On the Metolius River the Green Drake hatch is the talk of the town. I know it’s a small town but the rumors are very juicy now! Each day the hatch seems to be getting better. We are seeing Drakes from below Bridge 99 up to the Canyon now. Usually the hatch will start after 4 this time of year, but as we move into June and the likelihood of hotter days start looking for them as early as 2, and as late as 5:30 PM. 

Pale Morning Duns precede the Drakes and sometimes overlap with the hatch on the water at the same time. With either mayfly it is important to think about the complete life cycle of the insect, starting earlier in the day with Nymphs, then as the hatch begins we can usually count on the (dry fly or just under the surface) emergers, and once the Duns start really popping add Duns and Cripples to the mix. 

Metolius trout love transitional profiles on your flies. So a cripple, or an emerging mayfly profile is the ultimate expression of transitional. The fish recognize these as food items that won’t get away from them, and not only are they an easier meal, but in the cold flows and tricky currents on our favorite river, these profiles show themselves often to the fish and fish get used to eating them. 

Have you read Kelly Gallop’s book Cripples and Spinners? It details why these patterns are so important, and on a spring creek like the Metolius, maybe more so. 
Here are a few other books to learn from to make you a better and more complete spring creek angler: Bug Water (Arlen Thomason), Slack Line Strategies (John Judy), Trout Hunter (Rene Harrop)

Other hatches we have found to be important lately are little olive stones (#16-18), yellow sallies (#14-16), Blue Wing Olives (#18-20) Tan Caddis (#16) Olive Caddis (#16) Grey Caddis (#14) and all of these hatches can be important to you throughout the day and spanning the different sections of the river from Upper, Middle and Lower reaches. 
I know most of you won’t forget about the nymphs, but as a reminder the nymph fishing is excellent, especially with your Euro Nymph set ups. That tight line and high level connection to your fly is usually going to put more fish in the net over an indicator method, but there are many places on this big spring creek the indy-rig is essential too. 

We’ve been having a lot of luck with a fly called a Tungsten 20 Incher. It is a good imitation for a Green Drake nymph. Perdigons (especially Olive, Brown and Purple), Light or Dark Walt’s Worm, Micro Mayfly and 2 Bit Hooker with Tungsten Beads, Zebra Midges with Tungsten, Soft Hackle PT with and w/o a bead, Frenchie (make sure to check out our new Frenchie that is dynamite for a PMD Nymph. It is tied just a bit more sparse and I love the thorax dubbing tone on these.