Hello from La Ventana in Baja, Mexico. My arms are tired today from fighting big fish and casting big rods. A tough problem to have I know. I know. I love to travel to catch fish that are different from the ones we catch at home. I love to experience foreign food, different scenery and amazing cultures in other places, but at heart I love trout and the waters near Sisters that are near and dear to all of us. From here I dream of East Lake and the Metolius. I can picture a pale morning dun and the work it takes to get it to drift drag free in a challenging river like our home waters. I don’t even have to close my eyes to see the pumice beach blend down to the waters edge at East Lake, seeing the weed beds and knowing how good the callibaetis hatch will be there. This is why we fish. To remember places with such passion and vivid recall that we simply can’t forget about them.
What is your favorite place when you dream about your own fishing life?

The Metolius River is going to be a great place to be this week. In the next few days you’ll see cool weather and a high likelihood of rain today, and monday and tuesday. Don’t let that discourage you at all! Get there now, these summer rain days can get the bull trout in the mood (so to speak) and also make the mayfly hatches go crazy. Look for better than average PMD and Blue Wing OIives, hopefully Green Drakes too. Caddis and stoneflies might slow down a little, but I would still put a high priority on caddis pupa, especially tan #14-16 fat caddis, primetime pupa, sparkle pupa and prairie doggin’ pupa.
When the weather gets rainy the mayfly duns might take a lot longer to take flight, and in fact the entire emergence process might take a lot longer so really pay attention to emergers like the film critic and captive dun, add some sparkle duns and true dry flies like a comparadun and parachutes and keep an eye peeled on rusty spinners earlier than dusk for cooler days, and later this week when the warmth returns to Oregon by Thursday.
My friend Damon had some good fishing on Clark’s Stones, and another customer had some good fishing on Norm Woods Special, so look out for some early golden stones no matter what area of the river you visit. I won’t spill their secrets but they couldn’t have been further apart on the river and the fish wanted to eat the bigger stones. Keep an eye on the stones and know they are going to come on stronger and stronger soon.
With this front coming through try a natural pine squirrel leech nymphed dead drift and swung. Rain can make the bull trout get frisky and that is a great summer rainy day fly.
Of course there is always a good excuse to nymph the Met, either with an indicator or on a euro/tight line rig. Perdigons, Frenchies, Walts Worms, Soft Hackle PT, Caddis Pupa, Green Drake Nymphs and Golden Stones are top picks for the whole month of June.
PS- while I wrote this report I got another message from John S, a regular reporter to me and his success on the clarks stone too. And the improved fat ass caddis. Both are good oregon patterns, one invented by Lee Clark and one by some fella in Sisters named Jeff.

The Lower Deschutes is winding down fast on big stones, and based on the report I just got from the end of the 3 day trip it was very good fishing, but thank god for nymphs. Even the caddis were in retreat for whatever reason, but the bite was very good on a variety of small nymphs including caddis pupa, perdigons, 2 bit hookers, PT’s and frenchies.
Typically this time of year as the salmon flies and golden stones dwindle the summer caddis get stronger, and pale evening duns can occur anytime of the day but usually by namesake prefer the evening hatch period, and pale morning duns like afternoons and evenings too.
One thing to also consider more and more on the Lower Deschutes we are incorporating small streamers to the daily game. Dead drifting some, and swinging others will produce good results. Squirrel leeches, sculpzilla, slum lord and mini gulp’s are good streamers for the D in any stretch where trout live.

The Middle Deschutes River is a good place to go now, with good hatches of tan caddis #14-16, brown caddis #16-18, olive caddis #16, PMD’s #16 and PED’s #12-14.
There is a ton of good euro nymphing water from Bend to Lake Billy Chinook and you can attack this water anytime with the nymphing rod. Hatches are usually best in the evening but the later morning and early afternoon hatch, especially when talking about PMD mayflies is very possible.

The upper headwaters area of the Deschutes from Crane Prairie up to Little Lava has shown off some really nice fish and on a variety of tactics. Small Streamers like a sculpin or leech style jig is a great producer, but don’t be shy about swimming them under logs and cut banks. A terrestrial like an ant or black beetle is super good on any forested river, and you are likely to see PMD and caddis hatches, possibly green drakes and golden stones too. I would not go to the Upper D w/o a clarks or norms, and also make sure to have a green drake sparkle dun and film critic too.
This is super good water fo your Tenkara friends and is one of the ways I like to approach to the Upper Deschutes myself.

The Crooked River continues to be a heavy hitter for us, with good catches most days on little nymphs, decent to good caddis hatches and midge hatches. A few PMD mayflies are entering the mix now too and will be an important summer hatch from here until September or October.
Scuds, zebra midges, jig napoleon, firestarter, micro perdigons in black or purple, soft hackles, caddis pupa in both tan and olive, frenchie and soft hackles.

