The Crooked River is fishing super well and water levels seem to have stabilized at about 100 cfs for the end of the irrigation season transition. Hopefully we will have a good winter of good water levels on the Crooked!
For now, BWO’s are dominating the hatch, and mixed with a few straggle PMD’s. Some black Midges usually later afternoons will create one more dry fly opportunity, and with a Zebra Midge or Black Winker Midge you can fish those all day long and catch fish.
Skinny Nelson, Dark Olive or Black 2 Bit Hooker, BWO Micro May, Jig Napoleon, Scuds, Rainbow Warrior and Soft Hackles are perfect choices for nymphing now.
On the dry fly side, a BDE Dun, Extended Body Cut Wing PMD #18 serves double duty on the 2 mayflies, Sparkle Dun, Purple Haze or Comparadun and Film Critic. Lower water conditions can also necessitate the need for a lighter tippet. 6x nylon is recommended for dries, and 6x fluoro for nymphs.
In low water sometimes it is better to approach the stream with a NZ Wool indicator to suspend the nymph over the weeds and direct it through the weed channels. Euro/tightline techniques are great in the open runs but you need to fish all the water in front of you for the session.