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The
Power Hour Yakima River Fishing Report is brought to you exclusively by Red's.
The content of this report is not the generic "fishing has
been good in the morning, and afternoons, and later in the evenings,
too." Rather, when we go fishing, we will analyze one session and
report the day, time, location, fly, number of fish caught, species,
and size (if
we caught any). We'll also write up the method we used. Keep in mind
that the fishing report is based on a prior day's fishing and
weather conditions.
Yakima River High Water Tips
- Watch a headless guide talk about Dry Droppers at 4,000 cfs plus.
Your current setup might need a little modification - check out this
video for some ideas on how to improve your dropper game.
That says it all, twilight dry fly
fishing in the Yakima River Canyon. Dustin S. hooked up heavy.
Photo by Derek Jordan
7/29/2010 pm hours
(see archive reports from August Week 1 below this report for
references and advice from years past - VERY useful info). Anglers: Jake, Paul, and Joe R.
This morning was the slowest we have seen yet, Derek J was in the lower
lower canyon (Squaw Creek to Roza and said the same thing, although they
did stick a few biggies). I fished with some young men from Texas
today, and it was so cool to hear them talk about how awesome the
fishing was and how amazing the Yakima River was - I couldn't even
muster the words that this was 'slow' fishing. They were loving,
and that is what it is all about. The lower canyon saw a spike in
flows today while the upper river remained stable. Not sure whey
that is except that they might have stopped diverting as much water at
the dam in Thorp? Likely cause. We had very mediocre dry fly
fishing and extremely mediocre indicator nymphing so we switched up and
ran a dry dropper combo and found that to be the best strategy.
I'm not sure if was exclusively in the way they handled it but for some
reason it outfished an indicator rig by quite a margin. If I get a
chance I put some tips on video and will try to post it tonight
sometime. Overall, the bite is now typical summer fishing. The
rally we have had going for nearly 2 weeks was simply unsustainable.
There were some days mixed in there that ruined us... in a good way.
7/29/2010 (see archive reports from July Week 3-4 below this report for
references from years past)
Anglers: Mike, Tomo, and Joe R.
Location: Red's to Mahres
Flies:
Tan Gypsy King #8,
Chubby Chernobyl, Dave's Hopper #8, Black Knotty Girl #6, Brown
Pat's Stone #6, Lime Green Caddis Pupae #16, and last but not least...
Chartreuse Copper John #14 (hot fly yesterday)
Posted By: Joe R.
Time: 5 am - 11:30 am
Results: About 10 trout landed (but the fishing was very soft compared
to what was going on a week ago - still pretty good but they are no
longer jumping in the boat)
The morning bite has gotten pretty soft over the past few days, and it
seems as though our dry flies have worn out their welcome at the trout's
breakfast table. We did turn some nice fish but the bite has
definitely slowed down. Our best fishing was actually after the
sun was on the water and it was with nymphs fished about 5' under an
indicator in the deep seams. It was actually kind of nice to have
some good fishing during the daylight even though it happened to be
nymphing. One thing we did see that was really encouraging was a
monster sized, and I mean MONSTER sized grasshopper floating downstream
in the water and it actually clung onto our fly line. With a few
harsh mends in eventually relented its grip and floated right up along
the shore where a nice trout took 3 individual swipes at it and finally
got a hold of it. That was be the equivalent mass of a Butterball
Turkey floating by you and eating the whole thing! Hoppers are an
enormous source of summertime growth for these trout and it appears that
they are going to pick up some steam. We only fished a hopper after the
sunlight was very direct and turned 4 fish on it. When you are
fishing a hopper be prepared for the fish to swipe and swirl at it once
or twice before you set the hook (yes I know, restraint is difficult in
this situation - mind over matter), but for some reason the fish love to
make passes at it until they drown it and then eat it just under the
surface. They do it to real hoppers and fake ones alike so it
doesn't have anything to do with being hook shy, it is just their mode
of operations for some reason.
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Email Marketing You Can Trust! August - Week 1 - Powerhour Archives
8/07/03
Anglers: Tony, Trevor, and Steve
Location: Red's to Lmuma
Flies: sz. 12 Yellow Phat Fly, sz. 12 Yellow Marathon Bug, sz. 8
Electric Blue Stimulator
Time: 9:30 am until 10:30 am
Results: (1) 13" Rainbow landed
As the saying goes, "We actually had better fishing than the results
might indicate." We had fish up pretty regularly throughout the drift.
