There’s an old adage in Oregon fishing: if it rains in the summer, go fishing.

Case in point: Yesterday, I was joined by the Duffy family, Dennis, Kathleen, and Eric, for their first float on the lower McKenzie. The forecast was for clouds giving way to sun in the afternoon. However, we were treated to sunny warm conditions from the start. Fishing was fair and we got some nice trout in most of the places we swam the flies.

In the early afternoon, the clouds filled in, and soon we were donning the rain gear for what turned out to be a real gullywasher of a rainstorm. With the rain came an explosion of mayflies: PMD’s, Grey and Green Drakes, BWO’s, all took advantage of the wet calm and warm conditions. The trout took notice as well. In the heart of the storm, the grab was on! Dennis and Eric hooked and landed several beautiful oversize Redsides and got bit just about every time they dipped their soft hackles in the water.

By the time we hit the landing at the end of the day, everyone was soaked and stoked in equal measures. Here are a couple of those nice redsides in the rain: