Good morning, spring is here and fishing has been really productive, big hatches are starting, more gates are opening this week and access is increasing. Our next milestone is 20 days away with the 2nd opener on May 22nd which means the headwaters of the Metolius and the Deschutes, plus our creeks like Whychus, Tumalo and Lake Creek open to fish in less than 3 weeks.
For here and now, and throughout the week we have a lot of good fishing to discuss.

The Metolius River is good now, and with Green Drakes not really in the mix as a dry fly option quite yet the best is yet to come! I would not step foot in the river from Canyon Creek to angle Creek without Drake nymphs, emergers and duns. You may only fish the nymph, but if you are on the water “today” and suddenly at 3 drakes starts floating by, and helicoptering off the water just as their cousin gets slammed hard by an opportunistic redband, you would be quite bummed to have missed this opportunity, and it is coming to us fast. I know of a few DRY drake caught fish already, but that part of the phenomenon is a little bit in the future as of today. May is becoming a better drake hatch month than it was 40 years ago when I started fishing the Met, and noticeably more intense than it was even 10 years ago for May hatches. TJ’s and Twenty’s are essential nymphs for the river now.
What we are not missing are Pale Morning Duns. There are beautiful afternoon hatches of PMD’s, size 16 to be found from Allingham to Candle Creek. Film Critics, Klinkhammers, KD Dun (the one wing wonder), sparkle dun, comparadun and parachutes + rusty spinners. The 2 best spinners are Rene Harrop’s CDC Biot Spinner and my Sunset Spinner which I tested many evenings on this very river.
Blue Wing Olives are also in the mayfly hatch mix and run a size 18 or 20. Emergers, Cripples, Duns and Spinners for these beautiful mayflies, and remember on the Met the fish really like to key on vulnerabilities, so something stuck in the film, or not ready to fly off the surface is extra enticing.
Caddis are producing well, and it has transitioned to a summer mix of caddis with tan #14-16 and olive #16-18 and grey #14-16 best to match what’s out there and what you’ll likely encounter in the late afternoons and evenings.
There are minor hatches of stoneflies, but don’t concern yourself with a big dry fly quite yet, however a big golden stone nymphs is one you must be fishing. Rogue Ice Stones and Girdle Bugs are the favorites.
Yellow Sally’s and some little Olive Stones are at times important enough to add a dry fly pattern of each to your box in May.
Of course the nymphing is most productive, with eggs still working well, caddis pupa, zebra midges, soft hackle PT, perdigons in brown, olive and purple plus a small hares ear with a cdc collar. Slum Lord and Busta Seamz are great small streamers on your tight line rig, or they work under the indicator too.
Your best bull trout opportunities will be in the early morning with big streamers, but during the day it can happen too with the right fly and the best presentation.

The Lower Deschutes Salmonflies are out near Maupin and will be marching upriver quickly during our oncoming warm weather. By time I write this report next weekend I suspect I will say they’ve made it to Trout Creek. It takes a few day or more to get the fish wild for them, and of course over a period of about 20 to 25 days we get a few epic days to enjoy, and many better than average days, and some frustrations too.
Right now there a number of Pale Evening Duns and Caddis out, and a pretty decent amount of PMD’s and a spring time Mahogany Dun called a Nixe (pronounced Nick’s Eye) that occur on the Deschutes in the Spring.
We’ve been mostly experiencing our best catches on nymphs, which may lead you to ask why does Jeff talk about hatches so much if that is the case? Well, I am a dry fly nut, and an optimist so I assume the best if in the right place at the right time with the right fly. But I am also a science based angler and if those hatches are showing up on our side, they started below the surface as nymphs and pupa for the trout to see and feed on during the drift or emergence.
Great days are coming on the river here! Also, we have a number of open guide seats from today until May 13th, then it is freaking nuts after that for a couple of weeks. If you want to get down with Troy, Steve, Michael, Sequoia, Gavin or Mattias let us know.

The Middle Deschutes is seeing the Salmonfly hatch near Crooked River Ranch, and all of the Middle River is seeing Pale Evening Duns #12-14, Pale Morning Duns #16, BWO #20, Tan Caddis #14-16.
Here you can find plenty of good fishing on dries, nymphs, small streamers and even some big meaty streamers.
Depending on the area you’ll be targeting you may or not see a single salmonfly, and in this case you’ll want some Renegades, Purple Haze and the hatch matching flies listed above, plus perdigons, PT’s, soft hackles, micro may for BWO and PMD, split case PMD and girdle bugs.

