Can you believe it’s almost May? I’m anticipating the hatch in the next few weeks as many insects begin their annual cycle. I’ve started to see a few PMDs on the river to go along with BWOs. It won’t be long before my favorite hatch of Green Drakes begin to hatch. How about Salmonflies and…

My friend Jeff Perin, owner of The Fly Fisher’s Place here in Sisters, OR, writes a terrific weekly fishing report and mentioned opening day is just around the corner. I’m somewhat spoiled because my home waters, the Metolius River is open year-round. But not every fly fisher is that lucky. But it got me wondering,…

I’ve spent time recently reviewing some of the posts from early years of RiverKeeper Flies. Turns out I’ve had a lot of content the past 12 years! One of the things I noticed are all the images of successful flies I’ve used and shared with you. You’ll notice a trend that I constantly use the…

I’m writing today’s post from Maui. We’ve been here for over a week now and experienced the second Kona low of intense rain. Lahaina, which is only a few miles away, received over 6 inches of rain in 24 hours! The islands were severely impacted, but we were safe from our second story condo enjoying…

I bet you missed it. I celebrated another milestone a couple of weeks ago. RiverKeeper Flies turned 12 years old on March 5! That’s right, I’ve been at the keyboard writing these posts for 12 years. It’s hard for me to believe where my journey has taken me. Before I go too far, I wanted to…

This is a post Steve Haigh from The Destination Angler published on 3/2/2026 to summarize the episode we recorded with him titled Dry Fly Nomads Across the American West | John & Karen Kreft. I shared links to his YouTube channel and podcast earlier, but if you didn’t have time to watch or listen, here…

I’m headed to Albany, OR for the 2026 Fly Tyer & Fly Fishing Expo on March 13 & 14. I found out late last year my RiverKeeper Soft Hackle Cripple had been selected for the show fly. I’m proud of that, but also acknowledge the fly is a variant of some sort I’ve tweaked a…

In my last post, I mentioned we were evacuated from Valle del Carrileufu Lodge after only 6 hours because of a large wildfire very close to the lodge. Our initial plan was to stay at the lodge for four nights and fish around an in Los Alerces National Park. That night we began what I…

Karen and I were honored to spend some time with Steve Haigh recently. We discussed our fly fishing road trips on his Destination Angler podcast he published today. In addition, I talked about fly tying and flies we rely upon. The YouTube link on the left below is the podcast with video. On the right…