The past couple of days on the Mckenzie have been bone chilling. 45 degree water temps and 40-48 degree air temps that have felt like 35, have slowed fishing down compared to the prior week. On Sunday the river rose to over 5500cfs at Vida. It finally leveled off this Monday but things have yet to get back to ideal. This morning we had an ominous sign pictured below.
We did have a nice March Brown hatch and managed to get a few fish. Then the weather got really good.
Sheets of rain and hail pounded on us. Ron Mosher utilizes the “Alaska survival mode” position in the shot above. When things would break, good numbers of March Browns, Blue Winged Oives and a few caddis would dot the surface. Today’s hatch was much better than Mondays. As most of the weather cleared out we finally found what we came for.
Look for things to get better on the Mckenzie as the week warms up. The river appears to be on a steady drop and a couple of warmer days will do wonders for the fishing.
