Hello from beautiful Sisters, Oregon. Are you fishing this weekend? Or waiting for the weather to clear this week again to enjoy time on the water.
I am glad I postponed my trip on the lakes today, as I saw it is snowing in the mountains again. This is 2 weekends in a row of wild weather on the high lakes. I hope it is a sign of the winter to come. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see a snowpack hit 140% or more? Fill up the lakes again, provide better flows down the rivers and keep habitat for the fish we love so much.
I’ll be guiding on Tuesday (Milt), Thursday (Mike and Amy) and Friday (Ted and co.), all a great group of people. Also, all have gone to Argentina with me at some point and I need a few more of you to do so too. I need to find 4 more for January 9-16th and all of my trips to Patagonia will be full. Can you join us?
Tomorrow morning I am going to the dermatologist for an overdue skin check up. Too much sun, too much weather. I am sure I will get scolded, and probably deserve to be scolded. I wonder if anything will get frozen off? I try hard to cover my upper body, and I put sun block on twice a day when I am guiding, getting coverage all over my face, ears and neck, plus my hands are usually exposed so I lather them up too. Do you take a lot of precautions with the sun when you are fishing?
Wednesday is going to be a fishing day for me before the move to the new house next weekend. It is another busy week. Oh, and I start Spanish classes at the Bend Language Institute this week on tuesday and thursday evenings through mid November. Estoy trabajando en mi espanol.

The Metolius has had some brilliant days of fishing lately, and that is likely to stay the same, maybe it will even improve this month. The Flav’s #14 and Drakes #10-12 have been okay, nothing really earth shattering yet on their hatch activity but enough of both to get the fish looking up for them from the Canyon to below Candle Creek.
PMD’s and some early sightings of the Cinygmula already, so yellow mayflies in #16 and #18 are needed. Emergers, Cripples and Duns. And don’t forget the Rusty Spinners, really important for a warm evening outing.
Mahogany Duns are showing up in the afternoon hatch cycle, so a Quill Gordon, Upright Rusty, Purple Haze or Comparadun, Grey Comparadun are all good in a #16 to match these.
BWO’s are improving and important. #18-20 mostly and have the whole hatch cycle covered with nymphs, emergers, cripples, duns and spinners.
Caddis hatches have been awesome. Micro Caddis #20, Tan #16 and October Caddis #6-8 are the ones to really focus on. There are probably others that pop up, so an Olive #16-18 and Grey #14 won’t hurt to have in the box too.
Stoneflies are abundant, with Little Olive Stones everywhere and on the water, the fish love to eat these in September. Golden Stones are spread out in pockets of the upper, middle and lower sections of the Metolius, but the section from the Headwaters to Gorge CG is the best. This is Clarks Stone water. Cascade Stones and isolated Salmonflies round out the big stones so carry a big Chubby in case you are in a spot where the fish are eating one of these large Stonefly species.
Lot’s of fish being caught on the Fat Caddis, Soft Hackle PT, Walts Worm, Frenchie and Perdigons.
Certainly add some 20 Incher’s & TJ Hooker (peacock) for Drakes, Golden Stones and Eggs.
Bull Trout action is good to very good. Big streamers seem to be getting the most action, but a smaller jig streamer is a double duty contender to catch rainbows, browns, bulls and the occasional monster whitefish.

The Lower Deschutes was really good on the trout side (steelhead season remains closed), with Black Leeches, Eggs, Walts, Frenchies, Perdigons all awesome this past week.
The Warm Springs to Trout Creek Float has been solid, or walking in at Mecca or Dry Creek, or up from Trout Creek provides good access.
On warm evenings we are still seeing good caddis hatches and a mix of PED and PMD’s and on the cloudy days like today BWO’s.
Get ready to start fishing October Caddis Pupa too, and in the fall Stonefly nymphs both Black and Golden are pretty darn good.
If you’re missing the swing, bring a 4 weight Trout Spey and swing sculpins and leeches and other streamers to trout! It’s a blast. Or a 3 weight Spey with a soft hackle.

The guides continue to impress me with their fishing and boating skills on the McKenzie and just keep having really quality trips there. Lots of Dry Dropper action and some good side drifting leeches and nymphs for great trout like this one the Enright group caught last weekend:

The Middle Deschutes is a great spot to target this week, with morning and evenings likely to provide the most action. Brown Perdigons and Soft Hackle PT in the AM through early afternoon, with some PMD hatches after 10 AM likely. Evening dry fly fishing will pick up with PMD and PED, X Caddis Tan and BWO’s.
I would also recommend small euro jig streamers like a brown Mini Gulp and a Slum Lord.

The Upper Deschutes is closed in some areas and other areas are open until the end of September. Pay attention to the Oregon Regulation book to know you are OK. The floats from Wickiup down are still good. Depending on the day you can hit great dry fly action, Tricos early AM, BWO, PMD, Mahogany Duns , Caddis maybe, Grasshoppers and Beetles and Ants. Certainly streamers off the banks and logs!
The walk and wade area from Crane Prairie up towards Little Lava is good, mostly with Nymphs and small Streamers, but a Chubby/Perdigon Dropper is a good combo, Purple Haze, small Stimulators, Renegades, Pink Adams, Ants and Beetles will all do the trick here too.

The Fall River was nice and mellow last week after the holiday. Some of the FFP guides celebrated having few crowds to contend with while fishing there this week, and reported some really nice fishing days.
Micro Streamers, Balanced Leeches, Eggs, Mops, Rainbow Warrior, 2 Bit’s, PMD Split Back, BWO Micro May, Zebra Midges, Walts Worm in light and dark shades, Perdigons and Scuds are fabulous on a Euro Rod or under an indicator.
There have been good hatches too. PMD and BWO are the 2 that get the most attention. Make sure to have cripples and emergers, with the (one wing) KD Dun being my favorite here. Film Critics and other emerging mayfly patterns are great, but really work best on a very light tippet here.
Ants, Beetles, Hippie Stompers and play with some Grasshoppers in a few spots. It doesn’t seem to be a big hopper year, but if nothing else it’s a nice attractor and can also act as a solid indicator fly.

