Opening Day is knocking on our door, and we are so excited to start back on Lower Deschutes from Warm Springs to Trout Creek. I think it is going to be a great opener with some really solid fishing. The other one that we always anticipate with excitement is Crane Prairie which also opens on Wednesday April 22nd.
I will give warning to those of you excited about the CP opener….Check the forecast. My paid Windy app (which I rely on to make safe choices on where to guide throughout the season) shows Wednesday with temps in the 30’s, wind strong enough to create whitecaps all day and snow. Don’t worry, it gets better after that with more pleasant and safer boating conditions coming up.

I just got home from Belize yesterday, we had another fabulous group at the Blue Bonefish. I already have my week booked for next April, although the lodge is working for me to push it closer to early or mid May so I have a little more time between my return from Argentina around April 1st to catch up in Oregon before going to the saltwater. Let me know if you want to be on the list for my hosted week.

The Metolius River was fishing really well this past week, with excellent nymphing and some highlights on the afternoon mayfly hatches!
Sequoia had a guide trip on House on Metolius 2 days ago and had really good luck with the Peacock TJ Hooker which is one of our shop favorites for a Green Drake Nymph.
Speaking of Green Drakes, the earliest Drake hatch I ever fished on the Metolius was on April 22nd years and years ago with my friend Hans from Switzerland. The earliest drakes will show up soon, but don’t expect a consistent hatch for another few weeks. In any case, it is Drake Time, and a Jig 20 Incher and Peacock TJ Hooker are 2 flies you need in your box every day from now until October. (don’t forget the Fall Drakes might be even a better hatch than the Spring hatch making the nymphs available on a pretty constant basis in the middle and lower river).
PMD’s have begun to hatch now, and while the Cinygmula has not dwindled out completely you should start seeing more of the PMD’s and more of them in April, May and June. Fish the entire life cycle with nymphs (PMD nymphs are brown #16), emergers, cripples (a lot of emergent PMD’s become stuck in the shuck, or get bedraggled in the film never to escape making them a prime target for a trout to feed on), duns and rusty spinners. In the summer the Spinners come back at dusk, but that is not always/not usually the case at this time of year, so pay attention to feeding fish and try a Rusty Spinner late morning or mid afternoon too. When the fish are eating the spinners the rise form is a gentle dimple on the waters surface, so if you are seeing that, try a spinner.
BWO hatches were also good over the last week and just like the above mentioned PMD’s is is important to fish all the stages of these smaller mayflies as each stage from Nymph to Spinner has its importance throughout the day. BWO nymphs come in a wider variety of color tones due to the fact there are simply so many species in the Baetis and Diphetor in the Western Rivers like the Met. Typically a #18-22 micro mayfly or 2 bit hooker is a good choice for deeper presentations. WD 40, PT and even simple Perdigons in the right size and color do the trick, and with the Perd, you can get the weight dialed in with the tungsten bead to get down to the fish. Colors are more often dark brown to even black, but olive is not uncommon and must be added to your box.
Caddis Pupa accounted for a lot of good stories last week too. The original Fat Ass Caddis and my (cheaper) Improved Fat Ass Caddis are solid flies you guys. If you haven’t added these to your box yet you need to do it. Not just for the Metolius, but all the rivers where caddis are important. The big Orange Caddis are winding down, but I would fish an Orange Rubber Leg Girdle Bug because with that fly you have fish looking at it as a potential October Caddis Pupa or a Stonefly Nymph.
Eggs, Micro Jig Streamers, Walts Worms, Frenchies, Rainbow Warriors and Golden Stone Nymph patterns should all be cycled through on any day on the water until you unlock the code. These are the patterns that are the most likely to compliment the hatch matching flies I mentioned above.
And for the Bull Trout addicted, it is good. There have been some really nice Bulls found on big streamers.
***REMEMBER that the upper river from the headwaters to Allingham Bridge remains closed until MAY 22nd***

