The beautiful Metolius is of course holding up very well in the heat too. Spring fed water is a gift in temperature extremes and we have had some awfully hot weather this week.

Plenty of hatches. PMD’s, early evening BWO’s, Ameletus (Purple Comparadun #12-14), Rusty Spinners, Caddis (mostly #16-18….waiting for the massive summer Micro Caddis, should be soon!), Golden Stones, Yellow Sallies, reports of Tricos early in the morning and a few early Mahogany Duns already (these really hit in September).

Bull Trout migration is in full swing and plenty of big BT’s in the system.

We love the Metolius on these hot summer days. It is so pleasant down along the river and the fishing is still good.
Golden Stones, PMD’s, Caddis, Rusty Spinners, BWO’s and keep an eye out for a larger Olive Mayfly which ought to show up in early August (ameletus sp.) .

Euro Nymphing has been particularly effective over the strike indicator approach.

More and more big Bull Trout are entering the river from the lake and headed up to spawn soon enough. This is a good time for BT’s.

Afternoon PMD hatches all throughout the river, Golden Stones in the Upper River from the Gorge CG to Riverside CG. Caddis are abundant most days with the best hatches in the evening. Rusty Spinners at dusk finish out your day.
Nymphing is also good with McGee’s Girdle, Golden Stone Nymphs, Micro Mayfly, Perdigons, CDC PT, Euro Jigs, Zebra Midges, Rainbow Warrior, Lightning Bug and Hares Ears.

Hearing reports of big bull trout showing up for the migration up from the lake.

Golden Stone hatches are increasing with the hotter weather and the time of year, so from Gorge up to Riverside CG expect better and better days with the adults and the nymphs.
PMD hatches are all over the river and can happen from 11 am to 7 or 8 PM on any given day. This is followed up by Rusty Spinners at Dusk, although we’ve also found in the hot weather Rusty Spinners can be back in the early morning too.
Speaking of early morning, it is your best bet to catch a Bull Trout on a Streamer. Fish Big flies.
Caddis Hatches have been light. Kind of surprisingly poor really. We see this from time to time in July. They will hit with a vengeance soon enough.
We are getting some BWO’s around 6 or 7 PM when it begins to cool for the evening. Trout are sipping emergers, cripples and duns. I love a small Purple Comparadun or Film Critic with these are on.

Nymphing is great. The better your drift the more you’ll catch. We are pumped on euro nymphing and having very good success doing it everywhere, including the Metolius. Of course drifting a Golden Stone nymph under an indicator with a small dropper is a good method too.

Tina and I and some friends fished the upper river yesterday and got quite a few fish on a Clarks Stone, despite seeing very few Golden Stones so far.
Plus, most of the fish I saw that looked but didn’t eat the stonefly would come up and eat a PMD.
Also, Euro Nymphing was very good with PT’s and Perdigon’s in the Camp Sherman area.

I’d say the Green Drakes are officially done until September.
PMD’s, BWO’s, Caddis, Rusty Spinners and Yellow Sally’s all over the river and Golden Stones in the Upper River from the Headwaters to the Gorge.

Looks like the Green Drakes are about done until September. If I was was to give a little advice for the next several days though, I’d still carry the big bugs and hope for the best. Usually by the fourth of July they are done until fall.
This week there have been some good afternoon of #10 Grey Drakes. We don’t see a lot of Grey Drakes on the metolius but there are some, and this week they’ve been out.
A #10 Purple Comparadun or Parachute Adams will do the trick for the Grey’s.
PMD hatches have been good to strong depending on the day and the stretch of the river you might be on.

The best news is the GOLDEN STONE hatch has really got off to the good start on the Upper River above the Camp Sherman Store.

Evening Caddis fishing is good. Keep an eye peeled for Baetis in the evening from 5 to 8 or so, and at Dusk expect a good Rusty Spinner Fall to hit the water.

We’ve had great nymph fishing lately, especially using the Euro Style flies (jigs and perdigons) on long light leaders.

Bull Trout fishing is ok to good. Not a lot of lake run fish yet. Should be soon.

The Drakes are still on (and good) from 2 to 5. Unlikely they go 3 straight hours but will hatch in that time period.
PMD’s are on from noon to about 7 or 8 PM. Usually getting 2 hatches a day, one in the afternoon and one in the evening.
Good caddis hatches in the evening and then Rusty Spinners at dusk.

I would expect to see the 1st of the Golden Stones in the Upper River really soon. Maybe mid to late next week. With that expect very good nymphing on GS Nymphs! I’d run a red copper john or lightning bug dropper off the golden stone nymph too.

Bull Trout have been hitting streamers very early in the morning. It’s worth the effort to get there at dawn.

Green Drakes are on, some days better than others and keep in mind the early days of the hatch are often coming off about 5 PM, maybe as late as 6 or as early as 4. As the hatch progresses it will be more like 2 to 4, but don’t give up at 4 and go home. You don’t want to miss it!
Also, most drakes are in the Bridge 99 area. Not too many up to the Hatchery yet but they will come soon.

Besides Drakes, we have PMD’s now all summer. Typically they are out and hatching at least once a day in the mid afternoon, but on Saturday they were on a 2nd wave at 7 PM with fish looking up!
Some BWO’s on the water too so keep an eye out for them, especially around the hatchery in the late afternoon.
Caddis have been hatching well, and usually mostly in the later day, but so far this late May and early June time we’ve seen a lot of caddis emergence mid afternoon.

At dusk the Rusty Spinner #16 is a great fly.

Nymphing throughout the river is always productive. We’ve been having good results on Golden Stone nymphs (the hatch is about a month out still) and Frenchies.
We have a lot of great little mayfly nymphs and caddis pupa patterns to show you that we love.

Early morning Bull Trout streamer action is worth your time with the big kids looking for big meals at dawn.

This week has been more about PMD’s than Green Drakes. PMD’s have had their best hatching week yet of the 2018 season so that is great news. But, the Drakes are still not really going strong. That said, there have been enough drakes to get the fish looking up for them between 2 and 5 and we are catching trout on Drakes now…best of all it will only get better.

Caddis, BWO’s, PMD’s (as mentioned) Rusty Spinners, Ants and Beetles are all good for matching various hatches throughout the day now.

Nymph fishing is good to very good.

Still not too many Green Drakes out, and what has been out is mostly below Bridge 99 so far. Usually around Memorial Day they get a stronger foothold so we are getting closer and closer.
What has been good is PMD’s, small Brown Caddis and Ants.
Hatches have been good from about 1 to 4, and again in the evening with PMD’s, BWO’s early, then Caddis and finally Rusty Spinners at dusk.

As usual the nymph fishing is good to very good with Stonefly’s, Frenchies, Zebra Midges, Caddis Pupa, Stealth PT, CDC Hares Ear and Depth Charge CDC Lightning Bugs and PT’s (these are killer little flies with 2 tungsten beads in the thorax!).

Finally, today marks the opening of the upper river from the Headwaters to Allingham Bridge, so the entire Fly Fishing Only stretch is open.