The Green Drakes are still flying on the Metolius River, as are the “lesser green drakes” aka Flav’s. How much longer will they hatch? In a quick consultation with Zoltar the Great this morning he indicated for sure the rest of the week with the good weather in the 60’s and 70’s coming. Always trust Zoltar and make sure to have some Film Critics, Sparkle Duns, Lucent Wing and Dry Ice Drake and Moores Para Shuck and Jeff’s Flav.
PMD’s #16, BWO’s in #18 mostly but tuck a #20 and #22 in the boxes for the times another species of Baetis may be hatching or overlapping the larger 18’s. Did you know there are about SIXTY (60!) mayflies in the western states that are in the Baetis family? Fortunately for us as anglers we can I.D. a 2 tailed mayfly that is between an 18 and 22, usually with an olive body and gray wings as a Blue Wing Olive and not have a need to bring the microscope for taxonomic identifications.
What are your favorite mayfly patterns for smaller mayflies like BWO and PMD’s? Mine are Harrop’s Captive Duns, Quigley’s Film Critic, Stalcup’s Winger Emergers, two types of Knock Down Duns- the KD Dun (I call the one wing wonder) which is a Bob Brooks pattern from Hot Creek in California, and the Blue Ribbon Flies version which has spent Z Lon Wings and a Z Lon Trailing Shuck. Add CDC Parachutes, Craig Matthews miracle creation the Sparkle Dun and Caucci and Natasi’s Comparadun (add some purple ones), and Harrop’s CDC Spinners.
Mahogany Duns are a common hatch on the Metolius in October so add some Gray Comparaduns, Upright Rusty’s, Quill Gordon and Purple Haze.
There a lot of good caddis hatches and with the warmer days in the forecast I believe this week will be a good week for Caddis dries and emergers! Tan #16, Olive #18, Gray #14, Orange #8-10 and 14.
Golden Stones are waning a bit but can be very important all the way through October. I have caught fish in Halloween with a Clarks Stone. The smaller stoneflies like the Little Olives and Yellow Sally’s are about kaput. Below Bridge 99 there are still some good enough sightings of Cascade Stones.
The Kokanee have really come into the system a lot more this week. The river is the “No Tell Motel’ as these fish are here for one reason and it isn’t to feed. It’s sex. Good for them. It is Egg City out there and that will be a top nymph for the next month.
Other top nymphs will be Perdigons, Walt’s Worms, Zebra Midges, 2 Bit Hookers, Micro May’s, Pheasant Tails, Golden Stones, Slum Lord and Mini Gulps.
Bull Trout are coming best to bigger articulated streamers and also jig streamers. Some big fellas are around if you poke around you can see Bull’s in the 12 to 15 pound class for sure.