Hello on the last official day of Summer. It is looking like a lovely day ahead and then, on queue is more like autumn the rest of the week, with temps dropping to the high 50’s to the low 70’s through the upcoming week. There is a little rain coming to Sisters this Friday. To me it looks like a really good week to be out fishing, and starting tomorrow I will be again.
I missed getting my normally scheduled report on this weekend. I was moving to my new house in Sisters and had a bit of a doozy weekend with the mover cancelling the morning of the move. Thanks to my fly fishing community that rallied to help me at the last minute. Skip, Chris, Gavin and Phil turned a bad break into a day that accomplished goals. The fly fishing community is really special, and that is a huge reason I have stayed working in it for 40 years. The people, the fish, and the places we go are the parts that mean the most to me.

The Metolius is fishing really nicely now, with good Green Drake (#10-12) hatches in the afternoon from the Canyon down to at least Candle Creek. Plan on Flav’s (#14) in there too. Possibly at the same time.
When I was there last week my best catches were on a PMD Film Critic and Spring Creek Chute.
Phil was there the day before and told me bring your nymph rod dude, because he went the day before and hardly any fish were up to the dry fly, but he had a good nymph session. I was hopeful to just fish the dry fly and was successful with that choice.
A lot of the team at FFP texts each other fishing reports, and Phil texted last night that he had a beautiful day of dry fly fishing Sunday afternoon. He said it was how the Metolius should be in September! We all love September on this river.
There are still a lot of stoneflies as would be expected. Little Olive Stones #16-18, Golden Stones #10-12, Cascade Stones #6 and (very few possible, but could be important) Salmonflies #4-6. Golden Stones are fun to use from Gorge CG to the area near the Headwaters. Also very good on this water to drop a Soft Hackle PT or Perdigon.
Other mayflies besides the PMD, Flav’s and Drakes will be BWO’s (#18), Mahogany Duns #16, Cinygmula #16-18 (these will be more prolific in a couple of weeks, but Chester reported seeing them on a recent rainy day).
Don’t forget Rusty Spinners #16-18 and Olive Spinners #18.
AND Caddis! Lot’s of them. Tan #16, Grey #14-16, October #8, Micro Caddis #18-20 mostly tannish yellow but some are charcoal colored.
Nymphs to add to the box this week include Golden Stones, Eggs, TJ Hooker, 20 Incher, Perdigons, Walts Worms, PT’s, Red Copper John, 2 Bit Hooker and PMD Split Case Emergers.
And if all that wasn’t good enough news, Bull Trout fihsing has been really good, mostly on larger streamers often fished on a sink tip, but some streamers under a large indicator and tight lining euro jig streamers too.

The Lower Deschutes seems to have found its moody side this week. I had a mix of reports from the guides and from some friends who went to enjoy it and some days reports were better and some days not so much. The Euro stick was the game changer.
2 thoughts on this: in the fall the fish can be in really shallow areas so keep an eye in those zones besides the usual spots. Sometimes the end of summer just gets slow on a lot of waters, and there is no doubt over the years how the Lower D is a moody river at any time, but accelerated before the real fall weather returns, and then it seems to get more consistent again. We are close to that happening.
Stonefly nymphs, small streamers, leeches, sculpins, 2 bit hookers, october caddis pupa, tan and olive caddis pupa, eggs, walts worms and a myriad of perdigons.
If they come to the surface it will be on a purple haze, yellow #16 or olive #18-20 comparadun or sparkle dun, x caddis, fin fetcher and corn fed caddis , spent caddis and rusty spinners.
Bring your Euro rod, indicator rod, trout spey, and dry fly rod and be ready for anything. Mattias is still crushing it with heavy nymphs and rolling the bottom with light tippet. He also said this past week there were a lot of morning mayfly hatches and a lot of micro caddis out.
Here is a photo of our good friend Kelly out with FFP guide Eric the other day.

The Middle Deschutes is a fun place to hit up this week. From Bend to lake Billy Chinook the fishing is good. PMD, BWO, Caddis and attractors will be good for you this week. I always love the Purple Haze here!
Small jig streamers and brown perdigons, soft hackle PT and tan caddis pupa.

Remember that the Upper Deschutes above Benham Falls to Little Lava Lake closes in 9 days on the 30th of September. The area from Sheeps Bridge to Browns Crossing and up to the dam at Crane Prairie is already closed.
The floats from Wickiup down stream are good now as is the walk and wade area from Crane Prairie towards Little Lava. Lisa and Ray our shuttle drivers are suspending shuttles from Tenino as of today due to the condition of the road there, but the LaPine State Park to Big Bend drift is all good.

