We’ve had some good days over on the Mckenzie River these past 2 weeks and see some good fishing coming up in the future until about mid July and then I worry about water levels and navigation of the boats could be concerning. We don’t know this yet, but the river is already at August levels.
What is happening? good caddis hatches and some larger yellow mayflies, a few stoneflies and all of that leads to a great opportunity for dry-dropper fishing with a perdigon or soft hackle hanging a few feet off the bend of the dry fly.
The guides have also caught a bunch of fish on small streamers, typically swinging them on a floating line in front of the drifting boat, but consider a sink tip or a 10 foot sinking poly leader for this task to keep the fly swimming a little deeper.
Years ago Harry Teel and some other guys including his son Brad and our friend David Banks started the McKenzie Masters Golf & Fishing Tournament, with half the group playing 18 at Tokatee, and half fishing with esteemed Mckenzie guides, then the next day us multi-sport “athletes” switched to the opposite event. Scores were tallied on inches of fish per team for the event, and your golf score combined for the foursome. To make a long story short, Burt from Eugene was supposed to be my fishing partner with Aaron Helfrich at the oars! Bert got sick the morning of the fishing day so Aaron and I went without him. I spent all day in the bow of that drift boat with a (Larry Tullis) White Wiggle Bug on a 10′ Sink Tip, stripping the fly off the banks, and in the pools and pockets behind as many rocks as I could get the fly in to. End of the day result was ridiculous. My Wiggle Bug approach ended up winning the tournament and was responsible for more fish landed than any other 4 man team. A little Mckenzie history for you, and google that fly. It is an interesting one.