Surprising Differences at East Lake

East Lake - La Pine, OR (Deschutes County)


by The Fly Fishers Place
7-27-2024
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I was on East Lake 2 days this week and the days could not have been more (surprisingly) different. 
On Tuesday I had Rick and Jim in the boat for a Deschutes River Alliance donated trip and while we had a good day, we had to change tactics a lot to achieve the success I wanted for them. We switched up techniques using callibaetis emergers and duns on the surface, beetles, Hoppers and chubby’s, deep indicator fishing with chironomids under the indicator in 17-18′ of water and got the nicest brown there. We also wind drifted using the drogue and slowing the boat in the heavy wind. Rick had an intermediate line on and jim had a Type 3 line. On this day the Type 3 was the way to find the fish. 
The next day with Skip and Sean started even more windy, and I had a hunch we would not find much for a callibaetis morning spinner fall, or lunchtime hatch in that weather so we immediately went to the Jiggy Twist Beetles along the banks and caught a bunch of fish right off the bat. The beetle worked all day but there was a time the fish were keyed in on Blue Damsel Adults and we had a great hour and half or so on Damsel Dries. 
When the wind howls don’t fret the callibaetis will be off, just plan on Damsels and Terrestrials. The 2nd Brood of Callibaetis will be upon us and that hatch is often more intense than the 1st brood offering stunning dry fly opportunities for about 6 weeks.