The Fall River Report

Fall River - La Pine, OR (Deschutes County)

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Fly Fishers Place

by The Fly Fishers Place
3-20-2021
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The Fall River was good this week for our guide Adam who was out running guide trips for customers taking advantage of our spring special. Euro Nymphing has been the way to go, really presenting the nymphs to the fish in a controlled way and varying the bead size and color to make the drift as perfect as it can be.

There is a small mix of dries, but by far BWO’s and Caddis are the most important. Skittering a Peacock Caddis has been productive for us. Midges are at times, very important so an emerging and adult midge or 2 to be ready with 7x is a good plan.

Don’t be surprised to see a pop-up of March Browns for the next few weeks. They will emerge from the riffles which are not the predominant feature on the Fall. But they are there this time of year and can get the fish amped for the surface. Nearly 35 years ago my best friend Matt showed me how to fish streamers on the Fall River, and that was an eye opener. I still like a good streamer day, especially in the spring time. Maybe it reminds me of those great old days or maybe I just like to watch trout chase down my Zonker or Sculpin. Speaking of Sculpins, my biggest Fall River fish was a big old Brown that sat around the hatchery, down in the ledges. I got that fish finally on a lead eye wool head sculpin a long time ago.

A week after I caught that fish, someone else caught him… and kept him (still mad about this!) and took it to the guys working the hatchery and weighed in over 8 pounds. After that, the ledge had such an emptiness to it. It was like losing a member of the family. I’ll never know why ODFW resists making the Fall River a Catch and Release River?!!!

We got our first report of someone making it to South Twin Lake this week. Roads are still a little rough, so be prepared for winter road conditions. The Lake was half frozen but the fishing was good. I’d say by this time next week or maybe 10 days from now it’ll be good access and good fishing.





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