We’ve had a lot of great days on the Lower D from Warm Springs to Trout Creek including some surprisingly great afternoon dry fly action.
Usually that dry fly fishing is holding off until dark, but my guides have discovered some pretty cool new stuff that is working well.
It’s mostly a caddis show, and you’ll need Pupa fished deep, Pupa emerging in the film, Adults and Spent Caddis to match all the stages you’ll encounter throughout the day.
PMD and Pale Evening Duns are important too, especially in the evening, with probable Rusty Spinners at dusk.

Nymph fishing is of course productive. The Girdle Bug with a Red Copper John dropper is always a favorite, but Yellow Soft hackles and our new CDC 2 tungsten bead flashback PT is awesome too.

Definitely fun swinging sink tips and sculpins. A few early run wild steelhead have passed through at the mouth. Swinging a sculpin may find one of the early boys and wouldn’t that be a hoot?

Our guides are seeing very good summer fishing on the Warm Springs to Trout Creek drift using PMD’s, Caddis and Pale Evening Duns.

During the day we are doing a lot of nymphing with McGee’s Girdle, Small Cheeseburgers, Prince, Zebra Midges, PMD Nymphs and Caddis Pupa.

One more thing to try is a sculpin swung on a sink tip. This is particularly fun on a micro spey rod or small trout sized switch rod.

Our guides are having really good days and better evenings on the WS to TC run using PMD’s and Caddis (nymphs, pupa, emergers, adults and rusty spinners).

Fishing nymph patterns during the day is a good bet with more fish looking up in the last hour or two before dark. During the day the sparkle pupa and other tan caddis pupa patterns have been our best bet. Soft Hackles, Worms, Girdle Bugs and small Mayfly nymphs have been very productive.

While there are not a lot of stones left, the Fly Fisher’s Place guide staff reports that even today fish seem to be very keyed on Golden Stone Adults. In fact, Steve just texted me as I write this last report of the night (because I text my guides for beta when I am writing reports and if it’s someplace I haven’t been lately) and said today was good.
Ben also wrote in and commented on how good the PMD fishing has been.
It really seems like the madness, the huge crowds that come just for the Stonefly hatch has gone home and we have a normal river again.

Salmonflies and Golden Stones still look strong and might be for another week for us.

PMDs and Caddis are mixing in but seems like the fish want to eat Golden Stones more than anything the last few days.

Been seeing a few Green Drakes too. Love that!

There are PLENTY of Salmonflies and Goldenstones out but fishing on the big bugs is not what is usually is, or can be. Yet. Remember, this hatch on the Lower Deschutes from beginning to end is 3 weeks or more. Out of 3 weeks, usually 3 or 4 days are intense feeding activity by the fish. It still should happen.
We are catching fish on stonefly adult patterns. Chubby’s, Supafly’s, Norm’s, Clark’s have all picked up fish for us down there.
Seems like the fish are eating caddis pupa and worms better than anything.

Don’t give up on the stonefly hatch. Hot weather is coming back, water conditions look good (4700 today, up from 4300 earlier this week) and perhaps after the holiday weekend crowds will thin out a bit. Go fish.

I love writing this report. The Salmonflies stretch from Maupin all the way up to Warm Springs and we are waiting for good weather which is forecast for tomorrow and looks warm all the way through Memorial Day. To me, it looks like PRIME salmonfly hatch conditions and the river is perfectly flowing at 4600 cfs.

We have guides available for the next 15 to 20 days of suspected salmonfly and golden stone hatch time if you want to book with us call (541)549-3474

No Salmonflies as of yet in the Warm Springs to Trout Creek but the nymphs are migrating close to the shoreline and I would say by this time next week the big bugs will be all over the grass and starting to fly.

We’ve had great nymph fishing on all sorts of patterns but standouts have included Sparkle Pupa, Worms, Frenchies, Soft Hackle PT’s and Lightning Bugs.

We’ve also had good success on Sculpins swung with a sink tip.

The water came down to summer levels of about 5300 this week and it looks like we are going to have a great May ahead.

Now is a good time to book and reserve a guide for the “Hatch”. We have a lot of busy days ahead with 5 Multi-Day’s coming up but have a great staff of guides so we will do our best to get you paired up with one of them. By the way, our trips include everything except licenses and waders. So all of your flies, leaders, tippets, rods and reels are included in the trip. No hidden fee’s or after trip expenses.

Tomorrow is the opener from Warm Springs down thru Trout Creek and South Jct. The Water is a little high at about 6400 cfs. I’d say that is a good 800 to 1000 more than a typical opener but it won’t keep us off the river. In fact we look forward to getting on the Warm Springs drift very soon and have our first guide trips of the year booked for next week! The Lower D can handle a bigger flow. It is a big river.

Here are some early season tips:
Stonefly nymphs. The Hatch is just a few weeks out. The Nymphs are active.
Green Rock worms early season are good. Rhyacoplia nymphs are active before they pupate soon and they are in the drift now.
Worms. So good in the early season. Red ones! Squirmy or not, Red Worms kick butt.
Lightning Bugs. Look, the fish haven’t seen a nymph in 6 months and they are curious and a little dumber so go shiny and don’t worry about it.
Sculpins. If you aren’t trying to swing sculpins on sink tips you are missing out on sweet, steelhead type grabs (but with redsides). Ideally you’ll do this with a 4 or 5 weight switch rod and run 4 to 10 feet of T10 and a short 2x Fluorocarbon leader.

The water will be perfect soon enough. It is not now but the river is certainly very fishable.

Some steelhead for us recently, but mostly trout and whitey’s on nymphs. Mary Ann caught a great steelhead a few days ago swing an October Caddis type wet fly, and Troy got into a few last week both nymphing and swinging.

Double Bead Stones, Lightning Bugs, Prince, Bloody Mary, Girdle Bugs, Oct Caddis and 3 Dollar Dip’s have been good.

Another good way to go is to swing an Olive or Black Sculpin on a sink tip. You never know what will grab that, and some days the trout go nuts for it.