Trevor stuck one nicer fish at the alfalfa pasture that put on a good
aerial show prior to coming unbuttoned, and we had a fair number of
other looks and bumps that didn't result in bent rods. Once again, we
fished only dries this morning, but nymphing with a sz. 6 or 8 darker
colored (brown/ black) stonefly nymph and a sz. 14-16 Lightning Bug or
Prince nymph dropper under an indicator has been pretty effective
throughout the day. The faster moving parts of the riffles with a 3'-4'
depth has been the best target for nymphing. Despite another heavy
rainfall last night, flows are down a bit to 4001 cfs this morning.
We had a world class storm move through the canyon last night. A fair
amount of damage was done; however, we are very thankful that no one was
injured. We are working on getting things back in order, and anticipate
by tomorrow afternoon things will be back to normal except for a few
less shady spots in the campground. The fishing has picked up a bit
these past few days. Consistent cloud cover has made the trout a little
less weary and we have had good dry fly fishing. Flows are holding at
4160 cfs, and the weather forecast calls for scattered clouds and
moderate temperatures with daily highs in the 80-85 range.
>>>
8/03/03
Angler: Jack, Tim, and Steve
Location: Ringer to Red's
Flies: sz. 12 Yellow Phat Fly, sz. 12 Yellow Para Hopper, sz. 8
Marathon Bug, sz. 8 Electric Blue Stimulator
Time: 4:00 pm until 9:00 pm
Results: Good Dry Fly Fishing
The air temperature dropped a few degrees and the clouds moved in
yesterday. We even had a brief smattering of rain overnight last night,
which we are very happy about. We did a split float yesterday, fishing
the morning until 11:00, and then going back out at 4:00 pm. We stuck
with dries and had consistent activity on both drifts, but the afternoon
session was a little better. Our best flies these past two days have
been sz. 10-12 Hoppers and a few Stimulators mixed in. Basically, there
are two types of banks: pocket banks and straight banks. On the pocket
banks, try and land your fly in the pocket and mend it as soon as it
lands. It's OK, and actually desirable to move your fly on the mend -
this triggers a lot of strikes. On straight banks, the goal is to get a
long, drag free drift as tight to the bank as possible. Allowing these
fish to see the fly coming from 5'-10' away in this type of water is a
critical element in tricking them
8/07/04
Anglers: Brian and
Rod
Location: Umtanum
to Red's
Flies: sz. 6
Nightmare
Time: 6:30 am
until 7:30 am
Results: 2
Rainbows landed 14"
We fished only one
fly this morning, and the results are a little deceiving. Along with the
two fish landed, we had several long distance releases and a many other
lookers. They really liked seeing just a little bit of movement on the
fly. It was beautiful on the river this morning; cool enough to be in
waders and a mist rising from the water. The sun is shining here right
now,and we are expecting temperatures in the high 70's or low 80's
today. The rain we received yesterday helped bring the current river
flow up to 4160 cfs. This past week, we registered the highest water
temperatures of the season at 66 degrees. This will become more of a
factor as August wears on, and it is important to keep this in mind when
landing and releasing fish.
>>>
8/04/04
Anglers: Tony, JM,
and Steve
Location: Lmuma to
Slab
Flies: sz. 6
Kaufmann's Stone, sz. 6 Matt's Stone, sz. 14 Lightening Bug, sz. 12
Lightening Bug, sz. 8 Winged Thing, sz. 6 Plan B
Time: 4:30 pm
until 5:30 pm
Results: 3
Rainbows landed 12"-14"
We rigged up two
full-on nymph rigs at the beginning of the drift and fished them both on
the move and stopping and anchoring on a few spots. Nymph fishing was
pretty good once we lengthened our leaders to about 10' and added enough
weight to get the flies down. We started with our indicators at only
4'-5' above the top fly and ended up having our best success after we
adjusted them to 7'-8'. After the sun started to go off the water at the
top end of the Miracle Mile, we switched to dries and brought 3 or 4
nice fish up just before the takeout.
