The Caddis Fly: Oregon Fly Fishing Blog

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March Brown Hatch goes off despite high water

March 23rd, 2008 · 3 Comments

This past Friday we led a large group of young fly anglers on an outing down the Mckenzie River. When we put all eight boats in the water a Deerhorn boat ramp the water level read 6300 cubic feet per second at Walterville and almost 10,000cfs at Hayden Bridge.

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Hopes were not high. We knew the river was dropping but did’nt expect much in terms of fishing. The kids were great sports, and when we could find a place to slow the boat down, we fished swung wet flies with some success. As the day developed the river dropped and cleared. At 1:30pm the best March Brown hatch any of the eight guides had seen all year popped. Very few fish were up on the surface but they would eat the down and accross swung March Brown Emerger, or Royal Coachman Wet fly. Possie buggers coupled with a March Brown Wet also worked.

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Currently the water is clear and in fishable shape, especially from a boat. It looks like we will have decent weather and good water this spring break week. Anglers who get out on the Mckenzie will see good numbers of March Browns and the best dry fly fishing so far this winter/spring.

Tags: McKenzie River

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Caddisfly // Mar 25, 2008 at 2:05 pm

    Access is just a bit tougher, not impossible. That friday the river was just huge, it dropped all day and was in much better shape by Sat, Sun, and now. It will still be high but wadable, be safe.

  • 2 channonh // Mar 27, 2008 at 2:49 am

    i hear there is a lot of private land on the mckenzie, will that effect wading? where is a good place to do some wading along this river?

  • 3 Karl Mueller // Mar 27, 2008 at 5:39 am

    There definitely is alot of private property on the lower river where the fishing is currently best. Armitage park and the area around there has some good access. Hendricks Park offers some wading opportunities and there are a couple of good spots off Deerhorn road. Above the dam, access gets much easier as there are a ton of boat launches and some parks. But the rub is that the best fishing right now is on the lower river for now I’d stay lower.

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