The Mother’s Day Caddis are out on the Crooked River and things ought to get even more intense soon. Lots and lots of caddis. I wish I knew exactly, because during this extravaganza of caddis there are a mix of 3 colors of caddis present; Olive/Grey is the true Mothers Day Caddis, this is the brachycentrus caddis fly. We also see a lighter caddis here, and what is interesting to me is I see this same caddis on a spring creek in SE Oregon and I think is also a brachycentrus, but I’d need an entomology degree to be certain, but it is the only thing that makes sense. Then, mixed in there are black caddis too. Could this caddis species have 3 shades, or is it sub species of the same genus? More research to be done, but I will tell you if you’re headed to the Crooked this week get some olive and tan pupa, olive X caddis, peacock caddis, elk hair caddis and corn fed caddis all in a #16.

The Fall River is fishing quite well from the Headwaters to the Falls, and remember the section below the Falls doesn’t open until 5/22. This doesn’t make sense to me from ODFW? But it is the rules and you want to make sure you don’t fish below the falls for another few weeks.
Perdigon’s, Walt’s Worms, Eggs, Zebra Midges, Slum Lords and Rainbow Warriors have been wonderful nymphs on our guide trips there lately.
Streamers, including on a sink tip can be a fun way to fish the Fall River too. Get out of the box and try this with a Croston’s Minnow or Sculpzilla.
BWO’s #18-20 and PMD’s #16 are the main mayfly hatches, but keep an eye open here for Green Drakes #10 too. There have not been any reports of them yet, but….

The McKenzie River has been a lot of fun for the FFP guides lately, and the guides are having good days on Chubby’s with a nymph dropper, caddis hatches and some mixed mayfly hatches of larger yellow mayflies. Fish are looking up, and always more than willing to eat a nymph or streamer too.
The Mckenize is a hard river to access without a boat, so hiring a guide our going with a qualified friend who really knows rowing whitewater and challenging river conditions is a must.
Like on the Deschutes we have a good number of guided trips available from today until May 13th here too.

LAKES REPORT

I was bummed to have posted inaccurate info about access to the Newberry Crater/Paulina and East Lake last week. The info I wrote was based on the ODFW report from 4/23 saying the road was opening on 4/29. Deschutes County Road Dept is in charge of the gates here, and they had it slated for 5/7, so there were mixed messages and inaccurate information from the agencies involved. I’m sorry for posting something inaccurate, and writing this report is important to me week after week and I try my best to provide really good information because I know how many people rely on it.

So, to be clear, the gates to Paulina and East Lake will open on 5/7/26, and the same date for the gates on Century Drive from Mt Bachelor down to the gate at the Lava Lake junction will also open that road to achieve the complete loop on Century Drive. Hooray!!!

Crane Prairie has been quite good this week. When I fished there yesterday with my friend Jesse we did best on a Vampire Leech’s, even though the fish were stuffed with little green chironomid pupa. I ran into Mike and Wes taking out at Quinn yesterday and they reported good catches on Olive leeches, and as we were launching seeing Beth land a nice one was a good omen for the evening on the lake Jesse and I shared.
The biblical gnat hatch is beginning, which means unless the wind blows, the next couple of weeks at Crane is like being in a combination of a National Geographic nature show combined at times with a horror film being over taken by tiny bugs. When this occurs I wear a bug net over my face and gloves on my hands, otherwise I just can’t handle this at all. But, fishing now is really strong so the will to catch has to overcome the annoyance of the gnats.

Little Lava Lake is a good choice this week and is already seeing a very good Callibaetis hatch from around 11 or 12 and lasting 2 hours or so. After the hatch was essentially over Gavin and I continued to catch fish on dries, but shifted from mayflies to ants and beetles. A callibaetis cate and croston’s callibaeits were strong producers for us this week under the indicator, and comparaduns and tilt wing callibaetis were by far the duns of choice for us. Throat Pump samples showed many immature damsel nymphs and #16 brown chironomids, but that was the 1st fish of the day and an early sample before the mayflies got going.

I have seen some good photos on social media from Wickiup so I know it is fishing well and producing good catches of nice browns and rainbows.

