McKenzie Steelhead
Fall is here, and the fishing for both trout and steelhead has been relatively steady. Spring chinook are starting up on their spawn and the fishing near the redds can provide some hot action. The salmon tend to discard many nymphs from the rocks while digging their nests, and also many of their eggs tend to drift down river and create a super rich food source. The rainbows and the steelhead tend to get very active in this time frame of the season. The thing to remember is to avoid the salmon and to not harass them.
Spawning McKenzie Spring Chinook
If you do incidentally hook a salmon, the best thing to do is to point the rod straight at the fish, and to lock the line up, and pull firmly back. Lose a fly or two, and you make sure that the salmon can lay their eggs to ensure future generations of fish. On the flipside, the action can be rather hot and heavy at times during the fall due to all of the eggs and nymphs that are washing through the water from the salmon digging their nests.
Fall trout fishing can be hot and heavy, and the fish are going to fill up on heavy energy reserves to make it through the winter months. October Caddis, pale morning duns, blue winged olives, drifting salmon eggs, and a variety of other bugs will be in the picture for the next few weeks. It is a great time to catch some larger trout, and sometimes many of them. Swinging wet flies, fishing a dry fly and dropper, or just straight dry fly fishing can be very exciting at times during the next few weeks. This is
Willamette River Rainbow
one time of the year where the action can be hot and heavy on many portions of the river from the lower reaches to the upper portions of the river systems. The lower McKenzie will really wake up over the next few weeks, and some of the largest fish the river has to offer will come up for either a wet in the surface film or a dry fly on the top. Fish up to 19″ can be taken over the next several weeks, and they can provide you with quite the tussle. The cloudy days
seem to be the best, although many times there is no rhyme or reason, and a warmer sunny day can lead to an excellent day of October Caddis fishing. A rule of thumb can be to just get out there, and go fishing and see how good the action is when you are out there. If you wait to get the hot fishing; you may miss it.
Willamette River Steelhead
The fall steeheading is coming into its most productive time for solid action, and having the highest probability of getting into fish, and sometimes several in a day. The fish are very likely to take both swung flies and dead drifted flies as well. When the freshets occur, the fish can get really charged up, and somedays can lead to numbers that people only dream to experience. Also the fishing will start to spread out throughout the day, and somedays can be action packed all day long. The summer doldrums are officially over! It is time to get out there to experience the best fishing of the year!