>>>
8/03/04
Anglers: Conner,
Ryan, and Hank
Location: 20mm to
Lmuma
Flies: sz. 6 Tan
Nightmare, sz. 8 Winged Thing, sz. 10 Feth Hopper, sz. 10 Marathon Bug,
sz. 8 Tan Para Hopper, sz. 6 Kaufmann's Stone, sz. 14 Silver Lightening
Bug
Time: 6:30 am
until 12:00 am
Results: 4
Rainbows landed 10"-15"
Morning fishing
proved itself again, with plenty of dry fly activity for most of the
float. The best window of fishing we had was between the hours of 6:30
and 10:30am. Summer Stones and Hoppers have been the bugs of choice in
the morning, but fishing other terrestrial patters like beetles and
small ants gives the fish some variations and can produce some results.
After 10:30am the dry fly fishing slowed down enough to warrant
switching our fishing tactics. We nymphed for the duration of the float
between Red's and Lmuma, targeting mostly the weaker banks, and had
enough activity to keep things interesting.
>>>
8/01/04
Anglers: Robyn,
Candy, and Steve
Location: Red's to
Roza
Flies: sz. 6 Tan
Nightmare, sz. 8 Winged Thing, sz. 10 Tan Turk's Tarantula, sz. 10
Marathon Bug, sz. 8 Tan Para Hopper
Time: 6:30 am
until 11:00 am
Results: 2
Rainbows landed 15",16"
Dry fly activity
has picked up a bit over the past 2 or 3 days. While the morning and
evening are still the optimum times to be on the water, we have been
seeing more action during the middle part of the day on Hoppers. Our
strategy has remained the same - cover a fair amount of water and work
for good presentation. Sometimes playing around with drift duration can
make a difference, too. Rather than casting and getting a 5' drift, then
recasting; go ahead and leave the fly on the water for another 10'-15'
if the drift is drag-free. It seems like that can entice tough fish to
come up. They follow the fly for a long ways to make sure it looks
right, and then they eat it with a downstream charge! We have more hot
weather in store for the next couple of days before it looks like things
may cool down on Tuesday and Wednesday.
8/4/05
Anglers: Don,
Betsy, and Clint
Location: Ringer
to Red's
Flies: sz. 8 Royal
MT Bar Fly, sz. 8 Bugmeister, sz. 8 Electric Blue Stimi, sz. 8 Para
Hopper, sz. 8 Dave's Hopper, sz. 10 Hot Legs Hopper
Time: 6:30 am -
12:00 pm
Results: 10
Rainbows (10"-18")
The big dries
fished well throughout this float with the Dave's Hopper being the best
pattern. Weather and water temperatures are starting to creep up again.
Water temps topped out at 69.0 degrees yesterday afternoon at about 4:00
p.m. We are recommending that anglers restrict their fishing to the
morning hours and try to be off the water at about 2:00 p.m. The coolest
water temperatures are at about 8:00 a.m. We are suppose to see 97
degrees today with the same forecast for the next few days. The current
river flow is at 3180 cfs.
8/2/05
Anglers: Dan,
Bill, and Steve
Location: Umtanum
to Roza
Flies: sz. 8 Royal
MT Bar Fly, sz. 8, 14 Feth's Hopper, sz. 8 Bugmeister, sz. 8 Electric
Blue Stimi, sz. 8, 12 Para Hopper, sz. 6-10 Dave's Hopper, sz. 10 Hot
Legs Hopper
Time: 6:30 am -
12:00 pm
Results: 7
Rainbows (10"-16") and 2 NPM's
We experienced a
cooler day weather-wise yesterday, and both the fish and water
temperatures responded very favorably. We had high cloud cover for the
majority of the day with air temps near 70 degrees. Water temps peaked
at 68.5 degrees yesterday and are below 63 starting out this morning,
which is a huge improvement over the past 3 days. It does look like the
weather will heat up again by the weekend, but one cool day sure helps
8/7/06
Anglers: Tai, Tyson, and Rod
Location: Umtanum to Mahre's
Flies: sz. 8-12 Para and Dave's Hoppers, sz. 4-8 Summer Stones (Chernobyls
and Stimis), sz. 6 Rubber-legs Stone, sz. 16 Lightening Bug, sz. 16
Prince Nymph, sz. 16 Beaded Hare's Ear Nymph
Time: 5:30 am - 11:00 am
Results: 5 or so Rainbows (10"-16") and 2 Whitefish with several
LDR's
We had lots of
looks up until about 8:00 am. The takes were slow, and it was difficult
to get a good hook set. From about 8:00 to 10:00 we threw hoppers and
had a tough time getting the fish to look at them. We resorted to deep
nymphing throughout the rest of the trip and had consistent fishing on
both the Stone nymph and the dropper. Mornings and evenings are still
the best times for dries. Daytime temps are back in the 90's and the
river flow is staying consistent at around 4000 cfs.
