The Crooked River is fishing well, water levels are nice at 100 cfs and steady. The water is pretty clear now too. Most days will see enough of a BWO hatch to get the fish eating on the surface to an emerger or dun. I had my best luck this week on a Purple Comparadun, and my fishing partner Chester was using a #20 parachute with good success. We both treat dry fly fishing as a ritual, if not a religious experience and picking off rising trout to a mayfly hatch is a wonderful time, especially when done with a good friend who I have shared that river with for 40 seasons now.
Nymph fishing is good, and either a single nymph on a euro rig, or a single nymph under a NZ Wool indicator or off a Dry Fly as a Dry/Dropper rig. Small mayfly nymphs like a 2 Bit Hooker, Micro May and even a small Flashback Pheasant Tail are great to match BWO nymphs before the hatch or really anytime, add zebra midges, midge winkers, scuds, Ray Charles, and orange psycho princes are good nymphs. In the low water make sure you have some nymphs that are not tungsten beads. A brass bead or glass bead won’t get caught up on the bottom or in the weed beds like a tungsten bead will in some of the places. Tungsten is great in the deeper areas, but at 102 cfs there are a lot of shallow spots. Also, Soft Hackles! Swing them or dead drift them, they really work.
November Special Guide Trips $375 for 2 people.