Hello from a wet and cool Pacific NW! A few places are probably off the table for a few days, and other places are going to be just as good as ever, maybe even enhanced by the weather sweeping through.
We will get to that in the fishing report, looking at the weekend here and now, and the upcoming week for making plans to be one with the fish.

A couple of days ago while on the lake, I was thinking about people in my life, both currently and guys I’ve lost touch with who have been inspirational as an angler. And those who have taught me important knots I use for myself and my guide trip clients every day.
In no particular order I am going to share a quick story of the person who taught me how to tie these knots:
(1) Jamie Lyle and I were taking refuge from a storm in a diner somewhere in Oregon, and we were talking about joining two different diameters of leaders together, and how blood knots or surgeons knots didn’t have the strength to be trustworthy when the need for jumping diameter was greater than one or two X sizes. Jamie, who at the time was the Sage rep in California showed me a knot taught to him by none other than Lefty Kreh called the Double Uni Knot. When I have a leader rebuild to do that may include tying 3x to 5x there is no stronger option than a Double Uni. I also prefer this knot for tying tippet to my leader when fishing in Saltwater, especially for important fish like a Permit! It is very strong.
(2) Speaking of the Blood Knot, this knot remains one of my favorites to add tippet to my leader for dry fly fishing. Why? I trust it, I like how it looks in-line over a double or triple surgeons knot and I have been tying it since 1986 when Ken Helm showed me how to tie a Surgeons correctly, and gave me the bonus lesson on the Blood Knot one evening during an early summer caddis hatch on the Middle Deschutes.
I had just started working for his mom and dad at the Fly Box and Ken and I got the opportunity to fish a few times when he was home from Willamette University. He was a heck of an angler and taught me well how to tie important knots better.
(3) a day at Davis Lake I will never forget was meeting Brian O’Keefe at his Scott Fly Rod Demo Camp and going out in his boat wind drifting damsel nymphs over a weed bed. 2 things I remember from that day was wind drifting as I had never done that before, and he showed me how to tie a Uni Knot to the Damsel Nymph which allowed for an open loop on the fly giving it more action, and he liked how the Uni would slide closed when the fish took the fly. I rarely use this knot for trout now, especially as an open loop knot, but I have evolved with the lesson and use this as my #1 knot for saltwater flies as it is the strongest knot I know to attach a fly to tippet. I also use it for streamers when fishing big trout on the Metolius and in Patagonia when I don’t need an open loop but need more knot strength than a Clinch or Improved Clinch.
(4) A Non-Slip Open Loop Knot is another essential knot for steelhead flies, saltwater flies, streamers, nymphs and even some dry flies. I use it on my Jiggy Beetle for even more reliability on correct turnover during the presentation. I apologize for not being able to say exactly which guide I was with somewhere in the Caribbean, and I know for sure it was more than one of them (i’m a slow learner). If you want strength from your knot and movement on your fly when you are fishing, learn this knot.
(5) in about 1988 I started guiding on the Fall River and Hosmer Lake and I had a good client named Dr Clint Pace who went with me several times on the Fall River. We shared a love of dry fishing for spring creek fish. At the time, he was one of the first anglers I saw using a loop to loop system to attach his leader to the fly line. So there we were, on “the pond” at the hatchery, and he needed a new leader and I grabbed one out of my Columbia Sportswear Vest (the Henry’s Fork II if you remember these classics) and began to tie a Surgeons Loop to make the loop for the connection and Dr Pace was like no no no! Let me show you how to do it correctly. So, on the banks of the Fall River on a perfect summer day I learned how to tie the much more compact, and in-line Perfection Loop.
(6) When I was a kid growing up in Portland I fell in love with fishing at a young age. My dad was not much a fly guy, but he did do some fishing and knew a few knots to pass along to his son. The Clinch Knot was one of those knots and it is one I tie day after day for myself and for my clients. I tie mine with 6 turns, and I always count silently in my head 1-2-3-4-5-6 and go back through the hole and tighten my knot to the eye of the fly. I wonder how many times in a year a count to 6? Oh man, it is a lot. Thanks Dad for teaching me something I use everyday.
(7) Tom Jarman of the Australia Fly Fishing Team who I call a fishing savant taught me how to add a dropper tag to any line easily using a 5 or 6 inch piece of same X size tippet and lining it up to the main line and doing a simple triple surgeons knot. It is so easy but I never knew it until I fished with him in Tasmania in 2018. Now I use this knot every day to add a dropper tag.
How are your knots? What else are you tying? I know a lot of anglers swear by others like the Davy Knot and the Orvis Knot. I believe in learning new things for sure, I am a forever student of fly fishing, and at the same time it is important to build a trustworthy arsenal of things we trust to work day after day.

