The Great Machine

The first week of May is almost over and what could possibly be called the greatest biomechanical machine has fired up, and its wheels are starting g to turn. If you are unsure of this marvel that I speak of let me clarify. It is the Deschutes River Salmonfly Hatch. 

Every year in may, the river temperature warms, and these giant aquatic creatures, that have been crawling among the stones and gravel of the riverbed for the past one to three years start their migration to the bank. They stage up next to shore, and crawl out onto the riverbank, awaiting their transformation. This typically takes place at night. These giant nymphs cling to rocks, grass, bush’s, or anything they can, as they dry out, their hard nymphal shucks crack open, and they slowly emerge as the adult form of a giant winged terrestrial. 

Stoneflies undergo incomplete metamorphosis, passing through three distinct life stages- egg, nymph, and adult, without a pupal stage. Once these giant bugs hatch they live 1-4 weeks mating and then flying off and laying eggs in the river. 

While we are starting to see the giant bugs in the bushes we are still a few weeks away from the big show. 

When you head over to the Deschutes right now you should be prepared for a number of different scenarios. Of course you should be fully stocked with a selection of big bugs. I would have a couple of dozen, 5 or 6 patterns with 3-4 of each. I personally like MFFR’s, chubby chernobyls in a couple colors, Clark stones, and rogue stones. I like to have a few of each, because you are typically trying to land them next to the bank and up under trees and bushes. So you end up losing quite a few of them. 

If they aren’t keyed into the big dries yet or they are just starting, I would run a dropper off of the bend of the hook. 24”-36” of 5x tippet. For the dropper I would have a selection of nymphs. The past few years my go to’s have been mic drops, peacock perditions, and the pmd version of the TNT nymph. 

I would also carry some caddie dries and emergers, pmd, bwo, and green drake dries and emergers. Since the introduction of the mixing tower at Round Butte dam, all of these hatches seem to coincide.  

The Salmonfly hatch should go into the first week of June, with it finishing in the Warm Springs area. 

The biggest secret or bit of advice I can offer is this. If you wait till you hear the reports about how good the hatch is going you will probably miss it. Go as often as you can for the next month and make your own fishing report