I know a lot of you are getting ready for the holiday weekend and thinking about how to prepare for some fishing, and how to maximize the opportunities that you can find over the next few day, or throughout the upcoming week.
There is a lot of very good fishing to discuss and share so hang on your fishing hat and get ready for discussions about hatches, water levels, techniques and flies we love to use on our local waters.

On the Metolius River, so far the Green Drakes have been mostly below the Lower Bridge (Bridge 99) area. It seems late to me now that the big mayflies have not yet really popped near the hatchery or up in the canyon but rest assured they will. On what day, I don’t know but it will happen soon and go for the first 3 weeks in June throughout the river from the Gorge to Candle Creek. For now, have the nymphs like a Jig Tungsten 20 Incher, and a Peacock TJ Hooker. When the emergence is happening it can be great to run a Green Drake Spilt Case Emerger off the back of a Green Drake dry fly. 24″ of 5x fluorocarbon tippet to separate the 2 flies and keep the nymph up in the zone where trout looking up will notice it.
What is not late are PMD’s and Caddis and we have fished good hatches of both this past week and both will be important for the upcoming period lasting the rest of May and all of June. Caddis dries like Iris, Edible Emergers, X Caddis, Corn Fed, Keller’s and Henryville are wonderful for the surface, and Fat Caddis, Primetime Pupa and Sparkle Pupa during and well before the hatch. Did you know that Caddis Pupa may be in the drift for a vert long time before making it to the surface? I remember reading this in Gary LaFontaines epic book Caddisflies and Gary did the research watching the flies from underwater to know what he was talking about. This makes Caddis Pupa such a smart choice as a nymph to use frequently on all of our caddis rich rivers out west. I just read a substack by one of my favorite and most respected fly fishing writers John Juracek, and he rated his top 10 nymphs, and caddis pupa was the #1 spot. I for one get very mayfly focused and I know it is a shortcoming of mine that mayflies are my favorite kid on the team, but never overlook caddis, especially on the Metolius.
As for Mayflies, besides our drakes the PMD and BWO hatches are good to very good in many places on the river, and fishing the entire cycle of these 2 hatches from nymphs to emergers and crippled emergers, duns and spinners is essential for success on the Met.
Today marks the opening of the Upper River above Allingham Bridge! This is great water a place I know a lot of us cherish to enjoy a more quaint and easier to access area of the river. Up here those PMD’s and Caddis will be popping I’m sure, make sure to have some Soft Hackle PT’s with and w/o beads, Golden Stone nymphs, Caddis Pupa, Perdigons and Walts Worms, CDC Hares Ear, Frenchie’s and 2 Bit Hookers.
Over the next few days Monday looks to cloud up and cool off, this could be great for Drakes but also could be better for Bull Trout extending opportunities longer through the day instead of low light in the morning which tends to be the best on days with a forecast of a lot of bright sun. I’m not saying bulls don’t get caught in the middle of the day, but your best target time is first light and low light. Big streamers and jig streamers have been good out there. You need a 7 or 8 weight rod, and it always amazes me how many anglers come to the shop thinking they will catch a bull on a 5 weight. First of all, most of the flies are too heavy to be supported for casting on a 5 weight (or even a 6) and more importantly we need to respect the fish here. They are big and you always need to choose your gear to fight fish quickly, with respect for their survival, not just to wear them out to exhaustion. That is not honoring a special wild fish at all and it is our responsibility to do that and release them with the strength to live on. #bulltrout=nota5wtfish bumper stickers and t-shirts coming soon?

The Lower Deschutes is in big stonefly mode with salmon flies still important, but golden stones are perhaps a little more prevalent already. By no means do I think Salmonflies are over! But you want to make sure you have a good selection of the smaller 8-10 golden chubbies and clarks stones and norm woods this week.
There a lot of caddis on the water too, and it can be hard to switch to them when the big bugs are out. Watch rise forms, study individual rising trout and see if they might be on caddis or mayflies at any given moment.
The river is going to be very crowed this weekend with the combination of the hatch and the holiday.

