Great report, Tim.
> I returned last night from 4 days fishing centered in Sisters, Oregon.
> Fished 3 new to me rivers - the Metolius, the Crooked, and the Deschutes and
> had a great trip.
>
> Day 1 - Metolius River. I arrived at Camp Sherman on Thursday around 11
> a.m. and fished the Metolius River from Camp Sherman to the next campground
> below and did pretty well. My first fish came in about 3 casts right down
> from where I parked my Eurovan, a beautiful 18" rainbow who took a #14 BHPT.
> Shortly after that first fish a rise bagan with caddis and small stones
> hatching so I switched to an #16 EHC and got a few refusals so I went to a
> #18 and began hooking fish. For the next 2 hours I got about a dozen trout
> in the 6-14" range on the caddis. Around 3 p.m. the whole thing shut off
> but I switched to a nymph again and got a few here and there. Right at
> dusk the big stones began flitting around on the water and I stuck on the
> biggest stonefly dry I had and managed to hook one fish right at dark.
>
> Day 2 - Crooked River. I drove out into the desert on Friday to fish the
> Crooked from about mile 13 up to just before the Big Bend Recreation area
> near Bowman Dam. I started the morning with an orange scud and got a few on
> it right around mile 13 in the riffles. I moved up to Castle Rock area and
> tossed the scud only to have a nice fish rise to my strike indicator so I
> switched to a #14 EHC, caddis were about, and began fishing dries. I found
> the fish were all about 2' from the bank hiding among the rocks where there
> was a moderate current. For the rest of the afternoon I hunted out and
> fished this type of water and landed about 35 trout, mostly 8-10" but got
> one nice 14" rainbow. I also ran into a LOT of rattlers on this day, 8 in
> all, they were out in full force.
>
> Day 3 - Upper Deschutes River. Since I couldn't get a guide on the lower
> river I headed to the upper Deschutes above Bend, fishing from Lava Falls to
> Benham Falls during the day. It took me an hour or so to find the fish but
> once I found them I did pretty well in similar water all day. The fish
> seemed to be hanging along the edges of riffles, especially ones where there
> was a big depth change at the edge. I got almost all my fish on a #14 BHPT
> or #14 BH Prince nymph and landed about 25-30 trout in the 8-15" range, all
> rainbows. I also got a few monster whitefish, 14-16" fish that put up a
> pretty good fight. Dillon Falls was one of the best spots from the boat
> launch down to the actual falls. That evening I hit the stone flight on
> the Metolius again and got 2 fish up, landing a fat 13" rainbow that looked
> like a small football.
>
> Day 4 - Metolius River. I decided that I liked the Metolius the best so I
> stuck to it on the 4th and final day. My intent was to explore new water
> but I ended up in a big mixed hatch with lots of fish rising just at the
> downstream end of the Camp Sherman campground. I spent about 2 1/2 hours in
> this one pool trying to figure out each fish. I got several on a #16 very
> dark X-Caddis, several on a #18 EHC, several on a #18 BWO Comparadun and
> several on a #12 Yellow Sally. These were all nice fish, the avereage size
> was 14" there and I had one monster rise and another one on that was easily
> 20". I landed about 10 fish in this spot and lost several over the few
> hours I was there. I also got two huge whitefish on a #14 BHPT just before
> the hatch(es) started up. The rest of the day I did roam a bit and landed
> another 8-10 trout, most of them smaller but one other nice 14" fish, all of
> these on nymphs. At dusk again I had one on the stone just as it got too
> dark to see.
>
> I hated to get up Monday and head home, the trip went really well. I'd never
> been on any of these waters before but the Flyfishers Guide to Oregon and
> the new NW Fly Fishing article on the Metolius really helped me prepare and
> they were pretty much right on as far as what to fish and where to fish. I
> may be heading back down in 2 weeks en-route to Crater Lake, until then I'm
> heading back to the Yakima which has been HOT this past few weeks.
>
> Tim
>
>
