I haven’t had a chance to be there but my guides Ben, Steve, Adam, Troy and Mary Ann have been a lot lately and all are reporting very good caddis hatches, mixed with some PMD and PED’s and the occasional Hopper take. It may be the best dry fly summer ever in the WS to TC area.

Nymph fishing with Girdle Bugs and Sparkle Pupa’s has been stellar. We are also getting a lot of trout on Jigs, 2 Bit Hookers and Micro Mayflies. A Wired Stone and a Rusty Magic Fly is a great combo in the riffles in the AM.

I’ve been watching water temps at WS and at the Mouth. The last couple of days the Mouth has been well under 70 and that is great news for the small steelhead run coming in. It appears the cold water release has begun…
In any event, the water is 2 or 3 degrees cooler and that is great, especially from Mack’s to the Mouth.

Our guides are reporting good to very good fishing this week on the Warm Springs to Trout Creek section using almost entirely nymphs during the day and then an intense burst of dry fly action from about 8:30 to 9 something PM. A mix of PED’s and Caddis depending on where you are.
X Caddis, Spent Caddis, E/C Caddis, Purple Haze and Yellow Parachutes or Knock Down Duns.
Our guide Troy said yesterday the fish were smacking light colored PMD Nymphs.
Our guide Steve was finding similar success on nymphs and landed this beauty yesterday

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.

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.