good morning from Portland, Oregon. I am over for a quick family trip and home tonight to get back on the boat tomorrow morning. I look forward to the week ahead, finally getting to guide Pat B from the Deschutes River Alliance, and working in the shop Monday, Friday and Saturday and I have some incredible people in the boat Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There will be some stories from this weeks boat episodes. Perhaps a little swearing, some talk about baseball, fly fishing clubs and life happenings from both sides of the boat.
I want to shout out to Adam S for his first Bull Trout this week on House of Metolius with Mattias. Good job fellas.

I am relieved somewhat by the last couple of days weather up at East and Paulina. Both lakes got a dose of heavy hail and rain. I fished Paulina all week and water temps were borderline by lunchtime, and by 2 they were too warm. East was heating up ever faster (it’s so much more shallow) so I rested it this week but plan to be back on it this week, likely with the nicest woman in Eugene and her husband, old what’s his name. (and so it begins).
I know yesterday afternoon I called over to Sisters and it was pouring rain in town. Hopefully that also made it over to the Metolius and up to Three Creek Lake.

The Metolius is kicking in to gear again on hatches and better dry fly fishing. Over the final 2 weeks of August you can expect good hatches late morning, afternoons and evenings to dusk on any given day. And of course you can nymph and streamer fish all the time and take hatch intricacies out of the equation. I know a lot of anglers who never dry fly fish, and they can’t be my friends, but I understand the motivation to just fish nymphs, or just fish what you know.
For me, the Metolius is dry fly church and somedays the fishing gods smile down on us, and other days our dry fly prayers are never answered. Is nymphing the equivalent of making a deal with the devil? It depends on mow many millimeters your tungsten bead is.
For mayflies expect to see Blue Wing Olives #18-22 and maybe even some 24’s. Ugh on 24’s. Pale Morning Duns #16 and #18’s mixed in on occasion. Ameletus #14. A lot of us would look at these and say they are Flav’s, but several years ago I was lucky to be fishing with the author and entomologist Rick Hafele when they were hatching one august afternoon and he took some back to the microscope and determined the species. Finally spinners, especially for the PMD’s so a #16-18 Rusty Spinner and an Olive #20-22 should cover it well.
Caddis are abundant and so far the massive micro caddis have not yet arrived but I think they will this week. #20 iris caddis in yellow and #20 cdc or elk hair caddis are good matches here. #14-16 Tan or Olive Iris, Henryville, Corn Fed, Weiss’s and X Caddis are all playful patterns now and really for the next 2 months.
Stoneflies include golden stones #8-12, little olive stones #16-18 and a few salmonflies #6 and my freind Damon saw some of the 1st cascade stones #6-8 the other day. More of this to come, but you want stonefly dries and nymphs on the Met now.
The Metolius is a river with distinct hatch zones. Some things hatch better in the middle or lower sections and not at all upriver. The upper river is less diverse, but with smaller water sometimes easier to figure out.
Whether you approach this week on the river with your Euro Rod, or Indicator rod, there is a lot of good nymphing to be found. Soft Hackle PT, 2 Bits, Caddis Pupa (and by the way, the October Caddis are maybe 10 days out from their 1st appearance later this month) PMD and BWO Micro Mays, Red Lightning Bug, Split Back PMD Frenchie, Perdigons (olive, brown, purple are my fave’s), Golden Stones and Eggs.
I want to encourage you to really pay attention to the Bull Trout for the next 2 or 3 weeks. What I mean by this is watch them for ACTUAL spawning behavior. If you even think she is digging a redd you have a responsibility to not be fishing there. And not be wading there! Some of my FFP team is already seeing spawning behaviors in the main stem of the river. A lot of the Bull Trout spawn in the tributaries, but some use the river itself and if you are fishing for spawning BT’s, I wish you a broken rod tip and leaky waders on your next trip. We as anglers and the crew of us who come together around that special river care about the long term health of our fish more than short term gratification of fishing for a fish on a redd. This is just beginning and will be more prevalent in the next few weeks. But watch for it.

