Recent hot weather has reminded us that summer is just around the corner. With temperatures into the 80's over the last weekend, fishing action really picked up on the Mckenzie. "Mother's Day" caddis have been providing good late afternoon and evening dry fly action, keeping the redsides' and cutthroats' interest up after the daily March Brown mayfly emergence.
On Monday, the 20th, I was joined by webmaster/fly caster extraordinaire, Mark Fisher, and his son, Tyler, for our annual spring float. Fishing was steady throughout the day on nymphs and wets, punctuated by two good windows of dry action in the early afternoon and at the end of the day. One of the highlights of the day was Mark landing a rock on a Copper John nymph. Think about it: we all hook plenty of rocks out there, but how many actually get landed? Here's the proof:
On Wednesday, the 22nd, I was joined by Don Parker and Neal Goldsmith who made the drive over from Bend to try their luck in some early season trouting. Despite cooler temperatures and a slightly higher river, fishing was still good, providing a repeat of the action from earlier in the week. Both Don and Neal landed several beautiful oversized redsides along with a mix of smaller bows, some nice cutts, and a few summer steelhead smolts. Here's one of Don's beauties:
Mike and Nancy Phillips from Bend also happened to be in town visiting Scott and the family. It was a treat when, just after lunch, they all floated into view in Scott's boat. The afternoon became a nice Two Dudes-Two Boat Special. It's spring in the southern Willamette Valley. Hard to imagine a nicer place to be.