The Middle Deschutes is now in Pale Evening Dun (#12-14 with 2 tails and a flattened looking head with pale blue eyes) and Pale Morning Duns (#16 with orange eyes and 3 tails and rounder shaped head), Blue Wing Olives #22, Tan Caddis #16 and very few stoneflies left in any of the pockets of river we enjoy from Bend to Lake Billy Chinook. There are some isolated canyons and tough to access spots in the middle D and is a place you might be finding less people for the weekend.

The Upper Deschutes OPENS today and is always a fun place to fish early season with some big brook trout, nice rainbows and quality whitefish on the list. Jig Streamers and Perdigons would be my guess to start with. Ants, Beetles and hatches of PMD, PED and Caddis should be going, but since today is the 1st day we don’t know the answer yet. One thing we can guess about is the mosquitos will be a strong force up there on the headwaters stretch from Cow Meadow to Little Lava Lake.
It’ll be interesting to know how the area below Wickiup is!

The Crooked River is fishing well on small nymphs and scuds. Perdigons, Lightning Bugs, Zebra Midges, 2 Bit Hookers, Split Case PMD, Halls CDC Hare Ear, Frenchie and Caddis Pupa are super good nymphs and add some Renegades, Purple Haze and Comparaduns to the dry fly boxes, and tuck a few Griffiths Gnats in the box in case you get a proper midge hatch in the evening that the fish key on.
Never discount the power of a soft hackle on the Crooked River either. Swung, Nymphed or greased as an emergent these work great here.

The Fall River is going to be mad house this holiday weekend, but going at dawn and fishing to about 10 or 11, and then going after 5 and fishing to dark will help you avoid the bulk of the crowds.
There have been good hatches including PMD’s, midges, caddis and some waning blue wing olives. Also look for yellow sally stones, green drakes #10 plus ants and beetles.
We are always enjoying some good action on small streamers as these fish like to chase or be enticed by a jigged leech with a lot of movement. And of course the nymphing action is just right with a light tippet and a heavy beaded fly that looks like an egg, mayfly, caddis, trout-chow or cranefly.

The McKenzie River is a hoot now, with good catches of both stocked and wild rainbow and whitefish on the dead drifted nymphs. There have been some hatches of olive caddis #14-16 and larger yellow mayflies #12-14, various stones #6-12 that stimulators and chubby’s will cover, plus the chubby is a great dry dropper rig fly to hang a nymph behind.
Hit them with some white streamers too, especially a small sculpzilla with a conehead. You can strip it or swing it and the hatchery fish will be enticed along with some black wooly buggers and jig streamers.

Lakes Report-

On a busy weekend on the rivers one might find a bit more solitude on the lakes! That’s one of the beauty’s of the lakes anytime in that on the rivers we are hoping to hit the eddies, a favorite riffle or run but on the busiest days those might be all occupied. Lakes offer so much more water to spread out that can be/is productive.

Great news today that the GATE TO THREE CREEK LAKE IS OPEN. Three Creek Lake is a gem for us here in Sisters and is a special place to go fish the banks by wading, or tubing it all around the lake. It is a small lake with no motors (of any kind) allowed and so you need oars or fins to propel yourself.
Since today is the 1st day it is open, I don’t have a report yet, but typically we do really well with black leeches with an orange bead or chartreuse bead, and red ice cream cones, flashback PT, jig PT in red, CB Cate jig, sheep creek specials and beetles, ants, red hippie stompers and it is quite possible you’ll already see callibaetis hatching and some damsels too.

Hosmer Lake is seeing a really good callibaetis hatch mid day. Some damsel action is starting and will improve quickly. This week we did incredibly well on a green leech! You’ll also want callibaetis nymphs for under an indicator and to strip on a very slow sinking line. Why would I say that? The lake is down by a foot or 2 in water level so even an intermediate line is going to hang up on the weeds too much to be any fun for using, so a hover or a 2 for ghost tip is a way better choice.
Keep some Traveling Sedge in your boxes and skitter a Goddard caddis when you see really splashy rises!
Another fly to watch for is called an Alder Fly, these look like a stout black caddisfly, but it’s a different species. A #14 black elk hair caddis is a great fly to match it with, and you’ll also find an occasional skittering presentation for matching alder flies is a good idea.

