Packing Up the Circus

As summer is starting to heat up, the Salmonfly hatch is winding down. Over the last month, I guided quite a few Salmonfly trips on the Deschutes and even spent a few days guiding some private lakes. May was a rollercoaster ride, to say the least, high water, flooding, mudslides, dirty water, thunder, lightning, hail, wolves, bears, bobcats, lost nets, bow and arrow eats under trees, anglers transcending fly fishing by catching a fly with a fly, fish jumping out of the water to take flies dangling from branches, and so much more. For me, the month of May is more of a circus, and you never know what will happen. 

I expect we will have a few more days of fish being keyed in on the big bugs, especially up in warm springs. I would have some smaller chubbies for running a dry dropper and some more subdued flies like Clark stones, Norm Woods, and MFFRs. In the evenings, I’d be fishing Small black Caddis, Corn Fed Caddis, and the Superman Caddis, and I’d try trailing Silvey’s edible emerger behind them to double my luck with the double dry setup.

As soon as the big bugs fade into the past, the crowds will start to dissipate and it’ll be time for the real fishing to begin. The next couple of months will be filled with Caddis hatches, BWOs, PMDs, Green Drakes, and so much more.