Greetings from Sisters where I am sitting in my new living room writing the report before I go the shop for the day. I just had my coffee and I hope it kicks in soon.
There are lots of good things to report on as we wind down the last 2 weeks of the general trout season and get ready for the “off season”, which I know for a lot of my friends is there favorite season.
I certainly love what’s coming too, and in Oregon there are always days to enjoy every month of the year with few disruptions of casting a line somewhere good.
For now we have another good looking forecast to invite us out to fish for the week ahead. We have low water conditions but prime temperatures for the health of the fish. We have fair to amazing hatches, and always the opportunity to fish nymphs and streamers on all of the waters I will report on today.
So I hope you make some plans to cast a fly this week. I told some people at Hosmer yesterday that days like that are the days we will be longing for in January. Fulfill your life now with being out on these wonderful autumn days.

The Metolius is really fishing nicely, but for dry fly action you need to be in the right place at the right time and I can’t assure you with were that place will be day to day. Some days I hear “nothing was hatching or rising at the eddy” and from a different friend “man, it was lights out at the bridge”. Same river, same day, separated sometimes by a single run.
I can remember being in the canyon pools one afternoon, fishing a favorite pool of mine and being able to see the center of the next pool upstream and knowing another angler was there because I could see his fly line loop rolling out over the next pool up from me.
I was in a wild hatch of mayflies. Mostly a mix of PMD’s, but Blue Wing Olives were in the hatch cycle too. I recall landing several fish there by the end of the hatch and was ready to walk back to the car when the upstream angler was also calling it a day. I asked how he did and he said it was slow. Slow? He said there was little hatch to observe and almost no rising fish.
This is the mystery of the Metolius. I want to say the mystery of spring creeks, but there is no river I know more punishing and more rewarding than “our” spring creek. Everyone occasionally blanks on the Met, but the goal is to fool to some fish and our shop I believe has the best leaders, tippet, flies and advise to get you there and be set up for more success.
Green Drakes #10’s and Flav’s #14’s are trickling to the end of their fall cycles, however the fish still want to eat these meaty mayflies and this week you should still see them hatching from Canyon Creek down to Bridge 99 areas mid-afternoon. You’ll also see hatches of #16 Pale Morning Duns, #18-20 BWO’s, #16 Mahogany Duns and #16 Cinygmula. Soon, the Cinygmula hatches will outnumber the PMD’s as we finish October and move to November.
There are plenty of October Caddis hatching, so the adult and the pupa can be great searching flies at any time of the day. A #10 Clark’s Stone was invented as a Golden Stone pattern by the great fly innovator Lee Clark, but I have zero doubt that fly also get’s them looking up for October Caddis too.
Tan #16 and Grey #12-14 and Charcoal #18 Caddis are a big part of the hatch cycle now, and a pupa, emerger and adult would be recommended to carry for all of these.
Mostly the Golden Stones are on the section from the Headwaters towards the Gorge in the best remaining numbers. A Clark’s or Norm Woods are great through here. Little Olive Stones can be found anywhere and a #16-18 parachute, Hemingway or Henryville are 3 super flies to match it.
With ten of thousands kokanee spawning in the river the Egg’s are heavily in the drift and a single egg nymph is one of the best this week. Caddis Pupa (october #8, tan #16, olive #14, grey #18) Soft hackle PT #14-18, Split Case PMD Perdigon #16-18, Jig Napoleon #14-18 in Brown, Red and Olive, Stonefly Nymphs #8-12 are ones you can’t miss. Small streamers you can fish with a tightline rig has been really good, with natural colored squirrel streamers one to have, and our Busta Seamz with an egg bead at the head is a wise choice for now, as it looks like a sculpin stealing an egg.
And big, bad articulated streamers or conehead streamers for bulls now but do it with a rod big enough to cast the fly and fight the fish respectfully. I use an Echo Streamer X 890-4, and a lot of the shop guys are on a 7 weight short spey. For me, I don’t like to wade the big runs on the river and prefer to have the single hand rod to thread the fly behind me the best I can from (or near) the banks. There is no doubt that limits me to now fish some runs effectively, but I am not in my 20’s like Mattias and Gavin who I think are 2 of the finest Bull Trout “specialists” I know. We all have to consider this as we approach the river and a technique for specific fish.

The Crooked River is still at 38 cfs BUT better days are coming on 11/1 as the BOR will turn it up to 50 for the winter.
Is it fishable now? Yes. Should you go? Probably. It isn’t going to hurt the fishery or the fish to be fishing this river at this level. If anything, it is going to be tougher in many places to fish well, and in other places it may be easier. If the water levels were here in July and August with relentless heat I’d have a different tune, but if the Crooked is on your radar, go enjoy it. Spanish Bullet, Purple, Black or Pearl “micro perdigons”, Scuds, Midges, BWO’s, Ray Charles and Eggs are the flies to bring.