8/2/06
Anglers: Bryan, Ken, and Joe
Location: Big Horn to Red's
Flies: sz. 8-12 Para and Dave's Hoppers, sz. 4-8 Summer Stones (Chernobyls
and Stimis)
Time: 4:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Results: 8-10 Rainbows landed (12"-17")
The morning and
evening hours remain the most productive time for the big dry fly
fishing, and we are still seeing a few afternoon fish up on Caddis and
Mahogany Duns. We have fished dries all day long, but it slows down
during the middle part of the day. We'll stress it again - it is
absolutely imperative to get your fly tight to the bank! The nymphing
has remained fairly consistent and is probably the best strategy for
seeing action during the noon hours. We get lots of questions about dry
flies with beadhead droppers this time of year. The problem with running
a dropper is that it doesn't allow you to get your big dry tight enough
to the bank to be real effective. It also doesn't allow for a long
enough drift to get your nymph fully sunk. So you're doing a half decent
job of dry flying and a half decent job of nymphing. Granted there are
some bouldery, pocket water sections that it can work well even with
flows where they are now; but overall, it's best to go dry or nymphs all
the way and fish them well.
8/07/07
Anglers: Hugh, Nate, and Joe
Location: Umtanum Bridge to Slab
Flies: Tan Parahopper #10, Yellow Turk's #8.
Time: 6 am - 11 am
Results: 7-8 trout landed, 10"-17".
Not too much to report, more good dry fly fishing in the LC. It was a
touch slower today, but it was still good fishing. This has been a very
consistent summer so far, currently the cool night time temps are
keeping the water temps in check and the fishing is pretty steady. As
stated in the last couple reports, the fish are getting a little more
selective - the fly, drift, and tippet all need to be very natural. We
had a lot of refusals today and I think each of these factors played a
part, the biggest however - the drift. It is a difficult mission to keep
that fly running true along the grass, using hooks, reaches, and tucks
on your casts is very helpful. Also a light rod with a soft tip will
help give you the mending touch needed to position the fly without
jeopardizing your fly's location. Just another day in paradise, Red's.
8/04/07
Anglers: Tony, Arnofo, and Joe
Location: MM19 to Slab
Flies: Tan paranobyl 10/9, Gypsy King 10, Hoppers of all shapes and
sizes.
Time: 7 am - 12 pm
Results: About 8 trout to hand, 12-19".
The fishing was a touch slower yesterday, but still pretty good dry
fly fishing against the banks. Run the big leggy patterns early and late
in the shadows and as the sun comes out begin to transition to more
natural patterns, parachute hoppers, dave's, or even a cricket. Lighter
tippet is a wise move, 4X and even the dreaded 5X will help the drifts
hold their line on the bank. I forgot to mention this in the flies
portion of the report, but we did get a couple of nice fish on a CDC
Caddis emerger fish behind a big dry. It had been a while since we have
seen any significant rising fish but yesterday morning we parked on a
couple of feeders and put 'em in the boat on a CDC bug. Also, a neat
story from yesterday regarding the right way to handle a fish during the
summer time. We were fishing down a bank and approaching the same zone
that we had caught a big beautiful 18" Cutthroat about 2 weeks before. A
rarity in the LC, and a trophy fish anywhere on the Yakima. It was in
good shape and when we caught it 2 weeks ago we just gave the net a
shake to unhook it, never removed the fish from the water and let him
swim almost immediately. No pics, no touches. So anyway, we are fishing
downstream and I said "keep that drift alive, we landed a big Cutt on
that line underneath the tree about 2 weeks ago.." About 2 seconds later
a big fish lifts up, takes the fly, and we landed it. Same Cutt, beefier
physique after gorging on stones and hoppers for the past 2 weeks. After
seeing that, I can't help but think that the quick release the first
time around was so easy on the fish, he just moved back into the bank
and wasn't winded badly and he just kept on feeding. It kind of makes
you wonder.