The Fall River is a great spot for a walk and wade trip and always a good place to find fish. RS2 emergers continue to be an impressive fish catcher of late, so make sure they are in the box alongside KD Duns ( I call them a one wing wonder) in both olive and yellow to match BWO’s and PMD’s.
Throw a couple of drakes in because it is quite possible to run into an afternoon hatch of green drakes on the Fall River in June, add hippie stompers, ants, beetles, olive caddis (with hemingways and elk hair caddis my own favorites there) and make sure you have 6x and 7x tippet for your small dries, 5x for the drakes and if you skitter the hippie stompers.
Some of the best fishing has been coming on nymphs, especially eggs, mops, perdigons, frenchies and slum lords.
True streamer techniques will be a fin way to explore the river in a different way, and while you don’t need a sink tip, it is a helpful tool for the streamer game.

The McKenzie River has been fun for our guides, and they are welcoming the incoming rains.
We’ve been seeing our best days on perdigons, baby got bead, tungsten leeches and swinging soft hackles and small streamers. If you see a hatch it could be yellow mayflies #12-14, olive or amber caddis #12-16, stoneflies #6-12, drakes #8-10 but we have not had very good dry fly action lately.
We do most of our guide trips in the Blue River area down to Ben and Kay. I have also been seeing some good catches happening below Leaburg, which is where I suspect we will end up guiding later this summer when the water levels get low on the normal run we guide.

Stillwater Reports

East Lake is really fishing the best of the bunch. Already there are good callibaetis hatches and all stages of this important lake mayfly are important to you on this lake. Beetles and ants, the beginning of damsel season with nymphs becoming a more important food source now. Tons of good indicator fishing with chironomids and red PT and callibaetis cate nymphs, or you can strip nymphs in the shallows on a hover, get out with an emerger tip slightly deeper, wind drift with a camo line, and even strips callibaetis nymphs and flashback PT’s on heavier density lines like a type 3 or 5 out to 15 feet of depth.

Paulina Lake is also fishing really well, working the edges and the drop offs with beetles, ants, balanced leeches, scuds and red PT’s, or nymphing the shoals with double down’s, chironomids and red PT’s and callibaetis cates.
Keep an eye over the weed beds that are 4 to 10 feet deep, as they are great nymph spots but also great to fish beetles over for whatever reason.
One of our customers write me last week and was elated with his success stripping mayfly nymphs on a type 3 full sink line! We love getting reports from our customers and our guides and friends so keep this coming. I love hearing from you.

Both Lava Lake and Little Lava Lake are fishing quite well and most days you should expect a good callibaetis dry fly session, and all days with nymphs of this important mayfly to our regional lakes. There are many great callibaetis nymphs but the callibaetis cate which a adaptation of the old Cate’s Turkey fly I discover in the 80’s tying flies out of Randall Kauffmann’s nymph books is one of my absolute go-to flies from size 14 to 18. I am working on some further ideas on making it even more fishy, so stay tuned to that. A poxyback cb, and a simple fly we get from Umpqua called a callibaetis nymph (very original I know) are good stripped on a variety of sink tips and full sink lines, or as a dropper on the tag with a CB cate or jig red PT as the point. I also really like the Howard Croston cb nymphs that match his drop back bung indicators, and at these lakes this fly is really productive.
Chironomids in red, olive, black and window tint from #14 to 18 are essential to fish the Lava’s.
Beetles have been particularly good, and the RP ant and flag ant should be used now too.
Damsels are getting active here, and balanced leeches are super important at times.

Hosmer Lake is good right now, with a strong afternoon callibaetis hatch, plus some traveling sedge which gives you an opportunity to skitter a big goddard caddis and get some hard takes! We are getting to the time where a little mystery bug occurs and they are called Alderflies. A black #14 elk hair caddis is a good match, but know these are not actual caddisflies.
Damsels are getting very active here, and while we haven’t seen the fish getting too excited for the adults, the nymphs are very important now. Leeches, chironomids, scuds, soft hackles and blobs are good choices around the upper and lower lake and in some cases are the best bets in the channel. I’ll sometimes fish a booby on a type 3/5/3 in the channel and kind of walk the dog with the buoyancy of the booby but I know its getting down on that triple density line.
years ago I remember really dedicated Hosmer anglers would fish type 3 lines with dragonfly nymphs and cast it across the channel, let it sink down to the mud and wait for the cruisers to swim by and they’d start the retrieve…
A couple of differences today compared to then is the filament algae that grows on the bottom in so many places would makes a mess of the fly before it was shown swimming around the fish, and with the low waters at Hoz this season it is worse than normal in a lot of spots.
Also, did you know Hosmer Lake was originally named Mud Lake? I am glad the name changed.

Three Creek Lake is fishing better early season this year than last year, with some days showing signs of greatness. Our customer James had an epic day recently on Balanced Leeches and Chironomids, and another customer was there and said the black callibaetis were everywhere and the fish were happy to gorge on them.
Bring some beetles, ants, red hippie stompers and black x-caddis for the evening.
Callibaetis cate, red jig PT, sheep creek special and a red ice cream cone are solid producers for us on the lake.

Well, it is time to go get ready for dinner here in Baja. Lots of good fresh fish and shrimp on the menu. We are having a great time, and trips like this are a great way to spend quality time with really special people. The group that is here now are all from Sisters and Redmond. I am very lucky to be able to share the world of fish with such good folks. Come with me on a future trip, whether it be to Patagonia in Argentina or Chile, or Belize or Baja! You won’t regret the experience you had seeing the world as it revolves around really cool fish.

Be well, and see you on the water!

Jeff