I believe Tennyson wrote that “tis better to have hooked a trout and lost it, than to never hooked it at all”. Or something like that… Actually it is a line I give to my clients in the boat to cheer them up after the LDR.
I am always a bit sad when the folks that I fish with get down on themselves when a trout comes unbuttoned. Be proud of the accomplishments it takes to fool the fish in the first place. When we go fishing we play a game with the fish. Sometimes the fish win. That is as it should be.
As anglers we can always work on improving our skills in all aspects of fly fishing. One of the skills I encourage people to work on is fish fighting. It begins with the proper hook set, with a feel for how hard (or soft) the rod tip needs to be raised to get the j-o-b done. The hook set on a 14′ 6x leader with a #16 PMD is certainly different than seeing your bobber dive under the surface and setting quickly and hard while fishing 12′ of 4x with a balanced leech and an chironomid dropper. Setting the hook usually means coming straight up with the rod tip, not off to the side. I watch 1000’s of hook sets each year, and so many more fish end up lost during the fight because the initial hook set was not done well. I coach people to come straight up over their shoulder or head, and then strip 2 or 3 strips of line to get tight. From there the variables of what the fish does will decide on how you handle it, but in any case your rod butt and reel need to be in front of you at chest or belly level. At this point the fly line needs to be under your finger on the cork. so that your stripping hand can be utilized and effective. “Long” arms and loose lines (the result of long arms) result in a lot of lost love. What I mean by this is that if you set the hook with a controlled arm motion and don’t reach your arm way behind your shoulder, but keep it close to your center, and you have the line control with fly line under your middle finger on the cork you use your stripping hand to gain control of slack and you’re prepared for whatever direction the direction the fish will go. You can strip in, let line slip out as thew fish pulls away, and you can get to the reel. But the rod tip is buffering the tippet breaking strength and once you gain that control you lean in to the battle and learn to pressure the fish and pin their angles so they can’t make another long run, or they can’t run underneath the boat, or under a log. This is the point where the rod angle changes to allow you to get more power from more of the fly rod. It is called pinning and It is fun to practice all of this because you have to hook a lot of fish to become a competent lander of fish too. Is is artful to watch an accomplished angler fight and land fish quickly. To realize the subtle differences in the pressure and angles that create the control we need is the goal.
So go ahead and lose some fish, laugh at your self and the fish. This is all about fun.

BEFORE I START THE REPORT, I WANT TO LET YOU KNOW THE 40 YEAR ANNIVERSARY PARTY WILL BE POSTPONED ON JUNE 27TH TO NEW DATE HOPEFULLY IN AUGUST. BETWEEN OTHER EVENTS IN CENTRAL OREGON 6/27, ALL OF THE STAFF IS SUPER BUSY AND THAT WEEK BEFORE THE 4TH OF JULY ROOM RATES FOR OUT OF TOWN GUESTS WERE TOO FREAKING HIGH. I’LL SET A NEW DATE SOON AND HOPEFULLY WE CAN CELEBRATE THE LEGACY HARRY AND DEE TEEL STARTED IN 1986 AND THE PURE LUCK OF ME RUNNING A BUSINESS THAT SUCCEEDED SINCE I TOOK OVER IN 1991.

The Metolius River has seen some incredible PMD, caddis and little olive stone hatches, plus a mix of BWO’s but what is missing from my list and should not be missing from my list are Green Drakes. Oh sure, there are drakes hatching and some nice days have been had here and there with them, but the real hatch, the explosions of green drakes has still not occurred. If you are fishing anywhere from Canyon Creek down to Candle Creek it is essential that you have size 8 and 10 drakes in nymphs, emergers, cripples and duns. Also, this week both John Kreft and Chester Allen wrote about or talked about green drake spinners. Spinners of drunella grandis and drunella doddsii are rarely seen. Entomology books indicate they likely come back to the water to lay eggs in the darkness of morning, or perhaps late at night. Over the years on the Metolius I never saw a green drake spinner until about 3 or 4 seasons ago and witnessed a massive dance of spinners that soon turned to a spinner fall with females on the water and trout feeding selectively on them.
Are we seeing a new behavior? Are the spinners of the drakes changing and becoming a viable daytime food source and another fly we as anglers can choose to fish our favorite river? It appears so this week with multiple sighting of drake spinners on the water in the mid morning times over the last several days.
It could also be because of the weather this week, as we also saw the PMD spinners (rusty spinners) mid day. If you fish the river a lot or your’e a frequent reader of this report you know the rusty spinners usually are at dusk.
The weather is going to be way more stable this weekend and upcoming week and I hope for some great hatches and great fishing to coincide with the beautiful week ahead.
With all of the river open now, we have heard some good reports from up near Camp Sherman and above Lake Creek. One customer did well with a Norm Woods special. I have no idea why! Golden Stones are at least a month away from hatching, but no matter what the hatch chart says, or doesn’t say I would try a Norm Woods or Clark’s already in the upper river based on this. PMD and caddis have been all over the river in the upper, middle and lower stretches.
We continue to have very good success on caddis pupa, PT’s, brown and olive perdigons, Frenchie’s, micro mayflies to imitate both PMD and BWO nymphs, plus big nymphs to imitate golden stones and green drakes.

