The McKenzie held its perfect spring flows this week and fishing remained solid. I spent an arctic Saturday and a beautiful overcast Sunday on the river this weekend.
We knew Saturday was going to be wet, but didn’t expect it to last long. We were wrong. Sideways hail, whipping winds, and no place to hide. It was flat out nasty. Between the rain and hail we did find some nice fish. Nymphing with a double rig of a black stonefly nymph on the bottom and a PCP nymph up from it about 18 inches.
Around 3pm we found some fish eating March Browns on the surface enjoyed some good dry fly fishing with Sparkle Dun March Brown patterns.
Sunday was much more pleasant, light winds, overcast and perfect water conditions. Again nymphing was a solid tactic, swinging wets was also productive. The dry fly fishing excellent with a 2 plus hour period of fish looking up. Fish were still rising as we took out at around 5pm. Best patterns were March Brown Parachutes, Purple Haze, Purple Rooster and Purple Poly Post.
This coming week looks wet again. As soon as water levels stabilize look for fine spring fishing to continue.
