Hello from beautiful Central Oregon, where the sun has been shining and the fishing is good. There is a lot to talk about this week, from the rivers and lakes, to Esteban’s arrival on Tuesday from Patagonia and our talk at the Sisters Library next friday 5/15/26 about fly fishing near the wonderful town of San Martin de Los Andes in Argentina. If you haven’t signed up already to come, shoot me an email (details at the end of this blog) and plan to be at the Library from 1 to 3.

Without doubt the top story this week is the beginning of the Salmonfly Hatch on the Lower Deschutes. It is pretty full swing through our 3 day camp float below Trout Creek and down to Maupin. With warm weather persisting this week and a 90 degree day coming on Tuesday there is no doubt we will have big bugs flying all the way to the Warm Springs boat ramp. And Golden Stones, and Yellow Sally’s.
This is your time to get under the trees, side arm your loop to shoot under the branches and be shocked at the explosive rise that suddenly appears to your fly. Did you hook it? Or are you mumbling expletives to yourself now? Salmonfly madness is special, it is real and if you hit it at the right moment it is unforgettable.
But what does that mean?
On the Lower Deschutes we get a prolonged Salmonfly hatch (and Golden Stones too) lasting over 2 weeks, and in some cases around 3 weeks as it moves upriver through a zone. While the fishing is always interesting when the big stoneflies are around, it is not always red hot. I estimate about a third of the time offers very good (5 star bite) fishing, about a third is good, and then there is the beginning of the hatch when we see the bugs and want it to happen but the fish are not yet used to the hatch, and have yet to key on their new food source or we get to the end of the hatch and the fish could be full, or have seen an awful lot of pressure from you and me and all of our friends and they are no longer tricked by foam and yarn and rubber legs lashed to a big hook.
But this means there are a lot of good days to look forward to, and those good days are starting right now.
Other notes for the Lower Deschutes. It is crowded A/F and will be more crowded over the next 2 1/2 weeks. Kindness, manners and fishing etiquette are essential to survive the crowds of the big hatch.
Don’t overlook other hatches. PMD’s, Pale Evening Duns, Caddis can be overshadowed to our eyes when the #4-8 bugs are flying and crawling on the back of your neck. But trout don’t care about that. Pay attention to all the hatches and don’t forget the nymphs of the smaller hatches are so important to the trout and their daily caloric needs.

So far there have not been many Green Drakes on the Metolius River. Not none, but not many, and the ones that have been spotted have mostly been in the lower river below Bridge 99. I saw one “drake take” in the Canyon a few days ago, but did catch one fish on a green drake nymph, and another on a small green beetle and missed a good fish on a tan cdc caddis.
For the last several years green drake hatches have come on earlier, and by mid-May usually going quite well. So this week should be telling to see if that trend holds steady or if we wait and see if by Memorial Day it is going strong.
My freind and very well respected local angler Chester Allen was also on the river and commented that he saw trout “flashing” deep and suspected drake nymphs in the drift, so he tied one on and had immediate success.
This is a period of good PMD and Caddis hatches from now until about the 4th of July you can expect some great opportunities to fish dries, emergers and nymphs for these two huge food sources.
PMD’s run a size 16 and the nymphs are brown and depending on the time of day and the stage of the hatch, or how close a nymph is to becoming a dun you might fish a tungsten jig deep in the drift, or a brass bead PT mid column, a soft hackle near the film, an emerger or cripple on top of the film, a dun on a perfect dead drift with your 12′ 6x Suppleflex or Finesse Leader with an added 2 feet of 6x nylon tippet (this is your hint!) and if you stay to dark you get the last chance risers on a rusty spinner. PMD’s define summer for me. Drakes are exciting and are my favorite hatch, but PMD’s just keep it special, and in a way relaxed for many months on the Metolius.
And how about all the caddis? The Metolius is an absolute factory for caddis, in fact Gary Lafontaine in his groundbreaking book Caddisflies has several references to our favorite river and the caddis the live there. While caddis are so diverse, from now until August when the massive hatches of micro caddis begin you can count on #14 nd #16 in tan and olive. It is important to show the fish pupa patterns as nymphs, and during the day or evening whether you see rising trout or not, a pupa is a darn good nymph for the Metolius. An Iris caddis is an interesting fly, it is a dry fly, and it floats in the film but is surprisingly visible and an curious design as the “wing” of the fly is not an anatomical feature of an insect as most flies are tied, but is an aura of light with a gas bubble in the pupal skin at emergence. X Caddis is the next step, the pupal shuck is defined by the Z Lon tail but the rest of the fly looks like a hackle less elk hair caddis, and that no hackle fly sits down low in the film fooling a trout to believe it is not getting away any time soon. Adult caddis for the Metolius in my fly boxes are typically low floaters, or I make them low floaters with the scissors on my swiss army knife and trim the hackle flat on the bottom to get them to sit on the water in a way I believe the trout prefer. Corn Fed Caddis, Henryville, Hemingway, CDC Caddis, Fin Fetcher and even an Elk Hair with the haircut is a good bet.
By a long shot the nymphing action has been more productive lately on the Metolius. Being in the right place during a hatch is great, but who knows if your session will include a good hatch and willing risers? I think it is essential to carry a nymph rod and a dry fly rod now.
On the nymph side besides the caddis pupa and PMD’s and of course I mentioned green drake nymphs, add golden stones (!!!) Zebra Midges, eggs, rainbow warriors, red copper johns, soft hackle PT and non beaded yellow soft hackles. Try a fun evening of working a section swinging a #14 or #16 yellow soft hackle on a 12′ 5x leader. An old freind who used to live near the river would do that and it produces fish for sure. He’d take his old fiberglass Fenwick to the river for this for an added bit of fun, but a Euro Nymph 10′ 3 weight with a WF 3 line is an even better choice.

