Good morning, many of the evacuation levels have been reduced or dropped around Sisters from the fire. The fire crews really are heroes here! Thank you and wow. Air Quality Index (AQI) is green all over Central Oregon from the Metolius down to the Fall River. The closest monitoring station to the Crooked River is also green this morning.

This week looks to be a great one for getting back to normal!

Metolius Golden Stones, PMD, Tan Caddis, Little Olive Stone, Yellow Sally’s, BWO, Rusty Spinners with good fishing possible on all stages of these aquatic species, plus add some ants and beetles to the dry fly selection. Bull Trout activity is good on larger streamers. Tons of great nymphs but some to make sure you have are PMD Split Case, PT Soft Hackle, Golden Stone, 20 Incher, Yellow Jig Napoleon and Olive Perdigon with Orange Hot Spot!

The Fall River is good with Tan, Olive and small Black Caddis, Midges, PMD’s, Yellow Sally’s, Ants, Beetles, Hoppers and Purple Hippie Stompers. Really good nymph fishing is happening here, with Perdigons, Eggs, Scuds, Zebra Midges, and Mops. Try the 20 Incher and TJ Hooker too. For streamers the little ones are always good, Croston’s Minnow, Slum Lord, Squirrel Leeches and Sculpzilla’s.

The Crooked River is getting a bit of a PMD hatch, with the afternoon shadows usually being what gets them going. The PMD Split Case either in the traditional pattern or the newer Rio Perdigon style is great. Ray Charles, Scuds, Zebra and Winker Midges, 2 Bit Hooker and Soft Hackles.

The Lower Deschutes remains closed due to the wildfires near Warm Springs. Hopefully we see some improvement there very soon.

The 4 lakes to fish (that you can drive to) are Three Creeks, Upper Hosmer, East and Paulina. As always in July and likely for a good chunk of August we should take a water temp and stop fishing at 68. I get antsy about it at 66 and start tying on crappy flies and super heavy tippet on clients rods at 66. Hahahaha. Do you believe me? On the lakes this time of year the Damsels and Callibaetis are the most likely hatches. Little Black Caddis, Traveling Sedge Caddis (Goddard), Midges, Ants, Beetles, Hoppers, Aero Red Legs (a favorite at Paulina), Leeches, Chironomids and Blobs. Are you trying Blobs? It’s interesting how they work. A lot of time we use on the dropper tag, and the fish end up eating the point fly. Often the point is à Chironomid, but might be a Leech or Mayfly. We’ve seen our fish count go down when we chop off the Blob. Why would that be? The theory is the Blob draws them in for a look, and then 20” away is what they really want to eat. It’s not 100%, nothing ever is with flies. but it is worth trying. And never forget the Jig Red PT on our lakes. Add some Sheep Creek Specials at 3 Creeks on your next trip and fish them on a Camo Intermediate Line.

Have fun out there, breathe in the fresh air (Camp Sherman was 6 AQI at the time of this post, which is one of the best in the country).

See you soon, on the water or in the shop.

Jeff