Well, how’s that big spring creek down the road from us? It is good. It is good. If you don’t have the Metolius River on your radar right now you are missing some cool s**t. Just the visual of all the Kokanee spawning is worth walking the river to see the spectacle of it all, but the fishing that can occur from the eggs in the drift, vulnerable Koke’s weakened from spawning end up east prey for an aggressive Bull Trout. It is like a mini Alaska for a bit every season at this time of year.
Good news for dry fly anglers is that the Green Drakes are still coming down the pike from Canyon Creek to Bridge 99 every afternoon. This is probably the last week, maybe even the last few days of the Drakes but until we share the next report, tuck some #10 and #14 Drakes in the box. PMD’s #16 and BWO’s #18-20 and Mahogany Duns #16 will be the other 3 mayflies you’ll encounter for the rest of October.
Caddis include #16 tan, Olive #18 and Orange in #8-10 and 14. Get ready with Pupa and Adults.
I can give you a good reason to still be using a Clarks Stone and that is there are still some Golden Stones around but it also double duties when the Oct Caddis Adults are flying and Egg Laying. When it warms up again (I think it will) we will see some more Golden Stones around Camp Sherman and the fish will will still eat that fly up to Halloween.
The one thing I will say about the next few days or so is the wind. How will that change the fishing conditions? Pine needles collect in the eddies like crazy in these storms, sometimes making them impossible to fish. With for that because the eddies are some of the best dry fly spots on the river. Also, with the wind it can be hard to keep up with the drift of the Euro Nymph Leader and the way to counter it is a heavier bead to sink the tippet and straighten the mono rig better. I’d also personally go a little thicker on my mono, so go from 6 or 8# to 10# as the stiffer leader won’t be so limp against the wind.
I hinted about the Bull Trout earlier, well it is a moment to capture now with all the Kokanee in the river, the Bull’s can become frenzied over so much food. If you suspect the fish are chasing Koke’s, by all means a big articulated streamer is a darn good choice. I love our Purple/Black 3 articulation streamer, but an all black one is great as the Kokanee are past their color prime, and all White like a Circus Peanut is a good choice for sure. Rainy and Cloudy and Blustery days are lovely days to swing a Bull Trout fly.

The Lower Deschutes is the place to be for both Trout & Steelhead and we are having good luck on both on the Warm Springs to Trout Creek drift. Nymphing is probably the best way to find steelhead and also catch trout, but that swung fly “take” is something you need to feel. SO, with the colder days and mornings it is time for the Skagit Lines and T8 and T10 sink tips and Leeches, Intruders and Ho-Bo Spey’s.
You can still get fish on swung flies like a Muddler, Euphoria, GB Skunk and Freight Train. You might consider a sink tip or sinking leader now and not rely on only the floating line.
For nymphs, Double Bead Peacock Stones, Peacock Girdle Bugs, Purple Stone, Lightning Bug, October Caddis Pupa plus PT’s, Tan or Olive Pupa, Perdigons and Walts Worms and PCP Nymphs.
Keep an eye on the eddies for BWO’s and Midges and some Spent Egg Laying Caddis. Dry Fly action is waning now, but not entirely over.
It is going to be a good October and November on the big river.

The Crooked River is still on the list as one of the best in the region for the time being. PMD’s are not quite over and BWO’s are gaining ground. I would take a BDE Dun and confidently fish it as a fly that could match both mayflies. I also like a Purple Comparadun in this situation on any of our rivers.
Nymphing is really good, mostly with small Brown nymphs like a Jig Napoleon or Micro May. I also like a Skinny Nelson, 2 Bit Hooker, Scuds, Zebra Midges and Psycho Prince. Water is coming down as irrigation ends. It is at low winter flow running at 89 cfs today. One thing in flows that are low is nymph with a single nymph for less weed snagging, and also in places the use of a NZ Wool Indicator or XS Oros to suspend the nymph out of most of the weeds is helpful. It’s not all about the Euro Rig in those weed channels. Also, thanks to Mat for your excellent report and sharing that you did well on a Ray Charles and PCP Nymph. That PCP is a pattern my good friend Bruce came up with for the Lower D, but it is basically a Peacock bodied Walt’s Worm and it works everywhere.