8/02/07
Anglers: Gayle, Bruce, and Joe
Location: Farmland's
Flies: Tan Paranobyl #8, Gypsy King #10, Dave's Hopper #10, Brown
Gladiator #10, Yellow Turk's #8.
Time: 6 am - 11 am
Results: About 6-8 trout to hand, 12-18".
We decided to run the Farmland's this morning and the fishing was
pretty good, not quite what the LC (lower canyon) is in the way of pure
numbers, but we did see a few very nice fish and it was a nice change
for some guys that have the canyon pretty well memorized by now. There
is always a new piece of water to see. The casting is fairly technical
in the farmlands right now with fast water and tons of trees hanging out
and plenty of sweepers to work around, but for the quick firing angler
there are trout a plenty hiding in those trees. Watch out trout, Red's.
8/01/07
Anglers: Joe and Joe
Location: Farmland's
Flies: Various big dry flies and #12 Para Hoppers and Dave's Hoppers.
Time: 7 am - 12 pm
Results: Good dry fly fishing, but the fish are getting picky.
The fishing is still pretty good, but the trout are getting pretty
selective on both the drift and fly. Think about lighter tippets, longer
leaders, and naturally... a bit smaller flies. The takes are very
cautious and lots of fish are refusing and nosing the fly once before
they actually grab, so leave it in the water until they actually open it
up and clamp down. We have been seeing a few super jumbo models though,
just having a tough time getting them in the boat. Early and late is
still a good idea, but nypmhing during the day has been reported as
stellar. More info about that coming later I'm sure, but for now the dry
flies will still put up plenty of numbers. Also, we just got done with
our Youth Summer Camp and it was a great success. All the kids did great
and everybody learned a bit more about casting, fishing, fly tying, and
even caught some fish too. It was very satisfying to see these kids have
such a great time and I'll tell ya... these boys can fish. We've never
had such a well rounded turnout of Freshman anglers before, it was just
flat impressive the way they handled the rod. Watch out trout, Red's.
Fishing is rockin' right now, "no guarantees about tomorrow", but
I'll bet 5 out of next 7 days will be GREAT dry fly fishing. The Lower
Canyon was absurd yesterday on dry flies, and since we had the same
anglers 2 days in a row on a guided trip we hit the Upper Canyon today
and it was superb too. We landed a fish that taped 13.5" AROUND
yesterday. A milestone for the angler, fattest fish ever landed by a
seasoned vet. There were not as many big fish in the Upper River, but
the quantity of Cutts was outstanding and it was all on dry flies. Also,
we would like to add that a boat got tipped over in the big log jam just
below the East Cle Elum access. It sounded like everybody got out ok, we
picked up some of the loose items floating downstream but were told the
boat was a complete loss by some other floaters that tried to tie up and
corral it. We sincerely hope everybody is all right and there were no
injuries. We'll consider the East Cle Elum downstream section all but
closed to anyone but very advanced rowers, it's pretty tight and fast.
08/03/2008
Anglers: Phillip, Matt, and Joe
Location: Umtanum to Roza
Flies: Winged Thing Silver #8, Kingfisher - Any size!, Dave's Hopper
#10, Orange Parachute Stimultor #8, Tan Chernobyl Ant #6, Parachute
Summer Stone #8
Time: 7 am - 1 pm
Results: 10+ trout landed, up to 15".
