It was great to get back to my home waters this past week. The McKenzie is at “early summer” water levels and fishing is full on. We put in at Hayden Bridge around 10:45am and immediately noticed mayflies on the water and in the air. The lighter colored cousin of the March Brown was something between a PMD and the larger darker classic March Browns. Fish were largely ignoring the mayflies, and I was in full exploration mode so we stuck with nymphs in the deeper runs and drop-offs.
By 12:30 we were seeing enough bugs, both mayflies and caddis to park in a bit of broken water and fish to actively rising fish. Surface activity continued on until we took out at around 5pm.
It was a bright and windy most of the day but each time the wind would lay down a bit the bugs and fish would become much more surface oriented. Although we did not catch any really big fish on the top we did have quite a bit of action. The most intense period of adult March Browns on the surface seemed to be between 2:30pm and 4pm. Fish were tuned in to both the emergent and adult forms of the March Brown during that window of time.
When we get some cloudy drizzly days in the coming days look for the hatch to be more concentrated and for larger fish to be more interested in heading to the top.
Best flies for fishing the lower McKenzie include:
Parachute Purple Rooster 12,14
Parachute Adams 14,16
March Brown Klinkhammer 12,14
Jigged Pheasant Tail 12,14
Jigged Prince 10
UV Guide Caddis 14,16
Mercer’s Missing Link Caddis 14,16
Thanks for the fly pic, I’m always interested in seeing what you guys are using rather than just a description.