The Fall River is of course our other cold water spring creek, and the fishing over there remains good! Early morning and after 4 PM will give you more of the river to enjoy in peaceful times, with mid-day being the busiest times to share the river with other anglers. I frankly would just skip the hatchery from 10 to 4. Spread out.
There has been some awfully bad behavior out there with people crowding one another out, fishing too close, and also “stalking” people because they want the spot someone else is in. This is not cool. And it’s happening at some of the well known holes on the hatchery grounds.
I am not saying this is how to do it, but on the McCloud River on the Nature Conservancy you arrive and grab a entry tag off the HQ building and if they have one to grab you can go in and fish, if they are all gone, you can’t. Would this be a good idea on the hatchery?
A fun mix of techniques will net you fish on the Fall, from jig streamers to small (but heavy) nymphs, to dries including specific match the hatch, match the terrestrials and attractions that just get the fish to look up.
Here are some great flies to choose this week: PMD’s #16 (emergers, cripples, duns and spinners) BWO #18-20 (same life cycle match as PMD’s if you are doing it right), tan and olive caddis #16-18, black or grey midges #22-24, ants #12-18, beetles #12-18, tan grasshoppers #8-10, orange missing link #16 (these are so cool), purple or black hippie stompers #12-14. Zebra Midges in Black and Red #18-22, Scuds #16, 2 Bit Hooker #16-18, Micro May BWO #18 and PMD #16, Split Back PMD #16-18, Frenchie #16-18, Walts Worm #16, Duracell #12, Slum Lord, Balanced Leeches, Jig Minnow, Mini Gulp, Sir Sticks a Lot, Squirrel Leech and Sculpzilla.

The Crooked River is running at normal summer flows and is 245 cfs as of this writing. The reservoir is at 34% capacity so imagine they are going to keep running it for a bit until fall and drop it down.
Fishing is good, and the water remains cold below the dam at least for 6 or 7 miles down stream.
There have been some decent PMD hatches and you want to fish the life cycle of these from nymphs almost any time of the day (a split case perdigon is awesome, and brown or yellow Napoleon perdigons do the trick, as does a Frenchie), Film Critic, Knock Down Duns, Sparkle Duns, Parachutes and Rusty Spinners. We always like Purple Comparaduns, Renegades, Parachute Adams (have you tried our new Hot PINK Body one yet?) and small Hoppers.
Great action on Olive or Brown Jig Napoleons, Scuds, Ray Charles, Eggs, Soft Hackles, Mini Gulps and Leeches.

Our guide Gavin gave me a great report from the Lower Deschutes, and it included an interesting perspective I want to share with you too. He said after the closure and the rest period of anglers on the water that it has been quieter down there, and the fishing picked up after the break from previous fishing pressures.
For our guide days we hit the water in the morning and take off around 4 or so. So during that time it is mostly a nymph and small streamer game. Gavin said 2 Bit hookers, Girdle Bug Jigs, Olive or Black Leeches and Eggs.
In the evening there are some good caddis hatches including tan #16 and grey #20 micro caddis and the tail end on Pale Evening Duns for the year. You can keep on eye on PMD’s in the evening, or morning, and during the day osmne of the eddies will collect enough dead bugs that fish will circulate there and sip, sip, sip.
Remember Steelhead fishing is now closed until at least mid-September.
Let’s hope for a better run this fall and re-opening of the season for Steelhead.

The McKenzie is getting lower, running at 1770 cfs on Gavin’s last trip. He was bumping a few rocks but had some good fishing on leeches and jigs.
Troy was reporting similar reports on leeches and perdigons and also running them as a dry dropper with a chubby.
Plenty of fish to the net fo really good days with our guides.

