Today and for the next few days I like the weather for streamer fishing! Clouds and some rain are often the combination that make for a perfect bull trout day. They say “dark day = dark fly” and if that is the case then our 2 FFP exclusive BT articulated streamers are the best choices from this morning until monday evening for sure. I would also make sure to have some Articulated Sparkle Sculpins, Dolly Llama and both black and white versions of the Circus Peanut. The Circus Peanut is a great pattern for those of you fishing a lighter rod as it will cast well on a 6 weight. I prefer a 7 or 8 weight for my own BT fishing and it also honors the size of the fish and cuts down on fight times to release them safely.
For the trout game, it is a Blue Wing Olive weekend if there ever was one. Wind and rain can create longer hatch times from nymphs to duns and also a gust of wind, or a well placed rain drop can bedraggle a duns wings down to the surface film, trapping the bug and creating a moment we call cripples in the fly fishing world. Emergers and cripples make up a good portion of the feeding time happening during a hatch already, and add some interesting weather to the equation and there will be more of them on the water.
Don’t count out yellow mayflies, both PMD’s #16 and maybe some #18’s in the upper river, and Cinygmula #16. Mahogany Duns are another good mayfly to match this week and if you take a #16 Upright Rusty Spinner, #16 Quill Gordon and #16 Gray Comparadun you’ll be covered. I will also tell you that a #16 Timberline Emerger is a fly that has worked a little magic for me on the Met and the Fall when the Mahogany Duns are hatching in the Fall.
October Caddis are really good now, and a #10-12 Clarks Stone is a great fly to match that, along with some big orange pupa’s you will be covered. Coming soon to FFP is my new Improved FA Caddis in an October Caddis Version. Big beads, perfect colors and durable. The factory in Chiang Mai Thailand is tying them now and with October Caddis hatching on the Met from late August to late April each year, this is going to be a fly to get all winter long.
Don’t forget the smaller caddis, with the Tan #16, Olive #16-18 and Grey #14-16 in the hatch cycle this week too. Even on cooler days, while we might not see a condensed hatch moment of any of these smaller caddis, what we are learning about caddis in the Metolius is they trickle out enough pretty consistently that the pupa’s of the smaller caddis just make perfect searching nymphs 365.
Alright, I am not sure what is going on this year but a lot of people suddenly have an interest in targeting kokanee. I don’t get that…. This a fish in the process of spawning to make more for future generations. It’s unethical fishing behavior to target fish on active redds for one thing, and it’s not helping the future of the river by doing so.
This years Kokanee run will lay 100’s of thousand little orange eggs, many of which will successfully hatch in about 100 days (so next February) and turn into alevins, and then fry before they migrate the lake to mature for 2 years. The eggs themselves are often dislodged and become food for rainbows, bull trout and whitefish. A thoughtfully placed egg as a nymph is a smart choice on the Metolius from now throughout the winter months as there are many fish spawning, so eggs are an item in the biological drift often seen and rarely passed up by another fish. But don’t fish them right on top of a spawning redd, and certainly don’t use them to target other kokanee. I promise I am not starting the Kokanee Protection Society, or KU (Kokanee Unlimited) but I felt like this is an educational moment that should be said at this time as the spawning is wrapping up for the season.
Besides eggs and caddis pupa, other nymphs to choose this week include Jig SH Pheasant Tail, Frenchies, Micro Mayflies (BWO and PMD), Purple Perdigons, Jig Napoleon, Zebra Midge, Golden Stones, 20 Incher, Sloan’s Stone and a dark or light Walt’s Worm and the “peacock” Walt’s called a PCP.
The Upper River from Allingham Bridge to the Headwaters has 7 more days to fish it until next May 22, and the river below Allingham is open all year and offers amazing fishing in the Fall and Winter.
My next day on the river is coming with my good friend Chester next week, and I am personally looking forward to finally using a new Sage 3 weight rod I got last spring and casting dry flies to picky rainbows.