I was lucky enough to get on the river WS to TC over the weekend and again tuesday and while I didn’t personally get any steelhead, my wife did and some friends did as well.
Remember the west side of the main channel is now closed including the reservation and some of the islands so be aware of where you can and can’t stop to fish and respect the WS Reservation closures.

The Oregon reg’s this season state Trout Fishing remains OPEN until Dec 31. This is a change as it used to be only Steelhead after Oct 31.

We’ve been doing well on Cheeseburgers, Stone Nymphs, Girdle Bugs, 3 Dollar Dips, Caddis Pupa, Oct Caddis, PT’s and Frenchie’s.
Very little if any dry fly action for a while. Seems like warm days in January and February down in Maupin will get some fish looking up, but until then it is going to be a nymphing game.

We are swinging small purple or black patterns, mostly on sink tips. Leech type patterns have accounted for many of our steelhead this season, but really the majority of the steelhead we are catching are coming on trout nymphs.

The real fall weather we got last week got the fish moving and we have had good days down on the lower D.

We are getting fish on Stonefly Nymphs, Worms, Small Mayfly Nymphs, Caddis Pupa, October Caddis and Copper Johns.

A few fish have been caught on X Caddis, BWO’s, stragglerPMD’s and Purple Haze.

Trout are also being caught on the swing using Sculpins and Wooly Buggers on sink tips. Get your Micro Spey or 3, 4 or 5 weight Switch Rods out and tune up your Spey game.

Steelhead fishing is fair. A few fish are being caught down from Maupin to the Mouth swinging. There are some fish all the way to WS, but so far numbers are low.
We expect October to improve but keep in mind the 2017 run is going to be a bit low off the historical average.

We have some great opportunities for guide trips with dates open in October. Give us a call and get a trip booked before the season gets cold and you sucked in to the holidays.

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.