The Fall River is made for blustery fall weather and cold days ahead. I love it. You might even get to crunch through some snowy banks this weekend.
BWO’s are hatching the best, keep an eye on the PMD’s too. Amber colored Caddis in about a #14 are important on the FR this time of year and the Silvey’s Edible Emerger and Orange Missing Link are the flies I like best to match them. On the Mayflies make darn sure you have some Purple Comparaduns, Sparkle Flag, KD Duns and Film Critics.
Nymphs are always a good choice, Perdigons, Jig Napoleon’s, Zebra Midges, Olive Scuds, Jig Eggs, Micro Streamers and 2 Bit Hookers.

The Upper Deschutes is Closed and the Middle Deschutes in coming up with the end of water diversions for irrigation.

Lakes Report

I had some interesting fishing at Hosmer Lake this week. One day the fish had absolute lock jaw for a good portion of the day, but finally started to move a bit more well after lunch. The next day they were biting from the 1st cast, and while neither day was easy, both days were rewarding.
I get in the indicator rut for different reasons, and that was not really what the fish wanted this time. Oh sure, we got some fish under a NZ Wool Indi, using Red Ice Cream Cones, Callibaetis Cate’s and a Red PT Jigs. If we moved the nymphs under the indicator it worked better. Static presentations were not good, I think with the fish often remaining so static themselves, it just didn’t excite them, or surprise them to swim up to something that looked edible. Switching to an Emerger Tip (5 or 7 foor Intermediate Sink Tip) and stripping a Peacock Diawl Bach Fly in #14 was by far the best. Red PT (no bead) was good, and tiny Olive marabou nymphs my friend D-n0 calls a Plate Lunch Special caught several, as I found small, immature Damsel Nymphs in the throat pump sample.
I plan to be back this next week when the storm is over.

Crane Prairie reports are coming in from a customer who I really trust from over in Salem. Micah is one that is committed to CP. Here is his report from Friday 10/10. I wrote him back and said he was very courageous to stick it out today. Here is what he said:
I fished Crane Prairie in the Cultus today. It was decent but not a slam dunk, I went 5/8. For a little while it was very nasty out there, DUMPING rain and hail. Dark assassin and black balanced leech was best, and late morning/early afternoon was when fishing was good. 

-Micah

Paulina Lake was really good this week for me and my anglers, even in the wind! And wow it was so windy.
That being the case the fish were often fooled on a Jiggy Battle and a Pink Hopper.
We caught some fish on a Leather Tailed Vampire Balanced Leeches too. Bring a Water Melon Balanced Leech and Scuds before the season ends.

East Lake is a good bet from the shoreline with wade access excellent for near bank cruisers. Scuds, Mayfly Nymphs, small (unbeaded) Leeches, and Chub Streamers.
Launching a drift boat is possible at the EL CG and Hot Springs. All the other launches are closed at Cinder Hill and the Resort.

I had a good day at Little Lava this week, and as expected it is the last place we will probably see a fishable hatch of callibaetis. That window may be closed now with this storm. Next Wednesday and Thursday may produce a gift? Beetles will continue to work on top.
For us with Dan and Charlotte in the boat the Red Ice Cream Cone under NZ Wool was the best. Why Wool? Soft take in cold water, the NZ Wool is way more sensitive to a light take than a “Ball”

I had a very good report from a friend at Lava Lake too. Balanced Leeches were best for them. Be ready with Chironomids and also fish the Beetles on the shore lines and reeds.

I heard all the access to boat ramps at Elk Lake are shut! Wade access for Brookies is possible, or drag a pontoon boat to the waters edge and chase them from the little boat. It can be A+ for Brookies on the lake now. Not one we talk about here, but in October worth a fish.

As always, thanks for reading, thanks for sharing with me and the crew at FFP. Your fishing reports and your interest in this is helpful and awesome to me. We are a community of fly anglers here and that means a lot. Fishing is so cool.

Jeff
Go Mariners
PS- My Padres are eliminated, so from here on out I’m rooting for the M’s.