Besides the guide reports this week from the Crooked River, our good friend and former shop dude Captain Drew (retired fireman) was out there camping and fishing this week and he said the fishing was absolutely on fire! Of course the storms got a little crazy Thursday, but the river itself was not affected by the storm and remains at 246 cfs.
Drew was swinging soft hackles and fishing dry caddis patterns mostly. Besides the caddis, scuds, zebra midges, winkers, 2 bit hookers, skinny nelson, caddis pupa, renegade, purple comparadun, purple haze and keep an eye on PMD’s and add some yellow comparaduns and parachutes too.

The Fall River is fishing quite well too, with our best guide days happening on micro streamers and slender, tungsten beaded Perdigons in a variety of body and bead colors but always with a chunky bead to aid in sink rate! Brown and Olive and Purple have been solid for us on the nymphs, and black, olive or white streamers like a slum lord, jig minnow, croston’s minnow and a mini gulp. Never count out an Egg and a MOP for the Fall River, as some days the fish get kooky on stuff like that.
There is a good PMD hatch going and fishing the cylcle starting with the nymph using a PMD Split Case or Micro Mayfly, Klinkhammer and Film Critic for emergers, KD Dun for the cripple and Comparaduns and Parachutes for the duns. Don’t forget the spinners and keep an eye on them especially if you plan to stay late in the day and fish to dusk.
There have been decent to good hatches of olive caddis #16, and some yellow sally’s, plus a fair number of ants and beetle activity coming from the forest and stumbling into the river by accident. Don’t forget to add a purple or red hippie stomper to your terrestrial box, it transcends into the attractor/terrestrial offering really well and is a compliment to a crowe beetle or foam beetle that are a bit more realistic.
One other thing I would carry in my fly box this week on the Fall River are green drake emergers and duns. Like the Metolius they haven’t quite popped as well as we hope for. Yet.

The McKenzie River trips have been a lot of fun and our guide team is finding some good fish, including natives in the first third of our float, and a good mix of stockers and wild fish and some feisty whitefish too on the rest of the area we usually cover from below McKenzie Bridge to Ben & Kay takeout.
Our guide Eric has been using a Vampire Leech, Baby Got Bead and Caddis Pupa with a lot of success. Little Red Copper John and Perdigons have been great and running them off a PMX or a Chubby is super good in the afternoon.
Hardly any mayfly hatches this past week….and just a few smaller stones around. It seems to be a caddis year for the most part.
We want to remind our readers that fishing for Bull Trout in the McKenzie is not allowed.

The Lower Deschutes River is very likely going to see a resurgence in Salmonfly and Goldenstones over the early to mid part of the upcoming week with warm weather returning the bugs that have been hunkered down because of the cold winds and heavy rains are going to want to fly and lay eggs and get the next generation in progress. Think about that for a minute, the salmon flies that lay their eggs this week will be the responsible parents of the hatch 4 years from now. Goldenstones are 2 or 3 years to maturity as nymphs for the adults to hatch. It is so cool to think about the longevity of the nymph cycle, and how they migrate around the river for survival over all those days as a nymph. But for now, I highly recommend the Lower Deschutes! This coming week hit it with the stonefly dries like Norm Woods, Clarks Stones, Golden and Orange Chubby’s and the MFC’s Fool’s Gold to match both salmonflies and golden’s.
Besides stone flies we have been seeing excellent caddis emergences with #14-16 tan caddis and #18 charcoal caddis mostly in the mix, and pupa, adults and egg layers may all be very important.
This week we saw moments of glory with some PMD hatches, and while the fish did not go nuts on the adults, they ate the nymphs great. Troy also had a lot of good luck with little red 2 bit’s and red copper john’s as a dropper behind the big dries.
Pale Evening Duns are a going concern on the Lower D from here until usually sometime in Mid-August. We just got some larger Yellow Soft Hackles and a new “haze” parachute, the Yellow Haze to compliment the Purple Haze we love so much.
Plenty of solid nymphs to use with caddis pupa, perdigons, jig streamers, PT’s, hares ears, copper johns (red), 2 bit hookers and girdle bugs. Some Trout Spey friends have also been swinging sculpins and crayfish colored flies.

