McKenzie: Fishing for rainbows remains good on the upper river with best catches occurring early and late in the day. Hopper dropper rigs have been taking their fair share of fish using golden stone dries and green drake nymphs/possie bugger droppers. Single fly choices would be #14 heavy hackle Adams or #12 orange bodied elk hair caddis. Lower river hatches include huge little yellow sally hatches and pmd/ped mayflies just before dark.Try #14 yellow sally patterns as well as sparkle dun pmds in size #16.
Willamette: Evening is the time to be stalking Goliath redsides, with dry flies, on the Middle fork of the Willamette. Larger than usual green drake and pmd/ped mayfly hatches have been bringing the big boys up to feed in the hours prior to sun down. Fish indicators and multi-nymph rigs in late afternoon to optimize on-water time. However, the real show starts about 7 p.m and goes until you can’t see your fly anymore. Dry flies of choice would be CDC green drake Parachute and sparkle dun pmd. Nymphs of interest would be #10 mega prince, #16 tungsten p.t nymph, and of course the possie bugger.
Deschutes: With the heat comes the plague-like caddis hatches. All those over-sized redsides that everyone forgot about after salmon fly season are in the bank and eddie lines gobbling down #16 and #18 X-caddis and peacock caddis. Sub-surface choices include green hotwire caddis and #16 and 18 red copper johns. Don’t forget to drink plenty of water and bring your sunscreen!
Williamson: The heat means one thing down in the Klamath basin, gigantic lake run rainbows coming up into the Williamson and burning the drags off your 6wt. Bring your slime lines and plenty of wooly buggers in black, olive and brown and hold on. Fish range from 14 in. to holy crap that’s a big one! 3X tippets are what hold ’em, but if you want to get bit you might have to go down to5X flouro. Seek broken water during mid-day sun. Remember that elephants eat peanuts and so do monster rainbows. Be sure to throw in some #16 and #14 soft hackles in yellow and black.
Best of luck to all who beat the heat while knee deep!–BC
That is the most solid and enticing trout report I’ve read in a long time. But I’m still going sturgeon fishing…