The Lower Deschutes opener from Warm Springs to Trout Creek is on Wednesday, and is what a lot of us are most excited about! I anticipate some decent hatches, including March Browns, PMD’s and Caddis. As is often the case on the Lower D, the nymph game will be the strong play.
With Salmonfly #4-8 and Golden Stone #6-10 hatches just a couple of weeks away (+/-) the nymphs of both are so important. I’d run a big stonefly nymph and a caddis pupa or soft hackle PT dropper as my first choice to get set up in the parking lot before pushing off.
Have you seen the new fly boxes that you can pre-tie your nymph dropper rigs, or dry-dropper rigs and save time on the water with several already ready to go? They are quite a time saver and a nice way to approach a river like the D where a lot of nymph changes occur in a day of fishing.
Add Caddis Pupa (tan #14-16, olive #16, gray #18), perdigons (brown, olive and purple #12-18), Soft Hackle PT #12-16, Slum Lord Black #10-12, Frenchie #10-18 would be my plan for the opening week.

The Middle Deschutes has many access points from the heart of downtown Bend through Tumalo, Redmond area, Crooked River Ranch and down to Lake Billy Chinook. Fishing is quite good here. March Browns, PMD’s, Pale Evening Duns, Tan Caddis and some Attractors like a Renegade, Purple Haze and smaller Stimmy’s. Nymph action is quite good including Soft Hackles and all the usual Mayfly and Caddis nymphs, Perdigons and small Streamers.

The Crooked River is fishing nicely, with good water flows and decent hatches and very strong nymph action. It seems that Scuds have become very important again on the Crooked! So many of our guides and my good friends report Scuds and Ray Charles day after day. I say this because when Chester and I started fishing the Crooked in the 80’s it was a super strong scud show, and then for whatever reason the scud population dropped dramatically for quite a few years. It seems to be back and we are seeing the fish really keyed in on these little crustaceans.
Midges and Baetis are rolling quite well too, and will be important in nymph, emerger and adult stages.
Add some Fire Starters, Frenchies, Purple and Black micro Perdigons, Jig Napoleon and Soft Hackles.
Will the massive hatches of Mothers Day Caddis be a little early this season? I would think so and be prepared for that with Olive X Caddis, Peacock Caddis and Henryville’s, along with Sparkle Pupa’s.

The Fall River was excellent over this past week with great catches all up and down the river from the Headwaters to the Falls. Remember that below the falls to the confluence with the Deschutes that the river is closed until 5/22/26.
There have been good mayfly hatches with BWO’s coming off best, and PMD’s getting a foothold now for a spring, summer and early fall of consistent hatches. Emergers and Cripples have been best, and in that ultra clear water a light tippet is a must. If you are comfortable with 7x, it pays off with more fish to the net. PS- don’t bass set with 7x! WINK.
Eggs, Micro Mayflies, Perd’s, Zebra Midges (red and black), Slum Lord, Mini Gulp, Jig Minnow are flies to try.

The McKenzie River is fishing well for our guides already. We are running from Blue River area down and seeing some march browns, caddis and a few stoneflies. Our guides are doing best on double nymph rigs and dry dropper rigs, and also some small streamers and soft hackle swung, including on a 10′ sink tip.
We recommend booking your Mckenzie float trips earlier this year from now until mid July when we determine the river levels and ability to safely navigate the rapids and rocky gravel bars this river has so much of when the water gets low from such a low snowpack.
Our first 13 days of May are quite open for this (or the Lower D) with our guide team and after that it gets wild.

LAKES

Crane Prairie is opening on Wednesday 4/22/26 and I think I would wait until thursday to go up.
When you go, expect Ice Cream Cones, hanging with my chromies, balanced leeches and damsel nymphs to be best. The lake has been ice free for a while, a departure from other recent openers so bugs should be more mature, more active and more available in slightly warmer water temps this year already.