Great Dry Fly Fishing! Finally the fishing has turned the corner in
the Lower Canyon and the Hopper fishing is fairly consistent. Try to get
out while there is some shade on the water, this might mean staying out
late or even getting up early and hitting the water while a shadow is
being cast by one of the big hillsides of the Lower Canyon. We hosted
one of our RFS 2 Day Schools this weekend and had a couple of father/son
combos join our group and it was a great weekend. We spent most of the
day Saturday learning all of the basic fly casting skills like tight
loops, shooting line, double haul, steeple casts, and more. We had an
entomology lesson (on the river!), knot tying class, fly selection
class, and more. In the afternoon we wade fished many of the side
channels of the Ellensburg Farmlands and learned dry fly fishing skills
including reading water, upstream dry fly presentations, downstream
approaches, mending (of course), and some advanced roll casting
techniques for keeping your fly out of the brush. On Sunday we got the
boys on the water by 7 am (sometimes a feat with teenagers!) and had a
wonderful morning of dry fly fishing in the Lower Canyon. Overall it was
a good weekend and fun to take a step back from guiding and actually
slow down to teach some of the skills that will help make anglers
independent without a guide. Great weekend and fun to see some kids
taking off with the sport.
Flies:
Tan Gypsy King #8,
Chubby Chernobyl, Dave's Hopper #8, Black Knotty Girl #6, Brown
Pat's Stone #6, Lime Green Caddis Pupae #16, and last but not least...
Chartreuse Copper John #14 (hot fly yesterday)
Posted By: Joe R.
Time: 5 am - 11:30 am
Results: About 10 trout landed (but the fishing was very soft compared
to what was going on a week ago - still pretty good but they are no
longer jumping in the boat)
The morning bite has gotten pretty soft over the past few days, and it
seems as though our dry flies have worn out their welcome at the trout's
breakfast table. We did turn some nice fish but the bite has
definitely slowed down. Our best fishing was actually after the
sun was on the water and it was with nymphs fished about 5' under an
indicator in the deep seams. It was actually kind of nice to have
some good fishing during the daylight even though it happened to be
nymphing. One thing we did see that was really encouraging was a
monster sized, and I mean MONSTER sized grasshopper floating downstream
in the water and it actually clung onto our fly line. With a few
harsh mends in eventually relented its grip and floated right up along
the shore where a nice trout took 3 individual swipes at it and finally
got a hold of it. That was be the equivalent mass of a Butterball
Turkey floating by you and eating the whole thing! Hoppers are an
enormous source of summertime growth for these trout and it appears that
they are going to pick up some steam. We only fished a hopper after the
sunlight was very direct and turned 4 fish on it. When you are
fishing a hopper be prepared for the fish to swipe and swirl at it once
or twice before you set the hook (yes I know, restraint is difficult in
this situation - mind over matter), but for some reason the fish love to
make passes at it until they drown it and then eat it just under the
surface. They do it to real hoppers and fake ones alike so it
doesn't have anything to do with being hook shy, it is just their mode
of operations for some reason.
7/27/2010
Anglers: Ruth, Laura, and Joe R. - Don, George, and Mike C. - again
- Day 2 of a Twilight Highlight
Trip (and it was goooood!)
The morning fishing is tapering off but the evenings are strong right
now. They both have their upsides and the quiet atmosphere in the
early am hours combined with shots at some big fish might be enough to
level the scale. However, the evening Caddis action from 8-9 pm
has been outright crazy with high numbers of fish up on Caddis. Either
one is a good choice. The water has pretty much peaked for the
summer at about 4100 cfs, a very typical summer flow. The fish
still don't seem to be "under" the cutbanks yet like they often are this
time of year. As the Caddis and Stonefly hatches subside though
(which have been GREAT) then they well probably spread out and move
under the grass searching for hoppers. It has been shocking how
many fish are still holding in foam lines and seams quite a ways off the
bank.
7/26/10
Anglers: Ruth, Laura, and Joe R. - Don, George, and Mike C.
The evening fishing last night was great. We started out throwing
dry flies only in the ladies boat, and had a few fish take right out of
the gate at Ringer Road. It then got a little lean until we got
down to the bank opposite of Bighorn and there fish feeding on Caddis so
we anchored up and targeted them with a CDC emerger. That is where
Ruth landed her first trout on a fly rod while sight casting to feeding
fish. We hooked 2 fish there. The guys were nymphing and it
seemed like every time we looked up they had a fish on so that told us
that the nymph fishing was very good in the early evening hours.
They switched up and everybody ran dry flies only from about 6 pm on.
