The Metolius River is beginning to see the Green Drake hatch wind down. Don’t think that I am saying it is over, because I believe all of this week from today through the end of the week is going to be productive on the Drakes. Once we hit July 1st, I would guess we won’t see much Drake feeding action again until September when the next Green Drake hatch comes to the river we all love. (I actually think the fall hatch is better than the spring hatch).
PMD hatches have been strong, as have evening caddis hatches and spinner falls. These hatches are prevalent and easy to remember, but I want to remind you to look for masking hatches of Blue Wing Olives, which can be easily overlooked when the slightly bigger and easier to see Pale Morning Duns are in the drift at the same time. 

Also, we are learning that Little Olive Stones are more important to the fish for a longer duration than just September. Fish are eating Olive Stones #16-18 now along with #14-16 Yellow Sally’s and these could be the flies that might turn things around when the fish are playing “stump the chump” with us. 
Griffiths Gnats are another fly that may bust it open, Advantage to ___________ (insert your name here) after tying on a G Gnat! Try it on a picky feeder. Let me know how it worked. 
When was the last time you fished a Parachute Adams on the Metolius? Especially in the upper river from Gorge up to Riverside, that is a good searching dry. 
Speaking of the Upper River, the Golden Stone progress with adults hatching got stalled a bit over the last few days with cold weather. But in a couple of days we are back to warm sunny days and it is high time to get the Clarks Stones and Norm Woods Specials tied on, and get to work the upper reaches of the river with these larger dry flies. 
When you are not finding the hatch, or finding willing participants to a dry fly, you will want to be fishing golden stone nymphs, 20 Incher, soft hackle pheasant tails, zebra midges, caddis pupa (especially the fat ass caddis), perdigons, walts worms, lightning bugs, 2 bit’s and micro mayflies with the latter focused on PMD and BWO size and color. 

You should also be fishing with smaller euro jig streamers on any stretch of the Met, and know that some amazing Bulls and Browns have recently been caught on these types of flies. If you are not taking your euro game out to the river to include small streamers, consider adding them to the mix and enjoy the success it should bring to you. The Tungsten Jig Squirrel in Black or Natural, Soccer Mom’s and the Olive Mini Gulp are the trio we usually cycle through. 

Also, I want to encourage those of you with more experience with the euro rig to lighten up your mono-rig, and get the lightest mono on your reel. If you are new at mono-rigs this is probably not for you, but if you have some experience already, tie up 25 feet of the .007 (4x) Umpqua PerformX micro leader (it’s bright green and easy to see) and then blood knot 2 to 3 feet of .006 (5x) Cortland Tri-Color Sighter and at the end of that you can add a 2mm tippet ring, or skip it and just add your 6X fluorocarbon tippet (about 5 or 6 feet usually) to the sighter. The competition anglers have gone with this set up and have gone away from using tippet rings in many cases to reduce drag and simplify the set up. Also, a lot of success is coming with this rig using a single fly instead of adding a dropper. It is always easier to achieve a great drift with a single fly, no matter if it is a dry fly or a euro nymph. Some food for thought as you approach a challenging river….. Will you try it?