The Fall River is fishing really well. Late morning hatches of BWO’s #20, transitioning to PMD’s #16 in the afternoon. Amber Caddis #12-14, tiny midges #22-24 (or smaller…yikes) plus Ants and Beetles and Purple Hippie Stompers.
Small Streamers either dead drifted, swung or stripped, including balanced leeches, slum lords and croston’s minnows. Eggs and Mop’s are great flies for stocked trout and you’ll find a lot of stocked trout in this river.
And never forget the nymphs here! I personally prefer a single perdigon on a 6.5x fluorocarbon tippet. A Spanish Bullet is a favorite, Red, Brown or Olive Jig Napoleon, Perd-Split Case PMD, Duracell and Walts Worms. Zebra Midges, Olive Scuds and Rainbow Warriors could be 3 more flies to round out your kit this week.

The Lower Deschutes has been really good for a lot of people on our team lately. I know Mattias met our old friend (and former FFP superstar) Drew-Who on the river for a float 2 days ago and they hammered it.
Leeches and Sculpins and other Micro Streamers have been highly productive. Eggs, Caddis Pupa, Duracell, Spanish Bullet, Perdigons, CDC Jigs and Girdle Bugs are excellent. You can approach the river in a lot of ways with a Euro set up, strike indicator or with a Trout Spey 93 or 4 weight) and swing some of the streamers.
There is a little dry fly fishing to be had too. Poke around the eddies and some shallow edges with a Purple Haze or Comparadun, look for Mahogany Duns and BWO’s and the final days of Tan Caddis common all summer on the river and making the final pushes now in mid-October.
Still no announcement from ODFW to re-open the river to steelhead fishing. To me with 41,000 hatchery steelhead passing bonneville dam so far in 2026 they should open a fall season on the Lower D. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this so shoot me a note if you have an opinion to share pro, or against opening the river to steelhead fishing now.

The Middle Deschutes is a strong option this week for some closer to home fishing. With flows up after irrigation season ended it is a great opportunity to target browns on Streamers.

The McKenzie is good and we are having some quality guide days there on a Chubby/Perdigon, Leeches, Sculpins, Caddis Pupa, Soft Hackles, Duracell’s, Possie Buggers and King Prince.
With low waters there are more opportunities to wade fish the river too, and some of our customers have been taking advantage of that, really focusing on the trout spey and swinging leeches and sculpins.

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 FFP guide team.

LAKES REPORT

You may recall back in June I wrote about ODFW coming up to Hosmer Lake to inspect the dam at the outlet, and finding 4 significant holes that needed to be patched? They were eager to go on that project and yesterday was day 1 (of 2) with ODFW and the Oregon Youth Corps working to get those leaks fixed by filling the holes with a quickcrete type of material. They were hopeful and optimistic they would bet it done today and that the lake should have a better volume next year if it proved successful. It was amazing that one of the lead ODFW guys remembered me from June and was proud to be back with the team to be fixing it. This is now the first time they’ve done this by the way, but I am just glad they are keeping up with it despite the budget cuts they have to deal with.
Another very cool thing from yesterday at Hosmer was I finally got to meet Jerry George, who is the ODFW district biologist and someone I have traded a fair number of emails with as I keep tabs on the local fisheries. Jerry was part of the project at Hosmer and I got to shake his hand and put a face to the name. He was younger than I expected him to be, but I am probably getting to the age where a lot of people are.
The day before yesterday (10/15/26) ODFW stocked YELLOWSTONE Cutthroat Trout in Hosmer Lake. They are small now, averaging 7 inches. But this is going to be a unique opportunity next season to see how these fish do here.
As for the fishing, it was good! Dave and Brent (both good anglers in the boat) did ok on a Red PT Jig under a NZ indicator with a hand twist retrieve when it was calm in the morning, but once the breeze put a ripple on the water it was game on with streamers. Jig Minnow, Rowley’s Balanced Minnow (they seemed to like the Eyes?) , Soccer Mom, Vampire Leech stripped on an intermediate. We also had some interesting action with a White Booby on the intermediate, casting it long and letting the line sink completely to the bottom and stripping it erratically making the foam eyes wiggle. Some great chases and amazing takes. If I was going back today to fish the same fly I would use a type 3 or 5 full sink line to allow for faster turns on the retrieve. Waiting for that intermediate to sink 3 or 4 feet, or up to 5 or 6 feet in some spots was a long time to wait.
Water boatman are active too and a floating pattern or sinking pattern is a smart fly to add to the box now on all the lakes.
So, definitely some exciting news and exciting fishing from the lake now.