We primarily fished a big dry fly by itself but on certain banks it was
worth running the trailing Caddis. If you are a strong caster and
can turn over 2 dry flies and still maintain accuracy then you
definitely want that Caddis tagging along for the evening. There
was a spectacular hatch from 8-9 pm with so many rising fish you had to
choose your targets wisely as the boat floated by. The hatch was
so good that is is nearly a mandatory car wash if you drive up the
canyon just after dark. Millions of caddis peppered my windshield
last night going home.
TRUE STORY: I thought I had seen it all. This is a
truly amazing story of something we witnessed today and I doubt has ever
been seen before. We hooked a fly in the grass, gave it a shake
and unfortunately the fly breaks off and falls in the water and starts
floating downstream. By this time we are 75' downstream and we
pull in towards the bank and anchor our boat in the path of the fly so
that we can retrieve the fly. I handed the net to the guy in the
back of the boat so that he could reach down and scoop up the fly as it
floated by. The fly is floating downstream towards us and a fish
takes a swipe at the fly about 10' upstream of the boat, the fish
misses, follows again and eats the fly right next to our boat, AS THE
FISH IS OPENING ITS MOUTH - the angler in the back successfully nets the
fish. The fly was hooked in the fish's mouth with no line
whatsoever attached to it. It was as though it was eating a real
bug and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
This is a 100% true story, after that happened there were high 5's bear
hugs and lots of shouting. After it calmed down one of the guys
asked... "have you ever seen that before?" I said nope, and I will
never seen it again. Unreal event, it may be hard to fathom what I have
described here so just imagine the timing that had to have taken place
to net that fish as it was rising to a fly along side our boat.
Try netting a rising fish during a hatch - that is the equivalent of
what we did.
The fishing was great today on both dry flies earlier in the morning and
nymphs during the heat of the day. The water coming up this week
has fueled the bite and the fishing the last several days has been
spectacular. It should hold up through the weekend, but truthfully
it can't sustain this much longer and it will come back to normal.
It is amazing what sparks hunger in fish, the water rising has really
helped the bite and their hunger level definitely took a spike when the
water started coming up.
Let us know what you think about the reports page, is this useful or do you have any good
ideas for us?
The river is rolling and so are the fish. Big flows and big bows
dominate the Yakima right now. The dry fly fishing in the late
evening and early morning hours is very very good and the trout are
feeding well mid day on dry dropper and nymphs under indicators.
The fish are out in the seams (shockingly), normally they would be way
up under the cutbanks this time of year. Fish your big attractors
more like a may fly right now and remember the mantra... "the foam is
home"!
We are also going to new format on our reports page. After a BS
session, and yes that means exactly what you think it means.
Brainstorm session. We came up with an original idea for our
fishing reports.
Below you will find reports from the upcoming week, from the last few
years. It is our best way of "predicting your fishing future"!
We will also be plugging in videos from last year too to help you
prepare for your upcoming trips.
It's on and so are the Naches and all the small creeks too. What
to do? Don't even think about mowing the lawn this week, in fact,
just completely write off all ambitions about doing any and all types of
landscaping. The only pruning you should be doing is when your
backcast gets caught in a tree. Get your rod, get your dry fly
box, and get moving! Dry flies in low light, nymphs in the sun.
If you want to fish some great small streams, give us an email or a call
and we'll give you some great advice.
7/18/10
Anglers: Matt, Nat, and Joe R.
Location: Naches River
Flies: Orange Para Stimulator #10, Black Flying Ant #10, Pat's #10,
Orange PMX #10, and other various small terrestrials.
The Naches River is in great floating shape right now and should remain
at a high enough volume for the next few weeks to have a good float
trip. There is very little (if any) public boat access on the
river so plan to wade fish (which is a great way to go), or use our
guide staff to float you down the river in a raft and fish on the go.
The fish were very willing to take smaller dry flies and less apt to eat
the big sizes in the #6-#8 range. The Yakima River continues to be
steady and it is just an all around great time to be fishin'!
7/16/10 - General Update & Small Stream Information & Clinic Info.