The Middle Deschutes is a long, gorgeous stretch of river we can enjoy from just above Bend, including stretches right through the city, down to Tumalo, Cline Falls, Lower Bridge and Steelhead Falls all the way to Lake Billy Chinook. The diversity of river over all those miles really changes what you might experience including types of fish and the kinds of bugs they will be eating.
In most cases through here the PMD’s, Pale Evening Duns, Tan Caddis, Yellow Sally’s Blue Wing Olives and attractors like Renegades, Stimulators and Purple Haze often do the trick though the summer from now until mid to late August. One thing we will will keep an eye on, and you posted about is summer flows and water temps, and if they get dangerous for trout survival we will get the word out. For now, all is well if not just about perfect to enjoy a day of fishing through here.
While I personally stick to a lot of dry flies in this area, you can’t miss on the nymph side with Euro Nymphs like a Jig Soft Hackle PT, Frenchie and Brown Jig Napoleon.

The Upper Deschutes, especially talking about the area between Little Lava Lake and Crane Prairie which we refer to as the headwaters stretch is fishing nicely with good catches of rainbows, brookies and whitefish. A lot of the action has come on a dry dropper or euro nymphing a walts worm, perdigon, rainbow warrior, mini gulp or slum lord. Get some conehead sculpins to swing undercuts and logs and you might end up with some really interesting catches. Green Drakes should make an appearance soon, but for now some caddis and PMD’s along with ants and beetles will be good to search the runs and bank lines with.

LAKES

It was a tough week on the lakes with storms! heavy winds battered the lakes most days and then strong thunderstorms hit on Thursday with a vengeance. I had some “interesting moments” to say the least on Wednesday and Thursday, and had to cancel or postpone 2 other trips this past week. It appears that is behind us and we have calmer and more normal weather to look forward to and I think fishing is going to be quite nice across the regional lakes this coming week.

East Lake is one of the best places going now, with a great variety of fishing to enjoy from nymphs under an indicator, to dries during the hatch or conjuring up a rise to a terrestrial or using a variety of sinking lines to cover water with nymphs and leeches and streamers.
It’s early to see them, but callibaetis are already emerging on the lake! Stripping nymphs or fishing them static under an indicator is a great method. You could find fish feeding on swimming nymphs over the weed beds and shore lines and in that case a non bead head nymph on a hover or emerger tip is the way to go. Most days a CB Cate and Red Jig PT under an indicator is really strong. Look for fish in the 6 to 12 foot deep range. Hint, they are not always on the bottom so adjust the indicator to dial in the depth as needed.
Fish are looking up on the hatch and also responding to terrestrials and seem to like both ants and beetles about equally.

Paulina Lake is also good and while the rainbows are usually a bit smaller than East Lake bow’s, they are fat and healthy and have been eating chironomids and black double down (very similar to a dark assassin but with a cdc hackle and 2 tungsten beads). A Vampire Balanced Leech and Brown w/ Orange Bead are great under the indicator and keep scuds in mind as dropper if you fish the leech along the rocky drop off’s.
Beetles and Ants continue to be a good staple to fish dries with here, Red Hippie Stompers and Red Tarantula and Peacock Caddis are good ones to search with too.
On the last trip up there we had good luck with both a Platinum Soccer Mom and an Olive Soccer Mom stripping them on sink tips and also under the bobber.

Crane Prairie is good, and damsel nymph action is improving a lot now. Stripping a damsel in shallow weed beds and around the logs is a good choice. Chrironomids, including thin black/red ice cream cones and hanging with my chromies are producing best. A larger #10-12 red ice cream cone is a good choice now too, plus red jig PT, 2 bit hooker in red and callibaetis nymphs.
Crane can get surprisingly good in June with callibaetis hatches , and it can also be really poor with callibaetis when you would expect it to be better. Keep the mayfly faith and I’ll let you know tomorrow if I see any on the water.

Little Lava Lake and Lava Lake are both seeing good callibaetis hatches! Pre hatch nymph action on a sinking line or under an indicator is pretty darn effective. Our CB Cate is my favorite for sure. When the hatch progresses, emergers like a captive dun, brooks sprout, film critic and timberline emerger are my go to flies. For the dun a parachute like a purple haze, extended body and comparadun are good, and add a spinner like the Gallop’s bent spinner and a cdc biot body spinner.
Leeches and damsels are in the mix and for sure beetles and the flag ant are great, especially after the hatch is over and the fish are still looking up in the afternoon.

