MEET THE MCKENZIE
FROM ONE YEAR to the next, Oregon’s McKenzie River is a river of multiple personalities during the month of June. It can run high with runoff or it can fish at summertime levels, depending on snowpack in the Cascades. On our trip during the second week of June, with my dad in the boat and guide Steve Erickson on the sticks, the river fished like mid July. Before we were finished that evening, the trout were leaping from the riffles to grab our flies above the water.
In the other boat, with guide Mel Crabb, were our friends Mike and Dianne Green. We had convened at The Fly Fisher’s Place on Main Street in Sisters. Ninety minutes after that we slid our boats into the McKenzie.
FAVORED FLIES
In the summer months, the McKenzie has reliable hatches of stoneflies, cad-dis, mayflies and midges. Expect to see spotted,