Above- New Customer Brent with his 1st ever brook trout! Also worth noting he never lost a fly, where someone else in the boat yesterday lost more than enough. Since that persons name sounds like he’s in the witness protection program, we shall protect his identity further here in the blog. But he knows the damage was done. Needless to say a LOT of laughs were had in the boat the last 2 days, only eclipsed by a lot of really good fishing.

I had several good reports from Crane Prairie this week. Stripping leeches on slow sinking lines has been quite good, and as always the balanced stuff under the bobber.

Little Lava Lake has been picking up and some very nice fish are being caught. Fish are coming on several things but some standouts have been Red Hippie Stompers, Red 2 Bit Hookers, Olive Leeches, Chironomids, Callibaetis Nymphs.
For me, running the Stomper as the indicator and the 2 Bit as a dropper 2 to 3 feet off the bend of the dry has been the best.
Water is low, it’s a good temp and it’s clearing up after being so green for the summer. I think the next couple of weeks will be good there.

Paulina Lake is my main jam now. I have been getting some exciting days on the lake, mostly with beetles. There are some enormous browns showing up in shallow waters, and we’ve caught some nice (but not enormous) ones on foam beetles over the past 2 weeks.
Balanced leeches and minnows with a sink tip, full sink or with an indicator, and also under the indi try PT’s, CB Cate, Scuds, Bead Head Prince and 2 Bit Hookers. It’s never a bad idea to cycle through ice cream cones and other chironimids with Black/Red (body/rib) Olive/Silver, Red/Silver, Chrome/Black but in my observations lately the chironomid bite has been much less, and I have also seen very few adults taking off the water while I am in place we normally see them. This seems to be true for a lot of the waters now.
Also worth the comment that my customer and contributor to reports John was wading the backline near Little Crater and had good bank access catches so if you don’t have a boat, this is a good possibility to enjoy Paulina too.

East Lake is good and some very nice browns are showing up near shore here too. Minnows, Leeches and Scuds are top 3 choices. Launching a drift boat at Hot Springs is an option, it is maybe ok for some to do that at EL Campground, but its a lot of muck and not much depth to get the boat floating so having 2 strong people to push the boat off is helpful. Or just wade the edges and walk the beaches.
Beetles are still a thing of course. I have caught fish here during a snowstorm on beetles.

Three Creek Lake is a good time to walk the shorelines and fish the edges with olive leeches with an orange or chartreuse bead, Micky Finn’s, Zonkers and natural or black Squirrel Leeches. A Hover Line, Midge/Emerger Tip, Intermediate or Type III full sink can all be used, with the Type III most likely if you’re in your boat cruising the deeper sections.
I would also be thinking beetles and ants and Hippie Stompers for the fish still looking up to eat.

This is the time of year Suttle Lake can create some interest with some darn big brown trout near the Link Creek confluence.
What they eat remains a mystery, but they are there no doubt about it.
One of my bait fishing friends (hahahaha, it’s good to have friends from all walks of life I guess) told me he kept one of these fish and it was full of snails.
I remember in years past some of my customers had success with big orange October Caddis dries skittered. Another of the biggest fly caught browns I ever saw came on an all black lead eyed wooly bugger. Do bigger than average browns lure you in, even if they are stubborn and difficult to catch? If so, Suttle Lake for the next several weeks might be for you. Evenings or crappy grey days are the times to be there. Bright light you’ll probably see squat.

Justesen Ranch is fishing really well on all the lakes and ponds now. Leeches and Chironomids have been incredible. $150 per person per day for what is likely to be one of your very best fall options. We can book it for you, or tell Amanda Justesen Jeff at FFP sent you. This should be a viable option for another month.

TRAVEL

One spot left January 9-16 with us in San Martin de Los Andes Argentina with Southern Loops Fly Fishing. $5500.

Belize May 1-7 at the Blue Bonefish Lodge with Jeff. A great trip for singles and couples. Prices vary depending on the couples package, a la carte add on’s, or the 5 or 6 day double occupancy packages but an average fishing package is in the lodge is $4950 with Villa rooms a little more. The couple package at $7795 (for 2 people) with 1 or 2 days of additional a la carte guide rates added on is a great value for the week and has been super popular with our FFP clients who travel with a spouse and sometimes both fish, and other times only one fishes, but in the end everyone is happy.

La Ventana Baja with Angling Baja and Mattias Arrive 5/26/27, fish 27-28-29-30-31 and leave June 1 back home. Santi who owns Angling Baja is a good friend and has a vast knowledge of this fishery and is an exceptional host for the group. Roosterfish in May is a prime time and there ought to be a lot of big Dorado around too. $5900

I have 7 more guide trips for the season, and take off to Argentina on November 16th. Lots of work to finish at the shop and at home between now and then.
I hope to see you on the water or in the shop and I always love hearing from so many of you through the week commenting on the report, sharing your own stories or just being “in touch”. I love it, so keep doing it.

Jeff