Little Lava Lake and Lava Lake have the same report and of course are right beside each other on the Cascade Lakes Hwy. Both are fishing great with a good afternoon callibaetis hatch, a strong bite on beetles and never forget your ants on any of the lakes.
Damsel nymphs, Balanced Leeches (watermelon, bruised and vampire), Chironomids (3 to consider are black ice cream cone with red rib #14-16, hanging with my chromies #16 and olive or red in a #18), Red PT jig, jig CB Cate and poxyback or marabou callibaetis nymphs to strip or use on a dropper tag with the Cate as the point.
I have been noting a lot of Tui Chub in Little Lava this year and emailed with ODFW fish biologist Jerry George who tells me they have observed these Chubs since the 40’s there and he thought this year might be seeing a more mature stage of the chubs that would be schooling. In any case, they are a pain in the ass and I make them bird food when landed and encourage you to do the same.

Crane Prairie is fishing really well on Balanced Leeches (Vampire, Bruised and Olive) and Ice Cream Cones, Chromies, Jig PT, Black Double Downs with the CDC Collar a Red Rib. As we march quickly towards June we ought to be seeing late morning or afternoon callibaetis hatches and damsel hatches too.
All areas of the lake from the Resort to Cow Meadow and the confluence of the Deschutes, to Cultus and Quinn and Rock Creek are good bets.

Wickiup is a really good bet now and is fishing well for quality browns and rainbows. Leeches, baitfish and damsel nymphs are super good for targeting cruising trout in the shallows. In deeper spots balanced leeches, Red jig PT, Black double down, and chironomids will be successful for the bobber down moments you want.

East Lake was very good this week with chironomids and terrestrials. Wading the banks with scuds, callibaetis nymphs and damsel nymphs is great for shallow zone fish, and certainly toss beetles and ants at them from the bank out, or from a boat inward. I know our guide Adison was on the bionic ant and the jiggy beetles with clients this week and on his own.
Hanging chironomids under the indicator is very good, plus play with jig red PT, CB Cate and balanced leeches from about 6 to 15 feet deep.

Paulina Lake was really good yesterday for us with a strong chironomid bite going mid morning in 8 to 15 feet of water. Throat pump samples showed a majority of the pupa as #18-20 olives with some #14 chromes with a black banding and that is what we did best with right on the bottom.
We also caught fish on olive and white soccer moms, both stripping them on a 7 foot sink tips along the drop off’s and under an indicator with a red PT as the dropper which also accounted for a fair number of fish.
We did well (enough) on a jiggy beetle, surprisingly none on an Ant or Hippie Stomper which are normally go to flies for us there. Water temps are still mid to high 40’s. For the 3rd time in a row I’ve been there, the fish were feeding on the surface to something aggressively in the afternoon and I do not see to what???!!!! An episode of stump the chump in the making. What I collected yesterday with my aquarium net were a lot of juicy lady bug type beetles, bigger than the ones we see in the garden and make a wish when they land us. I suppose this is possible, and believe it or not I carry 2 foam lady bug patterns in my box, but they were much smaller than what I collected and I don’t know if that was what they were eating anyway.

North and South Twin Lakes are good for tubes and wading access. Plenty of callibaetis hatching on both lakes, and damsel action and as always chironomids and leeches will produce, especially under an indicator. Beetles, Ants and Hippie Stompers are other smart dry fly choices. Sheep Creek Special, jig minnows, PT and Cates will get the bobber down.

Travel-

Dates for Argentina with Jeff
December 5-12, 2026 with a 2 night/3 day camp trip on the Rio Caleafu to begin the trip. $5500
January 9-16, 2027 with a 2 day/1 night camp trip on the Rio Chimehuen $5500
January 16-23, 2027 with a 2 day/1 night camp trip on the Rio Chimehuen $5500

Dates in Chile with Jeff
February 19-27, 2027 at Baker River Lodge $8000
February 27-March 6 at Magic Waters Lodge $8000

Dates at the Blue Bonefish Lodge in Ambergris Caye Belize is May 1-7, 2027. $ = prices vary depending on 5 or 6 days of fishing, but range in the $4200 to $5000 per week range.
I am delighted to move my hosted week to May as there are more tarpon to be had, and hopefully more permit to compliment the abundance of bonefish to be found in this area of Belize.

Enjoy your weekend, be safe on the roads and on the water and we look forward to seeing many of you on the water or in the shop soon.

Fish it well,

Jeff