The Mother’s Day Caddis are on time over on the Crooked River. Caddis pupa, emergers and dries can’t be missed. At some moments when the hatch is very intense it can be a challenge for the fish to find your fly to rise to. That is a good time to drift a soft hackle in the film as a trailer behind a dry fly, or swing the soft hackle for more attention and to show it to more fish than a single drift lane that occurs when fishing a dry fly.
Despite the caddis some of our FFP guides also reported quite good action on BWO 2 Bit Hookers.
Scuds, Ray Charles, Zebra Midges, Fire Starter Jigs, Rainbow Warrior Jigs and small Perdigons in Purple, Black or Green are good nymphs to fish too, whether tightline or with a NZ Wool indicator or an XS or Small Oros.

The Fall River is in summer mode, plenty of fish, plenty of folks fishing for them. Still, an absolute gem and to avoid the busier times got at day break and fish until 10 or 11, or go after work and fish until dusk. Mid afternoons is a great time, but it’s also an easy time to go, and there are other options.
The PMD hatches are ramping up and the BWO hatches are tapering down, but both are around to give you options. Tan caddis and olive caddis both in #16 are good, midges in a #22-24 or cluster type flies like a griffiths gnat in a #18-20, yellow sally #16, and bring a #10 green drake film critic and green drake sparkle dun and an ice drake in case the drakes pop off this week. Almost always around Memorial Day we get some good, consistent green drake hatches on the Fall River, and I know that MD is 2 weeks out, but with the weather being so good so early, I think it’s wise to be prepared with the option.
There have been really good streamer bites with smaller jig streamers, and also very good nymphing with Perdigons, eggs, 2 bit hookers, zebra midges and micro mayflies.

The Middle Deschutes has great pockets of Salmonflies and Golden’s, and all over look for PMD’s and Pale Evening Duns and Tan Caddis. Fishing has been consistently good from just above Bend all the way to Lake Billy Chinook, and that is a lot of river miles to cover, not all of it will have the same hatches but much of it is seeing salmonfly hatches and fish responding to large dry flies this week.
Other flies you should have include a Purple Haze #12-16, Yellow Sparkle Dun #14-16, Yellow Soft Hackle #14-16, Renegade #14-16, Olive or Purple Stimulator #12, Yellow Sally #14, Brown Perdigon #14-16, Olive Perdigon #16-18, Tan Caddis Pupa #16 and I would also enjoy some small streamers like a Brown or Olive Mini Gulp, Slum Lord and Micro Minnow.

We’ve had some good days over on the Mckenzie River these past 2 weeks and see some good fishing coming up in the future until about mid July and then I worry about water levels and navigation of the boats could be concerning. We don’t know this yet, but the river is already at August levels.
What is happening? good caddis hatches and some larger yellow mayflies, a few stoneflies and all of that leads to a great opportunity for dry-dropper fishing with a perdigon or soft hackle hanging a few feet off the bend of the dry fly.
The guides have also caught a bunch of fish on small streamers, typically swinging them on a floating line in front of the drifting boat, but consider a sink tip or a 10 foot sinking poly leader for this task to keep the fly swimming a little deeper.
Years ago Harry Teel and some other guys including his son Brad and our friend David Banks started the McKenzie Masters Golf & Fishing Tournament, with half the group playing 18 at Tokatee, and half fishing with esteemed Mckenzie guides, then the next day us multi-sport “athletes” switched to the opposite event. Scores were tallied on inches of fish per team for the event, and your golf score combined for the foursome. To make a long story short, Burt from Eugene was supposed to be my fishing partner with Aaron Helfrich at the oars! Bert got sick the morning of the fishing day so Aaron and I went without him. I spent all day in the bow of that drift boat with a (Larry Tullis) White Wiggle Bug on a 10′ Sink Tip, stripping the fly off the banks, and in the pools and pockets behind as many rocks as I could get the fly in to. End of the day result was ridiculous. My Wiggle Bug approach ended up winning the tournament and was responsible for more fish landed than any other 4 man team. A little Mckenzie history for you, and google that fly. It is an interesting one.