I had a really good report from North Twin Lake this week. Good dry fly action despite very little hatch activity on the surface. Callibaetis and Beetles were the best.
South Twin Lake is also a great spot to fish this week, and is easy access for tubes and pontoons and ODFW has recently stocked a lot of rainbow trout here. Callibaetis hatches are good to match, and stripping a damsel or sheep creek special with a red ice cream cone as a trailing nymph is a good way to find fish kicking along with a camo intermediate line. Leeches and Chironomids under an indicator will produce fish for sure.

Chickahominy is still pumping out some nice fish and is a good trip out to this desert reservoir for a while longer. Fish are healthy, plump and full of fight and seem to be very willing to take a balanced leech, especially an olive one.

Ochocco Reservoir continues to impress with the trout game with leeches and chironomids. I’ve had several great reports from the reservoir lately and I like how it is catching on as another option and a good place to spread out from the usual places.

Speaking of that, as I drive by Cultus Lake this week it reminded me to talk about it this week. It is not Central Oregon’s best lake, but it is not a popular fly fishing destination either and it has some good things to enjoy, with shoreline terrestrials being my fave, and some deeper shoals for chironomids, some deep dangle drop off’s and a wonderful shallow flat on the back side that is a callibaetis and damsel area. It absolutely has the best boat launch and dock in central oregon and you should try it this season if you have not been there before.

I also really want to fish Elk Lake and target the Brook Trout on an upcoming Callibaetis hatch. Elk can get busy in June after school is out for summer, but early season and late season it can be quiet and less crowded than other nearby lakes. Also, the restaurant has great chicken strips the last time I stopped in. With the road opening later this week I will try to get there before mid June when summer break really ramps up.

*best restaurant on Century Drive in my opinion is South Twin for a hamburger and a chocolate milkshake.

Paulina Lake is already fishing well, but access is long going up the back side of the mountian. Docks are in at Little Crater, and the new dock goes in at Paulina Campground Tuesday .
I have my 1st trip there on Thursday with a new client Kurt and look forward to the day and fishing chironomids and leeches and balanced minnows in a few early season spots I love so much. I also intend to hit the banks with a Jiggy Beetle and who knows, with this warm weather we may see flying carpenter ants already, so I will be ready for that.

East Lake resort is opening on 5/15 and that means access to the lake from their dock is helpful for those of us with bigger boats to launch. USFS will not install docks again at EL. I understand why, and they are working on some new docks and possibly an infrastructure improvement to the ramp that will help with lower water years.
I imagine this season will see a really low level at East. Fishing should remain strong, as the lake remains 160 feet deep and with broad shoals defining the lake, it is one of the best fly fishing lakes in Oregon whether it is 10 feet low, or 10 feet high. I wonder if we will already see callibaetis in May. I was just looking over photos and the earliest I see hatches at EL was June 3rd.

TRAVEL SHOP TALK

in 10 days Esteban from Southern Loops Fly Fishing will be in Central Oregon and I am looking forward to showing him a couple of my favorite places here in oregon as he has showed me so many of his special places in argentine patagonia.
If you just want to see some slides and hear about patagonia from a local (not me yet, but maybe some day) come to the Sisters Library Community Room on May 15th from 1 to 3 for a free presentation about fishing in San Martin de Los Andes. He is going to do a fishing overview, and I am going to do a short travel presentation about Buenos Aires and why I love the trip to SMDLA and how we get to be a part of the daily life in Argentina and not just catered to in a lodge staring at a bunch of other fly anglers. Immersive travel is really cool and it makes sense for some of our guests, and I am not knocking the “lodge experience” because that is awesome, but what we do in SMDLA is my favorite and I want to show you why. Come see us in May, write to me at greendrakehatch@gmail.com and I will put you on the list to hear Esteban and I talk about such a great corner of this wonderful planet we share.

I am headed to the shop in a moment. I need to get the boat ready for my 1st guide day of the season tomorrow. I have 6 new Echo rods to set up in the lake boat, and a fly box project I will share with you next week. It is turing out to be the most awesome thing I have ever organized and it is likely to be the last time I ever organize lake flies, as it is so perfect I will only need to add and update flies to the boxes, but never replace the boxes or need to figure out how to carry all the things I need a day, week or season!

be well and go fish!

See you on the water,
Jeff