Fall Trout Fishing Report - More Bows and Cutts

This past Friday, I ran a trip for two wonderful clients for trout on the McKenzie River. Last year they did a fall steelhead trip; so they decided to try out some fall trout action. Unfortunately, the fish were not wanting to feed with reckless gluttony, but we worked at it with persistence. By day's end, we managed to rack up enough trout with significant shoulders to rate it a good day of fall trout fishing. We did not even get any fish on dries; with the exception of one fish that was a legitimate "cuttbow". It had red fins with white tips like a rainbow trout, but it had a cutthroat paint job, and had the scales of a cutty also. The fish fought with a rainbow's attitude, but crushed the fly like a silly cutthroat. It was a very unique looking specimen for that part of the river.

October Caddis Dry Fly Took This Beautiful Cuttbow Trout - Rainbow/Cutthroat Hybrid

We fished with a dry and dropper nymph, and the nymph took some nice fish here and there. The most productive method was swinging softhackled wet flies on a 45 degree down and across swing. We caught fish on size 18 blue winged olive softhackles, size 14 yellow softhackles, size 10 orange softhackles, and surface october caddis pupas. The smaller softhackles took most of the fish, but the larger ones worked well at times.

McKenzie River Rainbow Trout - Taken on Possie Bugger Nymph

We managed to hook up with a steelhead on a size 14 yellow softhackle, but the 4X tippet was no match for the fish. The powerful fish was on briefly before it decided to pop the tippet like it was a spider web. That was the second consecutive trout trip with an incidental steelhead hooked up. Makes you wonder how many fish are still headed up the Willamette Valley tributaries....

As long as the weather holds up, the fishing will remain good!