The Metolius was on and off this week, but that has more to do with hatches and rising fish than the rating of good or bad. Fishing is good, but how hard you work and what you can put in to it makes a difference. Someone wrote an anonymous post to me saying they disagree with my reports because they never catch fish here. With no way to reply, I would love to ask some questions and also try to help this angler.
How about we all ask the questions: Are the fish feeding on dries? Is it an emerger, or cripple, an adult or a spent wing or egg layer? Are you using a long light leader with a thin and soft butt section to get the best drift? Do you study hatches and know how to match the flies to the insects that are present? Are you reading the water and know the habits of the trout in this unique river? How about nymphing? Do you tight line or euro? Indicator fish? Are you looking for feeding fish? Looking for fish suspended off the bottom in an actual feeding pattern? These are really important aspects to fishing any river, but on a challenging stream like the Metolius they are pieces of the game that need to be considered at every turn in the river.
The green drakes and flavs are slowing down some, but one day it’ll be good, and maybe not as much the next. I don’t think they are over yet, but it is winding down.
Pale Morning Duns and mahogany duns and blue wing olives are all going to be consistent for the month of October.
Grab some film critics, knock down duns, sparkle duns, comparaduns, parachutes, quill gordons, rusty and olive spinners and you’ll be set until Halloween.
The little olive stones are getting towards the end too, but a #18 henryville or parachute is still a necessary dry to carry. The other stonefly not calling it quits are golden stones, and with the warm october you should expect many to be flying from the gorge to the head waters and some below the hatchery, especially below lower bridge.
There has been a lot of good nymphing, and with the abundance of kokanee in the river spawning now, eggs move high on the charts for a fly to tie on, along with caddis pupa (October #8 and tan #16), golden stones a bunch of euro nymphs and 2 bit style flies.
There have been excellent caddis hatches in the evening and fish are loving an Iris caddis, CDC corn fed, or x-caddis.
Bull Trout streamer fishing is also good, and with bulls chasing kokanee around this is a great time to hit them with the big streamers like our triple articulated flies we have specially made for the shop. Always a white dolly llama or circus peanut in the fall, and jig streamers are never a bad choice for short lining some of the spots.