The Upper Deschutes walk and wade section upriver from the Road 40 Bridge is a fine place to spend a summer day! We’ve been finding nice whitefish, Redbands and brookies mostly on perdigons, Frenchies, Walts Worms and Slum Lords, with some fish up to Chubby’s, PMD’s and terrestrial offerings.
It is also nice the mosquitos have dwindled by quite a lot, but still bring your repellent.
The float section from Tenino to Bull Bend is also fishing well and seeing both PMD and BWO’s, plus hoppers, ants and beetles and good streamer action especially during low periods early morning or evening.
We can guide you up here too as our Forest Service Permit allows us 30 user days on that section. Let us know if you want to go. Troy and Micheal know the section really well, and like me, suggest anglers with upper mid level skills to get the most of the day up there.

LAKES REPORT

A welcome back to our guide Steve who was out for a bit dealing with some health stuff. He was back on the lakes this week and I think everyone but the fish are happy about this.

I spent my whole week on Paulina Lake because I felt it was the only lake that I could count on safe water temp’s from start to finish. Mostly that was true.
Steve and I both saw good beetle action from morning to at least early afternoon. I also found a purple chubby, purple hippie stomper and a few on a yellow hopper here and there.
On a couple of the days earlier in the week water temps did elevate to 68 to 69 by 2 PM. I hate to see that but I have 2 thermometers that take water temps to 30 feet deep and it was exactly 60 down there. We deep dangled and got enough action to keep it interesting, although we needed to keep moving to keep getting hooked up. Big Chironomids #10 Ice Cream Cones (Black and Red) and Blobs did the trick for us.
We also caught some fish on a Spectrum Brown Leech with an Orange Head under a Medium Oros Indicator.

I do not have a current East Lake report, but I am very hopeful that the hail storms on Thursday (and I know it at least rained there yesterday, maybe another round of hail too?) could have helped water temps go down.
Please watch it, and plan to fish dawn to noon and after that maybe not. There is no reason to be going up for the evening until we break this cycle. If we want to keep fish for the future we need to take responsibility now.
So far the 2nd brood of callibaetis has not been seen. I hope they show up later in August and that we have a magnificent September of mayfly madness.
Hoppers, Beetles, Ants, Damsels and a good chance of Black Caddis too.
Deep Dangle with a blood worm, ice cream cone and blob. Deep indicator at 16 to 18 feet with a slip strike indicator.

Lava and Little Lava are not fishable due to algae and water temps in the high 60’s and 70’s.

My friend Rob gave me a nice report from Three Creek Lake yesterday. They fished in the morning and said there was a good mayfly (callibaetis) hatch going when they arrived and lasted for quite a while. Rob said the fish were really sipping the spinners, but of course with a mayfly hatch make sure you have nymphs, emergers, duns and spinners.
Vampire leeches and Bruised leeches continue to be producers, either under an indicator or stripped in on a hover, emerger tip (or ghost tip) line. Ice Cream Cones, Red PT Jig, CB Cate,
Beetles, Ants and Red Hippie Stompers are good dries during the day, black X Caddis and Raccoon Midges for Dusk. I am excited to see what the rest of the month can bring up there at 6500 feet. Hopefully a lot of good fishing.

SHOP STUFF

T&T Rod sale at 40% off continues. We have been selling a lot of them, but have plenty left, including a lot of Zone models in 4, 5 and 6 weights for $400 each. Come get hooked up or call us and we can mail one to you.
Lamson Guru Reels at 20% off now. New Guru coming soon.

Travel

December 5 to 12 Argentina. 5 spots to fill. $5500. Quite possibly one of the coolest trips to do with the camp trip on the Rio Calefu to start the week.
January 9-16 I have openings but January 16-23 looks like we have filled the last 2 spots…
Chile February 19-27 has 3 spots left. One spot will be with me as my partner for the week. $8000 on the Baker River. Nicest Lodge we go to.
The nicest Lodge we go to for saltwater is the Blue Bonefish in Belize May 1 to 7. A few commitments so far for these optimal dates for the Grand Slam. Let me know if you want to be on the list.

Thanks again for being a part of the shop, the fishing community and lovers of fish along with me and the FFP Crew.

We are in this together.

Jeff