After a summer of fires and hot temps, its safe to say most of us are ready for fall. Cooler temps are inbound and the trout are just as excited as us. Fishing lately has been good with intermittent hatches of insects popping off in the valley. Flows are lower on valley tributaries and the main rivers are swelling from dam releases. There is so much to do in the fall that it can be overwhelming. The most challenging thing to do this time of year is picking what you want to do.
Current Hatches
October Caddis is generally the insect that comes to mind in the fall. Their pupa are a high calorie meal for trout and easy to spot being bright orange. Emergence generally occurs at night, but trout remember what the pupa look like during the day. Adult activity is most prevalent in evenings ad mornings. On overcast days you’ll see the adults too. Next up are Blue Winged Olives and Mahogany Duns, the fall mayflies. Both of these insects are triggered by cooler temps. Mahoganies will hatch most days with hatches becoming more abundant in the weeks to come. BWO’s are especially common on cooler and overcast days. Small caddis are still around and make great searching patterns on small creeks. Hoppers and Beetles are winding down, but fish will still take terrestrials. Your days are dwindling for the Hopper bite, so get after it on these last few warm days. Lastly, the Nocturnal Stone is a late-season stonefly that is hard to pass up if you’re a hungry trout.

Dry Fly Suggestions
Our choice October Caddis Patterns Follow: Burkus’ Sedgeback October Caddis, J’s October Hi Tie Caddis, Morrish’s Foam October Caddis Adult, or a Better Foam Caddis. Fish these single and splash and skate them in the evenings, or fish them in tandem with some smaller dries listed below. For Mahogany Duns we have some shop favorites: Mahogany Parachute Extended Body, Harrop’s CDC Biot Mahogany Dun, or a Galloups OG Bent Cripple. For your cloudier days try these if you see Baetis or Blue Winged Olives hatching: Hatch Matcher Blue Winged Olive, Morrish’s May Day Blue Winged Olive, Tactical Blue Winged Olive Parachute, or a Parachute Extended Body Blue Winged Olive. Searching with a Nocturnal Stone rig works great; these make great buoyant dries for dropper rigs: Water Walker Nocturnal Stone #8-10, Burkus Bearback Stone (okay) #8, or a darker colored Single Stack/Double Stack Chubby. Late season terrestrials should be fished near grassy banks: Henneberry Hopper, Rio’s Blade Runner Hopper, Rio’s Dry Humper, or a Hi-Vis Micro Chubby Chernobyl. Other good general attractors for your box are: Elk Hair Caddis Brown, Goddard Caddis, Kingfisher Godlike Caddis, Carlson’s Purple Haze, Adams Heavy Hackle Parachute, or a Hi Vis Parachute Adams. These work great at imitating the various species of mayflies and caddisflies present this fall.

Choice Nymphs
October Caddis pupa are a wonderful way to search through water. They provide a huge meal to trout, and they’re hard to pass up. Here are some shop favorites: Tungsten October Caddis, Bead Head October Caddis, and Anderson’s Tungsten Bird of Prey October Caddis. Stay tuned for an awesome October Caddis Pupa Jigged Nymph tutorial in the coming weeks. We also have a jigged October Caddis Pupa pattern on the way from our friends at Fulling Mill. If we are excited for both of these, you should be too. For slimmer bodied nymphs like Mayflies and Caddis here are some we like: Weiss’ Possum Anchor Jig, MFC Berry’s PCP Jigged Nymph, Loren’s Stud, Yardley’s Low Hole Jig Fly, Olsen’s Blowtorch, or a Improved Jigged 20 Incher tied locally by our friend Jim Sens. Select bead size based on if you are fishing fast deep water or shallow water. Fishing some larger Stoneflies can help get your fly most importantly see and deep enough in higher water. Fishing any of these in tandem with a fly above is a great option: Lex’s Improved Rubberleg Stonefly Nymph, Sili Leg Stone Fly, Mega Prince, or a T.J Hooker. One last suggestion with rain and high flows is fishing a worm fly. If you can bring yourself to tie one on, here are some we like: Croston’s JIgged Chenille Worm, Jake’s Depth Charge Worm, or a Rio’s Worm Farm.
Dropper/Tandem Rigs
Fishing a Dry Dropper is still a viable option this time of year. These make great options for your buoyant dry fly: Water Walker Nocturnal Stone #8-10, Burkus Bearback Stone (okay) #8, or a darker colored Single Stack/Double Stack Chubby. You can run nymphs below the October Caddis Dry flies listed above, just opt for a smaller lighter nymph that wont drown the dry fly. The way I like to fish tandem rigs with October Caddis adults is to tag a small Mayfly behind it. Any of the Mahogany Dun, BWO , or other searching suggestions listed above would make for an awesome trailing nymph. The large October Caddis makes it easy to track those small dries for old eyes. When fishing a Mahogany or BWO hatch, my trailing nymph would be a very small unweighted nymph, cripple/emeger, or soft hackle such as: Orange or Olive Soft Hackle #14-18, Galloup’s Peacock Hares Ear, BWO Soft Emerger #18, or a Harrop’s CDC Biot Mahogany Dun. The key here is to have one visible dun or high floating emerger to watch, and behind it is another fly sitting in the film or subsurface. The trailing fly is seen as the easier meal and is often the one eaten.
