We floated from Hayden to Armitage today 12pm-4pm. The water had dropped and cleared considerably since Thursday. As expected the bright and windy conditions made fishing a bit tough. But the beautiful day made up for any angling related deficiencies. The March Brown hatch came off around 2pm and there were fish up on dries. March Brown Comparadun’s and Hare’s Ear Soft Hackle were our best patterns.
Big numbers of caddis were flying near shore in wind protected areas. The caddis did not bring the fish up nearly as much as the March Browns for us. Fish were rising in some areas and not in others. Peak activity was around 2pm.
We did manage to collect some trash from the banks, most of it plastic left over from the high water in January.
Our weather forecast is for more sunshine in the coming days. The caddis hatch will most likely intensify. March Browns and Caddis should have fish looking up throughout the afternoon and possibly evening. Both the main-stem Willamette and Lower McKenzie will continue to drop and be in perfect spring shape. Nymphing early in the day will be productive, then finding a nice riffle or current edge to sit on in that 1-3pm range should be the ticket. Enjoy the weather!–CD
Nice work on the clean up Chris!