Hello from Central Oregon, where it is still great fishing weather and with perfect water conditions. The Lower Deschutes has been a little foggy the last 2 mornings, but the other waters have been mostly sunny with some breeze, occasional light showers and above average warmth for the season.
It looks like Monday the freezing level will drop, and that will coincide with the seasonal gate closures going to East and Paulina Lakes and from Mt Bachelor down Century Drive to Lava and Little Lava lakes. Access to Hosmer, Little and Lava Lakes, Sparks, East and Paulina will be shut the morning of 11/18/25, so if you want one last trip, go tomorrow or monday, but monday it is probably going to snow.

The Metolius River is good most afternoons with a mixing of mayfly hatches including #20-22 Blue Wing Olives, #16-18 Cinygmula’s and #16 PMD’s. All of these hatches will get the fish fired up between noon and 3 most days. For whatever reason, somedays the hatch is on fire and there are few fish looking up, and others days the hatch is a trickle and the the fish want to eat every single one of them. I love the game. For all 3 mayflies you want nymphs, emergers, cripples, duns and spinners. I can’t tell you how many times I ended a hatch session on the Met and looked at my foam fly patch after changing flies to either keep fooling, or finally fool a fish. A dozen fly changes is not unheard of, and if I recall, my record was 19 fly changes one afternoon. Things that I consider when changing the fly: Am I matching the right hatch? It’s not uncommon to not realize there is another fly present when we get focused on the “should be’s”. Is the emerger profile laying flat on the surface (floating nymph) or half down and half up (film critic and winger), has the emergence gone poorly? (kd dun with one wing, or knock down dun with 2 wings. That makes a difference some times, but usually for me it is about durability and how well it floats where I am casting the crippled patterns). Emerging further along? (sparkle dun). Duns are easy to match, but sometimes how they float for the water type where they land is important. (comparadun and parachutes are my first choices). Spinners. I think there is not a more important phase of the hatch to match size than on the egg layers. For the Metolius and frankly a lot of Western streams, rust #14-20, light olive #16-22, yellow #14-16, pale cream #16-20 would match 95% of the mayfly spinner falls you’ll encounter not counting bigger mayflies like March Browns and Drakes found locally.
There have been a whole bunch of October Caddis hatching all over the river, from Allingham to Candle Creek. We’ve been seeing better than average takes on adults so don’t forge to grab a #12 Clarks or #8-10 Stimulator. The reason the Clark’s is a smaller size is it’s and extended wing, so the hook size is smaller but the body and wing extend pas the hook bend giving an appearance of a larger bug. My new Fat A$$ October Caddis pupa with the light ping tungsten beads are beginning to really fire up. Try some.
Grey #12-14 and Tan #16 Caddis are out and about and make a good searching dry fly, and a top nymph choice for the pupa’s.
Eggs, Perdigon’s, PCP, Rainbow Warrior, Blue Psycho Prince, Zebra Midges in both Black and Red, Red Ice Cream Cone, Golden Stones from size 6 to 12 and small streamers like a Mini Gulp and Slum Lord. Check out our new colors of Slum Lords next time you’re headed to the shop, and a lot of other new articulated streamers we brought in the mix for your Bull Trout enjoyment.
Bull Trout fishing is over all good, and that includes huge articulated streamers, eggs & euro jig streamers. It’s a good time to be on the river.

The Lower Deschutes has been good from the Warm Springs to Trout Creek section, with some reports of multiple steelhead per day, and some reports of no steelhead per day. Hey, ain’t that how anadromous fish go? It is. Trout bite is good, with small black jig streamers doing quite well, plus olive ones, eggs, blue perdigons, stonefly nymphs, PCP, jig Napoleon, girdle bugs and October caddis.
Most of the steelhead I have heard of being caught have been nymphing with a jig streamer or other nymph. But never say no to the swung fly! With the colder fog and less sunlight try some leeches and intruders or Ho-Bo’s that have a mix of black and blue or black and purple with flash. Draw attention to the big fly and fish it slow on a sink tip
We are still offering the November special for a $450 float trip for 1 or 2 people until November 30th. Thank you to the many great people who have gone!

The Crooked River is running at 94 cfs, I am not sure why it is under 100 but that’s not enough to get upset over. Many afternoons the dry fly bite is good on BWO’s including the BDE and Purple Comparadun, Film Critics and Sparkle Duns.
Whitefish are spawning so there are a lot of small yellowish eggs in the drift and it is a top nymph choice along with Scuds, Zebra Midges, Winkers, Micro May’s and small Black or Purple Perdigons.
Some of our Crooked River regulars swear by swinging a Soft Hackle, and with how many fish they catch doing it, why wouldn’t they!
Tuck a few small olive streamers in the box too. Slum Lord or Mini Gulp type stuff and dead drift, strip or swing them in deeper areas.
Our $375 November Guide Trip Special in on until 11/30/2025 here.