The Crooked River is dropping to 117 cfs. Usually winter flows are 100 cfs, but I don’t think we will see 100 cfs all winter this year.
Fishing is really good, with excellent PMD hatches, improving BWO hatches, black midges and some tan caddis.
Great nymph fishing to be had too, with BWO micro may, 2 bits , split case PMD, zebra midge, walts worms, scuds and ray charles.

The Fall River has been quite good too, and has even had some days with very few people out there.
Our best fishing days still are coming on little jig streamers and heavy, but small nymphs. Eggs, Mops, Micro Mayfly, Zebra Midges, 2 Bits, Perdigons and Walt’s Worms.
Hatches have been pretty darn good with PMD #16-18, BWO #18-20, Mahogany Duns, Olive and Tan Caddis #16, Amber Caddis #14-16, Midges #22, Ants and Beetles too.
One of my favorite times of the year to be on the Fall River is now until the cold days stack up in November, but rest assured there are going to be lots of good days to fish all over before that happens.

I didn’t get any recent reports from the McKenize this week, but expect it to be about the same as last week, if not a little better. Our guides sure love it and have been doing great on a Chubby/Perdigon combo. Also nymph fishing perdigons and leeches and other small streamers.

On November 1st we will run our Fall Special on Guide Trips again. $500 float trips and $400 walk and wade trips for the whole month.
Hit us up for a later season trip and enjoy another day or 2 out there with this exceptional guide team.

LAKES REPORT

East Lake has been overall good most days with good callibaetis hatches occurring mid day, and fish happy to feed on the dries when it is happening. Boat launching is tricky, even with pontoon boats due to low water. But it can be done and is worth the effort if you’re good at that. Beetles and Ants along the shorelines, and chironomids and balanced leeches in 12 to 16′ under an indicator.

Paulina Lake was really fun for me last week, and one of the things I loved was the variety of fishing we were able to do. Some callibaetis hatches going, but the dry fly action was far and away a beetle show, with red hippie stompers #2. Aero Red Legs is a favorite fall pattern and a good one to run as a dropper with a purple chubby point fly. I had some excellent days of bobber down action with chironomids at 14 to 18′. Brown was the best color, black with a red rib and all red with silver rib were productive too.
Watermelon and Spectrum balanced leeches at the ledges are good, and callibaetis nymphs over the weed beds. It was nice to see several much larger fish to the net on our last trip.

Hosmer Lake is ramping up for fall fishing. The fish are moving down the channels now and not all stacked on the “line” in the upper lake.
Leeches, streamers, water boatman, scuds, chironomids, zebra midges (Troy did really well last week on them), callibaetis nymphs are all good on a floating line and indicator or using an emerger or ghost tip line.
For dries, beetles, ants, black callibaetis, a floating water boatman, griffiths gnat and purple chubby.

Crane Prairie is low and clear. Fishing is generally tough and needs to be approached with a finer tippet, more precise chironomids and leeches and a sensitive indicator like the Drop Back Bung or NZ Wool .

Little Lava Lake is slowly clearing the algae bloom, but is fihsing well none the less. Most of the action is on balanced leeches lately, however a callibaetis nymph has been good at times, usually before the hatch is best as the nymphs are most active then.
There has been a decent callibaetis hatch most days but only some of the days do the fish seem to care whats happening on top. Maybe because of visibility from the summer bloom?

Three Creek Lake is very much worth the trip, and with the fall weather coming that ought to push the brook trout closer to shore and great to fish olive or white streamers with a fluorescent bead.
Callibaetis are still active, but size down to an #18. Beetles, Ants, Hippie Stompers on the top, and bruised balanced leeches under an indicator with an ice cream cone or hanging with my chromies as a dropper.

ARGETNINA TRAVEL

I need 2 more people for January 9-16, 2027 to join me in San Martin de Los Andes! This is such a good trip and for $5500 for the week it is priced 25 to 40% less than the lodges in the area fishing the exact same waters. Let me know if you want more details, and yes, I will be on the trip too and would love to travel with you and share such a memorable trip.

Shop Stuff

We have some Simms G3 Wading Boots on sale for 30% off. If you mention this note from your favorite weekly fishing report come get a pair for 40% off!

Be well, and see you on the water.

Jeff