostly, and I’ll throw some Red Hippie Stompers and Purple Chubbies around.

Three Creek Lake is chugging along. It is not great fishing right now, but it is good enough to keep on the list. Fish Beetles and Ants and Red Hippie Stompers on the banks and even off the shore a ways. Balanced Leeches under an indicator or stripped on an Emerger Tip or Hover Line is good.
Hot Bead Green Leeches along the creek confluences is a good place to find Brookies from now until the end of the season.

A lesson in Bungs. The word Bung is a UK term for what we call Strike Indicators. They are all “Bobbers” of course, but each side of the pond tries to make it sound less like a bait chucker device. Bung? We win.
Strike Indicators are a very important part of way we present flies. They offer suspension to control how far down the fly can sink, either keeping the fly off the bottom, or putting the fly at the depth the fish are known to be feeding. Different size flies, different water types and even the weather and light conditions will dictate what indicator I choose for the moment.
The Drop Back Bung is unquestionably highly effective due to how it connects on the leader with 2 tiny bobber stops. It is very adjustable, and it is more sensitive to any strike, especially soft bites because a cylinder is easier to get lulled under than a sphere. The Medium Drop Back Bung is engineered to support two 2.5 mm Tungsten Drop Back Beads, and the Large size is for two 3.0 mm Tungsten Drop Back Beads.
I have found that #1, any tungsten bead in the size recommended works just as well, so they don’t need to be drop back beads. I also found that on the Medium Bung, a #14 Stainless Steel Swivel and ONE 2.5 mm tungsten bead is about perfect, and IF it isn’t perfect adding a #6 Split shot “balances” it to make it perfect. On the Large Bung, I often fish a Croston 3mm (red dot) fly on the tag, and one of my own CB Cate or Red Jig PT on the dropper. This alone does not balance the bung, so I add one or 2 #6 split shots until it is balanced and stands up straight. Another thing it to not obsess with a perfectly straight standing up bung. Close to straight is ok the way the leader is hanging from the grommet with the 2 bobber stops it will go under with the slightest of takes.
If I am experimenting with a lot of flies to figure out the bite de jour, I will often go to NZ Wool if I want the most sensitivity. The reason is I can choose any bead size in any combination and not have to think about that as I cycle through my fly boxes.
And I also like to use Oros or Airlock Indicators for windier days, and heavier flies. They serve a real purpose but offer less sensitive reactions to a soft bite than the Bung or Wool.
I use a lot of Chassis Style leaders to nymph the lakes, and a 15# Fluoro Butt from 2 to 12 feet with a Japanese Tippet Ring or a #14 Swivel to add tippet works for me. one of the above 4 indicators is always attached to that Chassis Butt Section.
I hope this helps.

I am off to work! Thanks for reading. See you on the water or in the shop.
Jeff