The Fall River is one little river you don’t want to pass up on a nice November day. From streamers to nymphs to dry flies to match the hatch and a lot of sight fishing, it is an exciting place to cast your line now.
Like last week, not much has changed on the fly recommendation list, with Blue Winged Olives #18-20 taking the top spot in my mind as your #1 hatch to match for late morning to mid afternoon. Add some amber colored caddis to the lot and watch for 2 things, fish making a splashy rise, or fish that have refused your BWO’s but continue to rise well to “something”. The 1st “something” I would try is a Silvey’s Edible Emerger. That Brian Silvey is not just a steelhead guru, he is a great trout angler and has some innovative trout flies too. The Edible Emerger, and Primetime Pupa are flies you should add to your collection for the Fall, Deschutes and even the Met and Crooked. And the other “something” is Midges. Most of the midges you’ll see hatch are jet black, but don’t overlook fishing a red midge too. Under the category of I don’t know why, red works….
Ping or Tan MOP, Orange eggs with a tungsten bead, Zebras in red or black, purple perdigons, Napoleon’s, Slum Lords and Soccer Moms and a white or natural Sculpzilla which gets deep and with a lot of movement. I 1st learned to streamer fish on the Fall River in 1988 with my friend Matt Klee who had learned it on an Alaska trip. I remember being in a big slow pool, watching Matt expertly cast a natural Zonker (silver body with natural rabbit strip wing) across to the logs on the other bank. He’d strip that Zonker through the pool and the swimming motion of the fly caught his best friends attention (that would be me) and the trouts attention. Time and time again, the fish could not resist the streamer. He shared a Zonker with me that day and I became a streamer devotee.
As a side note to the being a streamer guy, in 1992 I got to go to Argentina for the 1st time, and I remember reading (before internet for me) everything I could find on fly fishing patagonia. If any of you remember a fly shop in Jackson, WY called West Bank Anglers they had recently been there and talked about a Pancora Crab present in the rivers of South America. What’s that? I stubby Crayfish native to those waters in Patagonia. I remember them writing about using ‘lectric buggers, which was a black wooly bugger with blue flashabou mixed in the black marabou tail and then pulled down each side of the black chenille body, ribbed over with the black hackle and copper wire. The fly was electric looking and I used them with good success in Argentina and here on the lakes at home. But even then, I loved to dream of the possibilities of other flies I might try from the stories and articles I liked to read and decided that if the ‘lectric bugger was good, how about a wooly bugger with a blue estaz chenille body? To tell the complete story, I didn’t use it much in Argentina but later that spring Matt came over from Portland to fish the weekend with me and we went to BBR to play tennis and fish the lake, and I caught fish after fish on my blue wooly bugger and returned the Zonker fly favor by sharing one of my flies with Matt. I still carry that blue bugger and probably need to fish it more.

Lakes Report

We are running out of lakes to report on after this weeks report, as many will be closed off until next spring and summer. But it’s not over yet.
Tomorrow and Monday you can still hit Hosmer and Little Lava, and East and Paulina. I’d say all 4 are worth the outing.
Beyond the morning of 11/18/25 North and South Twin Lakes are good options.
Ochocco Reservoir is a good option.
Private but good, Justesen Ranch is a good option.
Flies I would fish on all of these places are Black/Red Balanced leech (try the leather tail version too) and Bruised Balanced Leech with Fl. Orange Bead, Vampire Leech, Balanced Minnows, Ice Cream Cones, Black Nugget, Tequila Blob and a Black Booby Snake on a Fast Sink Line.
For East and Paulina tomorrow and monday Scuds and really small leeches.

Travel-

Belize with me April 11-17, 2026. The Blue Bonefish Lodge is my absolute favorite place in the saltwater world to stay and fish. I love the lodge, the people there, the proximity to the flats, the abundance of fish including my favorite fish the permit! The lodge also offers free saltwater fly rods and reels to use if it is your first time to try flats fishing, this is a good place to start. We also offer a couples package for $6500 for 3 days of flats guided fishing, one day of guided reef fishing, 2 massages and 6 nights of lodging. It is a popular option and a lot of our guests add one or 2 a la carte flats guide days to the total so they can fish every day.

Baker River Chile February 20 to the 28th, 2026. The finest fishing lodge I’ve ever been to. Join me and the group and take the last 2 spots. You will enjoy this place forever in your memory of all aspects of the trip while there. It is magical.

We hope to see you on the water soon, thank you to those of you who have taken advantage of the November special guide trips on the Lower Deschutes ($450) and walk and wade trips on the Fall and Crooked ($375) , or who have just gone out and enjoyed the fall fishing days and shared your experience with us.
It is great to share the passion for fish and the cool places they live.

Jeff