Swinging Streamers/ Wets
Swimming flies can be effective this time of year; cooler weather has trout coming out of their summer heat induced lethargy and will now move further for food. This can create some explosive takes on small wet flies. Cast diagonally upstream and toss in a few upstream mends. This will give your fly time to sink. When it is downstream of you, pinch the fly line and the line will come taut. This will cause the nymphs to swing towards your bank, and rise to the surface mimicking a hatching insect while doing so. All of the October Caddis Pupa listed above in the nymph section are great options to swing. For nymphs and smaller caddis try these: BWO Soft Emerger #18, Orange or Olive Soft Hackle #14-18, Peacock Soft Hackle, or a Tungsten Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail. In quicker water trail one of these behind a tungsten nymph or one of the larger October Caddis Pupa to help get it down. Split Shot can also be your friend, however I tend to avoid using it and find using a heavy nymph makes casting easier. Swinging small streamers can be effective in higher flows, mimicking disoriented sculpins, small trout, and baitfish. Here are some we like, feel free to trail it with a small soft hackle or even better an October Caddis Pupa: Scuplzilla Jr #8, Tactical Jig Zonker, Thin Mint #8-12, or a Croston’s Belly Flop Sculpin.
Anadromous Fishing by Robbie
The steelhead angler has a plethora of options to choose from in fall. Things on the Willamette have slowed down for swing anglers due to water temperatures, but the McKenzie remains more consistent. Positive reports have come out of the Deschutes and other Columbia Gorge Rivers. The North Umpqua is open but fishing has been “two weeks of hard fishing for one fish” slow. Expect the water to cool down next weekend which will really turn “the bite” on. Fall is a great to try skaters on our local steelhead. The next 6 weeks or so should be excellent steelheading locally with great fishing through November on desert rivers.
Salmon fishing has been incredible on the ocean and estuaries for conventional fisherman as well as a few brave fly anglers. Light rain is expected midweek that should make upriver salmon angling viable for a few days. Upriver fly season on the coast really kicks off in October following the first big storm. Chinook are harder to trick, but coastal Coho can get silly following the first fall storm. Salmon prefer stripped presentations, but a combination of swinging/stripping can work as well in the right water.
Coho salmon fishing in the Willamette Valley is an option. The run is expected to be great. The Santiam Drainage and mouths of tributaries on the Mainstem Willamette should kick off in a big way in a week or two. The Valley Coho fishery is a developing one with developing regulations. On the Santiams there are lower river deadlines until October 15th. Read the regulations.
Choice Coho flies include: PolyWog, Guide Intruder, Willie Nelson Steelhead Stinger Fly, Clouser Deep Minnow, Loop Leech, Moal Leech, or a Jumbo Critter. For Chinook smaller flies work better in lower, more clear water, when water is up size up to your big ugly flies. Try these for chinook: Clouser Deep Minnow, Guide Intruder, Boss Fly, Rio’s Mean Streak, or a Moal Leech. Subsurface swinging flies for steelhead are still working great. Here are some hot flies: Scandi Candi, MOAL Leech, Hoh Bo Spey, and size #6 Signature Intruders. Surface skating flies include: Tube Steelhead Beetle, Wake Monster Caddis Tube, Fall Caddis Waking Tube, and Tube Ska-Opper.
Conditions/Location
Flows on our local Mckenzie and Middle Fork Willamette River are elevated, but not blown out. This is part of the new annual fall drawdowns on our local reservoirs to aid in salmon passage. This makes for great conditions for floating the rivers in a drift boat or raft. If you are wading on foot, it helps to return to water you are familiar with during higher water and wade slowly and carefully. The tributaries in the valley will not have the same surge of water, so those make good options on foot. They also get too cold and high to fish well in the winters, so enjoy them now. High lakes are great right now, many of them have trout cruising the banks, so you can fish them from shore. Many of those fish will happily take a small dry or streamer. Surfperch is great this time of year if you catch the tide right. Steelhead locally is still fishing well and makes a great option locally. Chinook and Coho are trickling in and people have them in mind as well. Fall can be overwhelming with options both fishing and non fishing related; we can’t pick for you, but are here to help with whatever you decide.
Make the most of the nice weather and daylight while we still have it. Hand-selected seasonal flies will be on the back table for your convenience. As always, swing by or give the shop a ring. We are happy to help you out. (541) 342-7005
-Simon