Stillwaters

Little Lava Lake is amongst the best of them right now, not every day is a tremendous callibaetis hatch but everyday has a good dry fly session with callibaetis, beetles and ants.
I got reports through the week from my friend Rob who really did well on his midge tip line and nymphs, Dan and Jerry who hammered a good hatch day and my own day there this week was fair with a short mayfly hatch, but incredible on a jiggy twist beetle.
I also saw a lot of traveling sedge (caddis) hatching and the fish were on them! Sadly, my traveling sedge box was home, but it didn’t matter in that moment because the fish ate the beetle like it was candy.
Balanced Leeches and Red Ice Cream Cones were also proactive for me this week.

Yesterday I was on Paulina Lake for day 1 of the year here. It was good, with Brown Balanced Leech/Orange bead and Vampire Leech/Chartreuse bead, Hanging with my Chromies and while not red hot, we did catch some fish on a beetle too.
What was really fun was seeing the fish in the usual early season places along the drop off zones and in the shallows, but also we used the type 8 full sink and dangled chironomids in 35 feet of water with success.
I expect to see flying ants there this week, because tuesday is going to be very hot.
Water temps is low 40’s.

Hosmer Lake is all open and fishing is off to a great start. Olive Chironomids, Balanced Minnows and Leeches, Damsel Nymphs, Callibaetis Cate and Red PT Jig. Callibaetis hatches are starting, beetles and ants are important, add some #14 black Elk Hair Caddis to your box because it imitates the spring time Alder Fly hatch we will see over the next few weeks, and make darn sure you have patterns to imitate the Traveling Sedge.
Upper and Lower Lakes are good, on the lower lake try a Tequila Blob on an intermediate line too.

East Lake reports are good already with nice catches of browns near the shoreline, slow stripping leeches, damsels, scuds and callibaetis. Or hang a Red PT and CB Cate on an indicator in 8 to 12 feet.
Keep an eye out for Flying Ants! Beetles and Flag Ants and Hippie Stompers are already good.
Early season chironomid fishing is a strong choice, but usually in water 8 to 14 feet, and olive #16-18, chrome #16, red #12-18, black with red rib #14-16 are super good choices.
The resort boat launch with the dock opens 5/15. Peeps with bigger boats can use this for easier and safer launching than at the USFS ramps. I appreciate the people at East Lake Resort so much, they are a winning team and offer a super good product and service to the people who visit them.

I didn’t intend to fish Crane Prairie this week, but a power winch problem on Thursday made my client Kurt and I regroup at Paulina and go to Crane after a trip to the auto parts store in LaPine. We found the same thing FFP guide Steve Erickson found the previous day and that was a fair bit of wind, strong at times and a good bite on leeches and chironomids. Kurt also got some fish stripping an unbeaded damsel on a 7 foot intermediate tip in shallow waters. That’s a blast. Even more so when I say lets move a bit and he says one more cast, I am going to get one here and does it. Happy birthday dude.

I got a super report from Skip and Dave who fished North Twin this week and found a lot of fish on my Jiggy Beetle.
Both North and South Twin are fishing well, and offer easy access to smaller lakes where motors are not allowed.
Chironomids, Callibaetis, Damsels, Leeches, Blobs, are good on both lakes.

I have heard some really good reports from Wickiup. Big Browns on damsels and leeches stripped in the shallows seems to be the best thing going. Also some incredible rainbows coming out of here. Get it while you can as the water will drop by mid summer and now is the time to get a good launch and explore the lake.

Shop Events

Next Friday from 1 to 3 at the Sisters Library Community Room my good freind and fly fishing outfitter from Argentina will be doing a presentation on fly fishing Patagonia! We’d love to share this with you and invite you to our free event and hope to see you there. Please email me at greendrakehatch@gmail.com of you plan to come. I think we have about 20 people signed up and the room holds 55, so I am not too worried about capacity.

Well, it is time for me to wrap this up and head to the fly shop for my saturday in the shop. I have some good projects to get done today, and need to go get cards for Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to the many many good women I know who are customers at FFP and serious fly anglers. You make the world go round and you are loved and appreciated.

Until next time, fish when you can and dream of fish always.

Jeff