Metolius or Deschutes?

[willfishforfood]

I will be staying at my folks place in Tumalo this weekend and plan to do some fly fishing I've got a couple ideas, but would like some input. Should I fish the Metolius or Deschutes? I'm thinking either near Cline Falls state park or further up, west of Terrebonne on the Deschutes. I'm about the same distance from Camp Sherman so I was thinking the met is also a good option. Anyone had any luck or know of current insect hatches? Any help is appreciated.

 

[sapo]

Deschutes. The month of May is phenomenal on the Deschutes, and the Deschutes is a much more productive trout river than the Metolius also with much higher numbers. Salmonfly hatch is on the Deschutes. Hope that helped.

 

[brandon4455]

depends if you want crowded fishing or not, the deschutes will be like the nestucca at hansen boat ramp in the middle of october right now. metolius will be tougher to fish but less crowded and big fish.

 

[steelhead_slayer]

Depends on what you are looking for. Metoliud is prettier, but a tougher fishery than the deschutes. You have better chances on the D. If you can drive the extra distance to the lower Deschutes

 

[JonT]

So far the Deschutes salmonfly hatch hasn't really kicked into gear hard, from what I've seen/heard. You might get lucky and hit it right in time.

 

[FishFinger]

With the onset of nice weather... Finally.... The 126 bridge at Kline Falls is packed with folks talking to the river. If your going to fish at KF head up river from the park; it's all BLM and there are miles and miles of pocket water available. Irrigation canals are flowing and the D is running at summer levels, all ready so the pockets above the park aren't as deep as they might be in late May.

If you can do so I'd also consider lower on the river as well.

 

[JeannaJigs]

The d is spotty I just got back from being there for three days. We had okay fishing Wednesday but Thursday no boats were catching anything. I know this because my jeep broke down at warm springs and a member of our party say at trout creek with my boat from 5:30 pm until 11:30pm. Friday no salmon flies were present but there was a hatch of 3 different mayflies, but no one was doing very good. The big bugs are hatching at about 30 minutes before dark and you can hear the fish rising all night to them. By morning they're stuffed. There were also hardly any salmon flies at trout creek it was mostly the golden stones. Up near Mecca there were no Goldens but a decent number of salmon flies. It's nowhere near being what I've seen previously. Very tough fishing on very crowded waters.

 

[willfishforfood]

Thanks for the input, I got over here today and I think I'm gonna fish both. Tomorrow middle D above Cline Falls and then Monday morning, the Metolius. I went to Fin&Fire in Redmond and got some flies and beer. May seem weird that a flyshop would do growler fills but hey, 2 birds... Guy there seemed to think they're hitting salmon flies up here. I'll post after I get back from the river. I did catch a couple dumbass bass in the pond here on minnow patterns, good to get the skunk off first.

 

[willfishforfood]

Thanks to a screaming one year old overnight Sunday, I only made it out one day. I made it to Cline Falls state park about sunrise and was the only car there. It was slightly overcast and about 40 degrees. Began my hike upstream and began scouting for good holes along the way. There are definitely some very promising spots. Throughout the morning I tried a few different nymphs (hares ear, pheasant tail and a stonefly) without any luck. There was very little surface activity and not many bugs in the air, not a single salmon fly or stonefly that I saw. I fished until about 2 pm. I did get a couple fish to rise on a small mayfly dry, both released. Pretty quiet day for the others I met there too. The trail along the west bank has pretty easy access and is heavily used by joggers and fishermen. Beautiful scenery and definitely a good area considering it's only 10 mins from my parents place in Tumalo.

 

[Modest_Man]

The d is spotty I just got back from being there for three days. We had okay fishing Wednesday but Thursday no boats were catching anything. I know this because my jeep broke down at warm springs and a member of our party say at trout creek with my boat from 5:30 pm until 11:30pm. Friday no salmon flies were present but there was a hatch of 3 different mayflies, but no one was doing very good. The big bugs are hatching at about 30 minutes before dark and you can hear the fish rising all night to them. By morning they're stuffed. There were also hardly any salmon flies at trout creek it was mostly the golden stones. Up near Mecca there were no Goldens but a decent number of salmon flies. It's nowhere near being what I've seen previously. Very tough fishing on very crowded waters.

Was it your starter? We got the last campsite at TC around noon Friday and the next site over had a jeep that was getting a starter replaced. We did really well Friday afternoon in the rain just walking upstream from TC on golden stones. Probably the best we did all weekend. I really like rip-rap and fast water 6" from shore.

 

[JeannaJigs]

Bahaha yeah that was my jeep. The battery died and we had to jump it Thursday morning...which ultimately fried the starter. It was an adventure getting it back to TC, finally got in about midnight, everyone in the campground was THRILLED. I guess the other members of my party did well after it started raining Friday. Me I was hunting all over madras for a starter. I'm vehicle retarded so I am thankful my mechanic aka my parental dropped everything to drive the road to hell to put in a new starter. It was pretty stressful sitting at warm springs in the dark trying to figure the mess out. Put a damper on the end of what should have been a relaxing weekend

 

[Modest_Man]

Bummer end to a trip. An older woman asked us if we had any metric sockets on hand, which I didn't unfortunately. I thought you don't like snakes? We saw the most rattlers I've seen out there this weekend!

Thanks for leaving some fish. We had a truck with a-holes roll in at about 12:30am Friday night and set up next to us in a non-campsite.

 

[JeannaJigs]

Lol that was probably my mom my dad didn't bring metric because "it's a jeep, it's American dammit, not metric!" But one bolt on the starter was metric. I absolutely hate snakes and I was in a special kind of paranoid hell all three days I was there lol. Never saw any rattlers until I was leaving and on the way out counted seven along the road. Did learn that snakes swim along the bottom of the river though. Rose was about to climb in the boat and looked down and a snake was wrapped around her leg. I had an episode lol and then it just started slithering along the riverbed. Stayed down there for at least ten minutes. Didn't see much reason to get out of my boat after that. A-holes are why we went before the weekend lol