The Metolius River is one we do not worry about temps! Even on these days in the 90’s I personally never wet wade the Met. It’s too cold for my bones. Some people do, but they are way tougher than me.
Hatches on all sections of the river have been good. Highlights are PMD #16-18 and BWO #20-22, Golden Stones #8-12, and there are 2 Caddis that are most important: a tannish yellow micro caddis #20 and the ubiquitous #16 tan caddis so prevalent on all western rivers in the summer. There are many other things to watch for that can be important in the exact moment you are on the river casting with great hope to a rising trout. They include the larger Olive Ameletus Mayflies #14, Salmonflies #4-6, Little Olive Stones #16-18, Rusty Spinners #16-18, and a mix of other Caddis in Olive and Grey shades from #12-18. Add some black midge patterns and some ants and beetles and build your selection to be ready for any August session on the river.
Hatches are spread out over the upper river, middle and lower sections and you can likely depend on some good dry fly fishing this coming week and it just gets better and better over the next 8 weeks some of the Metolius’s best days are just getting going. Mid August to Mid October are some of the best days (I also like April 15 to June 25) because of my huge love of hatches and dry fly tactics.
Besides dry flies there has been a good bite from the bull trout on streamers. This is your time to get your stout 7 or 8 weight rods rigged, usually with a sink tip and strip or swing a streamer. Or switch to the floating line and run a streamer or leech under a large Airlock or Oros strike indicator, dead drifting your flies to cover good water with a potentially slower presentation but one that can also keep the flies off the bottom and snag free with the support of the indicator. All 3 presentation methods are effective and can be used to cover different runs with success.
Nymph action has also been diverse, I know our customer Matt has had a lot of good days on a stonefly dry and a PT soft hackle as a trailing nymph. A lot of us spend the majority of our time with a Euro Nymphing rig and for good reason. Brown, Olive and Purple Perdigons are always solid flies on the Metolius. Add some Soft hackle PT’s, Walts Worms, Tan and Olive Caddis Pupa, TJ Hooker, Jig 20″, Golden Stone nymphs, 2 Bit’s, Micro Mayfly in Olive for BWO and Brown for PMD and either a Red Lightning Bug or Red Copper John and you’ll have the prefect selection of nymphs for the river this week. And next.