The Crooked River is dropping more each week but it is flowing well and fishing is quite good. PMD hatches in the afternoon, caddis in the evening. Scuds, Perdigons, Eggs, Mini Gulp Olive, Ray Charles, Rainbow Warrior, and Midges are great choices with a NZ Wool or XS Oros Indi, or on your euro line.
I am a little concerned about the flows on the river in the winter. They really used the water in the reservoir and the levels are super low. I hope they can keep it flowing at 100 cfs, but I bet it will be 50 or 40. I hope I am wrong.

LAKES REPORT

Troy had some good guide days at Hosmer Lake this week. He said fish are starting to move down the channel from the Upper Lake and that the Lower Lake was at a safe water temp too, although he didn’t see many fish there yet.
His flies of choice were Callibaetis Cate’s, Balck Zebra Midges and Purple Haze.
I think the next several weeks this is going to get even better and I look forward to some good days here until the snow flies.
Streamer fishing will improve, watch for baby damsels nymphs to be a good fly (#14-16), Water Boatman action, Ants and Beetles, light hatches of mayflies but enough to create some attention.

Gavin was at Little Lava yesterday and provided a nice report to share. Water conditions were about the same for him as I saw earlier this week when Skip and Sean were in the boat with me, and that was a bit soupy and green. But I imagine that is a top layer and doesn’t got all the way to the bottom because for us we did quite well on a brown tail, olive body, gold beaded balanced leech hung under the indicator 7 to 9 feet. And got a few on a chironomid dropper too. Gavin got creative and was using his 15 foot ghost tip (I’m sure a Hover Line will be just as good) with a washing leader set up; Blob on Point, Diawl Bach on Dropper and he had a Cruncher on the “Bob” tag na switched to a Timberline Emerger. The Diawl Bach and the Timberline accounted for a lot of fish for him.
I’d like to see that algae layer clear up. The Callibaetis hatch is pretty good most days but not many fish are eating anything on the surface, I think because of the scuzzy layer at the top of the lake.

I had Tim and Michelle in the boat at Paulina on Wednesday (more on that later) and we decided to go to (big) Lava Lake for their 2nd day on Friday. I had a good report from Fred V at the end of August, deep dangling and I was like yeah, let’s go!
We launched in water so mucky green I couldn’t see the trailer sink under the surface layer when I backed in the boat. Yuck. We fished from about 9 to 11:30 and I said let’s have a Pow Wow and asked them if they wanted to stay or try another lake. We agreed to leave to find more clear water and I chose one lake I don’t fish too often, but I knew it would be clear, and that we’d catch some small rainbow trout on dries or balanced leeches. 20 minutes down the road I launched the boat in Cultus Lake and we worked the shore and the shoals with beetles, but they didn’t get the attention I hoped for, so I switched to a Red Tarantula and everyone caught fish with some decent action for a couple of hours.
That is one of the prettiest lakes in the region, totally under fished but I understand why a lot of anglers don’t want to go with the Jet Skis and Ski Boats and a few with thumping music going.

Paulina Lake was good Tuesday, but on Wednesday there was a biblical hatch of Wet Wood Termites (thank you Scott for the ID) and in my 53 years of fishing on Central Oregon lakes I have never seen the surface of the water so covered in insects. The fish were gorged in an hour and half and I heard didn’t feed well at all for at least 2 days after…
Overall, Paulina is good and worth the efforts. The shoals and weed beds are good with nymphs, both callibaetis and chironomids. My throat pump samples show a ton of #20 olive pupa mixed with bombers up to #10, most often brick red with silvery sides. Some black and tan pupa showing up, and bright green “blood worms” (larva).
Balanced leech, or leeches and Chub Streamers are good. Scuds and a Red 2 Bit Hooker as a dropper are 2 I like a lot.
Most afternoons look for callibaetis, more towards the resort side around 2 to 5.

I have not been to East Lake or have any reports to share form the week. Water is low and getting harder to launch a boat. No problem for pontoons and tubes, and ok with a drift boat as long as you can back down far enough on the ramp at EL CG.
If you go, I’d like to know how you did.

Three Creek Lake would be miserable today with the cold snowy conditions right now, however this week looks awesome in the mountains and it’s going to be a good week to be up there.
Surprisingly last week the callibaetis hatch is extending way beyond what I always felt was the expiration date at 6400 feet. Seems like a #18 is the best match.
Balance leeches, Olive Buggers with an orange bead, Diawl Bach, Flashback PT, Poxyback and CB Cate’s, Scuds, Sheep Creek Special and dry flies besides the #18 (maybe #16) CB’s include Beetles, Red or Purple Hippie Stompers, Ants, Griffiths Gnat and Royal Chubby.

TRAVEL

All the Patagonia trips are 100% full except january 9 to 16 in Argentina. Come join us! It’s a fabulous time to fish in Patagonia and also a really fabulous time to be out of the Pacific NW winter! $5500 for the week with 7 nights lodging/6 days of guided fishing.

Belize May 1-7 is getting some good filling. Don’t wait too long if you want to come with me.

Mattias is going to be taking the group to Baja May 26th for 5 glorious days of Roosterfish and Dorado. Room for 5 people as of now.

I will be in the shop Monday and hope to see you there, or out on the water in the week ahead.

Be well, and I will be too.

Bugs