The Caddis Fly: Oregon Fly Fishing Blog

Summer is my favorite time of year. Wet wading, light till 9pm, dry flies and tons of trout. And the Upper Willamette River is my favorite place to be on a summer evening. The flows are finally down enough for very successful wade angling. During the early evening, the planters were taking a half-down golden […]

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Both the Mckenzie and the Willamette Rivers, and tributaries dropped huge amounts this past week. If you are used to walking in on the Middle Fork or the Mckenzie access is as good as it has been all year. In addition Salt Creek, Salmon Creek, and the North Fork of the Middle Fork are all in fine shape. […]

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Despite the climbing temperature, the Middle Fork Willamette remained stable on Saturday as I floated from the Guard rail launch in Oakridge to Black canyon. The river level has since risen sharply and has probably adversely affected the fishing and definitely has made floating les enjoyable. Levels are still very high for productive bank fishing […]

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This past week fishing on the lower Mckenzie and Middle Fork of the Willamette improved greatly. The high water this spring has the fish in better shape than I can remember. Hatches have improved and water temperatures have reached 53 degrees at times. We have truely turned the corner on a nasty spring. We are […]

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The lower Mckenzie River near Eugene continues to fish well. Water levels are currently dropping.  With little precipitation in the 5 day forecast, maybe, just maybe we will see a steady drop, instead of the yoyo ride we have been on lately.  We have been guiding clients on the lower river the past few days with good […]

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I fished yesterday despite some very high water. Since I took the boat out last night things have jumped another 2000cfs making the Middle Fork of the Willamette flat out scary near 7000 cubic feet per second.  The Mckenzie is absolutely roaring, currently over 9000cfs. The optimists view is that we are going to get this […]

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Fished the Middle Fork of the Willamette  this past Tuesday on another brutal day of weather. The river was high and out of shape until we got to the North Fork confluence, then it was just high and cold. The fishing was tough most of the day with occasional fish being taken on Mega Prince […]

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Looks like we are in for some much needed warmth this weekend. Anglers should expect more numerous caddis hatches and a diminished March Brown emergence. Look for larger species of caddis and even a few golden stone adults to crawl out and dry themselves on suddenly warm river rocks. Try the following patterns, Hackle Stacker Flag Dun […]

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The Middle Fork of the Willamette remained at a fishable level today despite all the rain we’ve had over the past few days. Although not as clear as usual, the river did have decent visibility, especially below the North Fork confluence. Most of the fish we caught were on stonefly imitations. Kaufmans Stone and Tungsten Rubber […]

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Saturday I floated the Middle Fork Willamette from lower Oakridge down to Black Canyon with my new buddy Mike. He rowed and I fished–what a revelation! I’m used to being the poor slob on the oars watching my passengers fish. The hatch wasn’t anything to write home about, a few caddis here […]

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