The Fall River is getting more crowded

Fall River - La Pine, OR (Deschutes County)


by The Fly Fishers Place
6-21-2025
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The Fall River is getting more crowded with the Summer Holiday crowd from Sunriver and Bend. Start thinking about the 5 am to 10 am trip, or 5 pm to dusk outing. Some areas will be bad with mosquitos, especially near the tubes and the falls. 


I talked to a customer who was there a few evenings ago and he said fish were consistently rising to dries, although he has a difficult time trying to decipher what the fly was. We talked about it, and considered a Rusty Spinner as the most probable, although he did get some fish on a tiny black midge he really thought that was not really what was happening, but the fish accepted the fly as a good opportunity from what was undoubtedly a good presentation and good drift. 


Streamers, eggs, red zebra midges with a tungsten bead and perdigons in a bunch of color and bead options are working well. 


I’ll share a memory with you about “Friday Night Fish” that I mentioned up top in the opener. My good friends Chester Allen, Matt Klee and I used to meet at the Tubes every Friday night in the summer and fish after work until dark. I would rig up my rod and take a rip on the pipe Merle Hummer gave me after he introduced me to the joys of a little Mary Jane on the Rio. Happily down by the river, we fished a lot of dry flies! And one night I discovered a dead drifted black wooly worm would produce some great responses from the fish. I haven’t tried that since. I haven’t tried a lot of that since. Hmmm. Those were the days. Special in so many ways, but amongst the best was the traditions 3 good friends did with each other week after week and summer after summer until people started moving away to chase other dreams. 


I would give anything to have Matt back for another Friday Night Fish session with Chester and I.