I’ve been getting out on the beautiful Metolius River over the past couple of weeks before the closure at the end of October.  The Kokanee have come up from Lake Billy Chinook to spawn in the river and are very numerous in the shallower areas of the river.  While the Kokanee will occasionally take nymphs, we don’t target these fish and let them do their “spawning thing”.  Here is a quick video of the Kokanee doing their thing:

With all the fishy activity in the river, the rainbows also get active.  Earlier this week, I got out on the upper portion of the river with my good friend and local Sisters resident, John, for a few hours of afternoon fishing.

Dave and John on the Metolius River

The river is pretty small in these upper stretches, and the fish tend to be a little smaller than in the lower sections of the river.  But, I took out my 7′  0″  4 wt bamboo rod, which worked great to high-stick some nymphs through the shallow riffles.  The resident native rainbows were very happy to take my #10 October Caddis Pupa and my #20 Rainbow Warrior.  Here is a nice little fish from our day.

Rianbow from the Metolius River