Hosmer Lake is good in all areas of the lake from the lower lake near the boat ramp, to the channels and up in the upper lake. There has been a strong hatch of callibaetis here in the afternoon. Damsels are also improving and will be a key food source for quite a while as nymphs and as adults. I’ve been on Hosmer a lot this past month and leeches are a constant food I pull out on the throat pump, from big black leeches to smaller olive ones it is apparent that the fish want to eat leeches now. Small olive scuds and callibaetis have frequently been in that mix too.
The water is low, I think at least a foot or more lower here than the last couple of years. It is noticeable and running an indicator means doing it really close to the flies in the upper lake especially. Stripping flies is a mess in a lot of spots, but not all. What you’ll notice and it might go away is a fine algae filament that gets stuck to your fly really easily because it is on the bottom on many places throughout the lake and channel

Three Creek Lake has been open for a bit, but I really have not had a report back from there. I would guess it to be good with holdover rainbows and brook trout! Usually early season we do well with a bruised leech/orange bead, red jig PT’s and red ice cream cones. Historically these are the top 3, but I heard from some folks that callibaetis are already hatching and that blows my mind, so make sure you have the flies to fish bottom to top for the hatch at different points of the day. Add some Sheep Creek Specials, Flashback PT’s and of course ants, beetles and red hippie stompers for this lake! And if you go, please give me an update.

North and South Twin Lakes will be solid choices this week from a tube, pontoon or small motorless boat. Callibaetis, damsel nymphs , ice cream cones, blobs and leeches. Definitely work the lakes with terrestrials, especially beetles.

A special tribute

12 years ago today I lost my best friend Matt Klee to a Mtn. Bike accident in Canada. Matt was amongst my favorite fishing friends and my best friend for many years.
I met Matt through his sister Amy, a classmate of mine at COCC in Bend. Amy told me I had to meet her little brother and arranged for us to fish the Fall River together. We were great friends from that day on.
We spent so many days on the Fall River in the early days, and float tubing at Hosmer Lake. Later both of us got boats and drifting the Deschutes was a regular occurrence. Matt was part of the Friday Night Fish Club on the Fall River with Chester and other friends, and was an extremely talented angler from the time I met him, and he just got better and better over the years. I proudly use his Orvis CFO reel on my Sage 5 weight, and think of that reel screaming line off the narrow spool all the way from the Deschutes River to the Ahuriri River on the South Island of New Zealand where we had a great adventure together.
Towards the last years of Matt’s life he became a spey rod fanatic and loved Deschutes River steelhead. He would go from his home in Hood River to the mouth of the Deschutes and swing flies, often successfully before going to work across the Columbia River at Insitsu where he worked on their drone program. He was a trained aviator and an expert skier, and skiing was one more thing that brought us together. He is the one who made me fast.
I will never forget the night 12 years ago the call came in that Matt was gone. We still had plans to go to Patagonia, and he had not yet tried saltwater fishing. He would have loved the trip I am going on next week to La Ventana in Baja, Mexico. He’d have gotten up early with me to fish for rooster fish, and then spent the windy afternoons hauling ass across the water and sky on his kite board!
One day when we were punk kids dressed up as serious, adult anglers (simms, orvis, patagonia and columbia were our wardrobe, and sage fly rods were our tools) I remember we were on the Fall River. It was a rainy spring afternoon and each of us had on our green SST jackets and a patagonia mesh fishing vest. If you reminder the era in the late 80’s you remember the silvery grey mesh and the blue rip stop nylon pockets that held the perfect amount of fly boxes. The vest was a tool and it was status.
I was working a fish that was in a tight pocket behind one of the fluffy plants that grow beside the river there in abundance. And in a brief moment of changing flies that son of a bitch waded in front of me and cast a foam ant just upstream of the trout and immediately got the fish to eat. I will be forever “mad” at Matt for that. It delights me to think of this almost 40 years later and still be able to picture the scene and feel the emotions over again. And see his look as he turned to say Fuck You to me.
On friday night fish events I had a summer when I began to smoke weed on the river before fishing. This was way before legalization, but it was my first summer of trying it. Matt was 3 years younger than me, and I wouldn’t let him try it. I was protective of him as a brother. I never had a brother but he was as close as they come.
Somewhere along the way on a river or a ski slope he began calling me Kevin. I really don’t know why? But it was indeed my nickname and I’d answer the phone and he’d only say Kevin. And the conversation began from there. It is just such a random nickname it is hilarious, and I think that was the point.
I want to share a photo of my great friend and share the real quote that Alfred Lord Tennyson said about his best friend after losing him in the 1800’s:
I hold it true, whate’er befall; I feel it, when I sorrow most; “Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all.
To Matt! One of the finest anglers and humans the world of Kevin would ever know.

Until next week when I will be updating this report form the beaches of Baja. Be well, take care of each other and don’t fret about losing fish. Although you can practice at getting better with the hook set and rod angles to be better than you were on your last fish.

Kev
5/30/26

PS- I started writing about 5:30 AM this morning. It is 9:54 PM now. I left to work at 8:30 and tried to finish this there, but busy weekends didn’t allow for much time at the keys. And the last part required some thought, some time in a quiet place and kleenex to get through it. I don’t take this job lightly and I appreciate all who read the report each week.