Metolius River Fish Report for 5-30-2026
Great hatches and great fishing!
Metolius River - Metolius Springs, OR (Jefferson County)
by The Fly Fishers Place
5-30-2026
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The Metolius River has seen some incredible PMD, caddis and little olive stone hatches, plus a mix of BWO’s but what is missing from my list and should not be missing from my list are Green Drakes. Oh sure, there are drakes hatching and some nice days have been had here and there with them, but the real hatch, the explosions of green drakes has still not occurred. If you are fishing anywhere from Canyon Creek down to Candle Creek it is essential that you have size 8 and 10 drakes in nymphs, emergers, cripples and duns. Also, this week both John Kreft and Chester Allen wrote about or talked about green drake spinners. Spinners of drunella grandis and drunella doddsii are rarely seen. Entomology books indicate they likely come back to the water to lay eggs in the darkness of morning, or perhaps late at night. Over the years on the Metolius I never saw a green drake spinner until about 3 or 4 seasons ago and witnessed a massive dance of spinners that soon turned to a spinner fall with females on the water and trout feeding selectively on them.
Are we seeing a new behavior? Are the spinners of the drakes changing and becoming a viable daytime food source and another fly we as anglers can choose to fish our favorite river? It appears so this week with multiple sighting of drake spinners on the water in the mid morning times over the last several days.
It could also be because of the weather this week, as we also saw the PMD spinners (rusty spinners) mid day. If you fish the river a lot or your’e a frequent reader of this report you know the rusty spinners usually are at dusk.
The weather is going to be way more stable this weekend and upcoming week and I hope for some great hatches and great fishing to coincide with the beautiful week ahead.
With all of the river open now, we have heard some good reports from up near Camp Sherman and above Lake Creek. One customer did well with a Norm Woods special. I have no idea why! Golden Stones are at least a month away from hatching, but no matter what the hatch chart says, or doesn’t say I would try a Norm Woods or Clark’s already in the upper river based on this. PMD and caddis have been all over the river in the upper, middle and lower stretches.
We continue to have very good success on caddis pupa, PT’s, brown and olive perdigons, Frenchie’s, micro mayflies to imitate both PMD and BWO nymphs, plus big nymphs to imitate golden stones and green drakes.
More Reports
The Fly Fishers Place Reports
for Friday, May 22nd
Metolius River: Metolius River Report
Deschutes River- Lower: Lower Deschutes Report
Deschutes River: Middle Deschutes River Report
Crooked River: The Crooked River is fishing well on small nymphs and scuds
Fall River: There have been good hatches including PMD’s, midges, caddis and some waning blue wing olives
McKenzie River: The McKenzie River is a hoot now
Hosmer Lake: Hosmer Lake is seeing a really good callibaetis hatch mid day
Little Lava Lake: Little Lava Lake Report
Crane Prairie Reservoir: Crane Prairie is fishing really well
Wickiup Reservoir: Wickiup is a really good bet now and is fishing well for quality browns and rainbows
East Lake: East Lake was very good this week with chironomids and terrestrials
Paulina Lake: Paulina Lake was really good yesterday
North Twin Lake: North and South Twin Lakes are good for tubes and wading access
The Fly Fishers Place Reports
for Saturday, May 9th
Deschutes River- Lower: Salmon fly hatch is in full swing
Metolius River: So far there have not been many Green Drakes on the Metolius River
Crooked River: The Mothers Day Caddis are on time over on the Crooked River
Fall River: The Fall River is in summer mode
Deschutes River: The Middle Deschutes has great pockets of Salmonflies and Goldens
McKenzie River: We’ve had some good days over on the Mckenzie River these past 2 weeks
Little Lava Lake: Little Lava Lake is amongst the best of them right now
Paulina Lake: Paulina Lake Report
Hosmer Lake: Hosmer Lake is all open and fishing is off to a great start
East Lake: East Lake reports are good already
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