Diamond Lake is fishing well and is showing off some really quality rainbows already. Some nice browns and a few tigers too, but it seems the rainbow bite has awakened early and strong and leeches, including white leeches (platinum soccer mom) have been really good on the lake already.
I just have a few reports from the lake so far, but other than this Wednesday I would go in a heartbeat and enjoy it.

Lake Billy Chinook Bull Trout and Smallmouth bites are good, really in all the arms, but I am hearing especially good reports from the Metolius and Deschutes arms. 2 good approaches, Indicators and balanced leeches or minnows, or sink tips and big, meaty streamers. Either way you can score a nice Bull and in the process a smorgasbord of bass, browns and rainbow trout too.

I didn’t hear any reports from Haystack this week. The trend would be very good for this time of the season, and water levels are hovering around 80% full so that is good. Besides the always present Balanced Leech and Ice Cream Cone, add some Tequila Blobs, Damsel Nymphs and Callibaetis to your box.

Ochocco Reservoir is fishing well, best up on the upper end near the creek mouth. Leeches are likely the best choice, with chironomids, damsels, minnows, scuds and callibaetis important food sources here too.
Some very nice rainbows were caught by some friends up there taking the boat up from the launch at the dam to the shoals near the confluence.

North Twin and South Twin Lakes are fishing nicely, with ODFW stocking 2500 legals in each lake in the last few days, and scheduled to get 500 trophy fish in each later in the month.
Balanced leeches and Ice Cream Cones would be top on the list, Tequila Blobs, Callibaetis Cate, Red Jig PT, Jig Minnow and Damsels too.

All the lakes at the Justesen Ranch are really firing now. Callibaetis hatches are good and likely to improve more and more for the next 3 weeks or so. Damsels are moving more, especially on the lakes with the reeds and cattails near the shorelines. $150 per person per day, and there are overnight accommodations on the ranch if needed. It is a little over an hour north of Madras.

I am hopeful to hear the gate will open by early may to Paulina Lake. But not yet. Same at East Lake…

I flew over 3 Creek Lake the other day and it was still covered in ice and there is quite a bit of snow in that bowl where it sits. It’s going to be at least a month before we are up there, maybe longer.

TRAVEL

The biggest news for today is we have a time and date for Esteban (from our partner in Argentina Southern Loops Fly Fishing) and I to do the Presentation on Fly Fishing in Northern Patagonia/San Martin de Los Andes. It will be Friday May 15th at 1 PM at the Sisters Library Community Room. We have used this wonderful space twice before when Phil Rowley came to visit us from Canada, and it is the perfect spot for us again next month.
Please let me know if you can make it, it’s free and should be entertaining, informative and maybe will entice you to dream big about doing us for a trip to Patagonia in the future.
This is a super good trip for couples too, with a luxury and fun time in Buenos Aires on the way down.

I have 5 weeks of hosted trips planned in 2026/27 in Patagonia, and in the spring of 2027 to Belize as mentioned above. Let me know how I can share info with you and please plan to come over to Sisters Library on 5/15 to learn about Argentina.

SHOP

We are back to summer hours, 9 to 5:30 Monday through Saturday and 9 to 4 on Sunday.

We have some incredible rods on the sale rack from Thomas & Thomas, Sage and Redington marked down 30, 40 and even 50% from the retail. Euro rods, Lake rods, Dry Fly rods, All Purpose rods and Saltwater rods are here.

Also I am just getting ready to list a part of the collection of Sherry Steele who has a bunch of lightly used Winston rods I am going to start listing today on eBay.

On the sale table we have some fly lines at 50% off, waders and boots for 40 to 50 % off, and some Simms flannels half off.

New Hats and T Shirts are in, with more coming soon. I have a really cool new Metolius River shirt coming from the printer that our friend Andy designed for us. It will be on a T and a hooded sun shirt.

I look forward to seeing you in the shop or on the water!

Be well,
Jeff