It is all fishing good! We have been doing very well on the
Yakima, and we have been fishing the Naches River, Teanaway River
(fishing VERY well), and
some other small mountain streams over the past 2 days. Due to a
stubborn snow pack and rainy June, the small waters have just now
dropped into perfect shape. There is a window of opportunity over
the next few weeks to fish them in their prime before the heat slows
them down. We offer
guided trips
on these little waters or just good advice if you prefer to DIY (do it
yourself).
We are also hosting a great course on Sunday specializing in teaching
you how, where, and when to fish small water on the east side of the
Cascades. It is only $59 so give us a call and sign up.
Email joe@redsflyshop.com for
more information.
7/15/10 - Naches Report
Posted by: Troy L.
The last couple
weeks we've been fishing the Naches River which is about 45 minutes
south of our fly shop. It is nice to get away from the Yakima once
and awhile and float a virtually untouched technical white water river,
that's full of hungry cutthroat. We call it getting away, but
truthfully it is right in our own backyard but it just feels like the
Rocky Mountains. The Naches is a great river to throw dry flies all day
and catch small cutts with some larger fish mixed in. I think its one of
the most beautiful rivers I have ever floated in Washington State
(recently back from a multi-river trip in Montana), and in my opinion is
one of the most unique rivers I have ever fished. Expect to get splashed
by 5 feet of rolling white water while throwing huge bright orange and
red Chernobyl Ants. If you get a chance to take a float with us, I think
it might change your thinking of what really defines great fly fishing
in the Pacific Northwest. Later in the summer when the water gets
low it makes a great wading trip, right now it is still pretty high for
wade fishing so consider hiring a good oarsman.
7/15/10
Anglers: Guy, Jay, and Steve
Location: MM 19 to Big Pines
Yakima River Flies:
sz. 8, 10 Pat's Stone (Brown, Tan) sz. 14, 16 Lightning Bug (Pearl,
Silver, Purple), sz. 14 Hare's Ear, sz. 16 CDC PT
Posted By: Steve J.
Time: 9 am - 5 pm
Results: 12+ trout landed (8"-17") and a few Whitefish
The Yakima River continues to run at below average flow levels for the
summer, and fishing remains consistent. We utilized a shallow
nymph rig throughout the day, running only 2.5'-3' from indicator to top
fly. The majority of the fish we caught were on the smaller
trailer flies, but a couple of 16"ers took the Stonefly nymph. The
best window for dry fly opportunities is the early AM or evening
timeframe. There are good numbers of Caddis hatching and the
Summer Stones are active. Focus your nymphing efforts in the
faster moving more oxygenated water.
We fished hard yesterday and got a new angler into a good casting stroke
by day's end and got more than enough fish to fly to keep him pumped up
and ready to come back for more. The Farmlands was slow fishing
early in the day but once the water warmed up (surprisingly cold
yesterday) the fish fed well on nymphs. Look for obscure mid-river
bars and ledges that aren't the traditional inside corners that get
hammered by the masses. High sticking the little spots and edges
was not nearly as productive for us as lining up a nice long drift down
the gravel bars and open runs. The dry fly fishing was fairly poor
in the Farmlands especially for the less experienced angler, but once we
hit the Canyon it opened up and we had good dry fly fishing from Ringer
to MM20. The cloud cover always helps and my guess is that dry fly
fishing in the Canyon was pretty good all day yesterday. I didn't hear
back from any of the other guys but my hunch is they did well on dries.
There are a lot of Caddis in the evening right now and it seems like the
afternoon/evenings might be the best time to hit the water.
We decided to do a "prework" float this morning before the shop opened
so I rounded up a couple of guys staying at the lodge. The fishing
was good on dry flies and the fish tended to be in the seams out away
from the shore rather than tight to the bank, likely because there was a
fair number of Caddis both emerging and laying eggs (meaning there are
probably a lot of spent Caddis too) The spent Caddis won't be seen
unless you stair at the water straight down for a little bit because
they have no profile, the wings are limp and the bug is soggy. A
Parachute Adams works good for this if you see them feeding.
Overall, good fishing and we worked the shady zones pretty hard and
found fish holding right under the heavy bushes where there was extra
shade present.
7/10/10
- early am
Looks like we might have a little cloud cover today... that usually
means really good fishing since there hasn't been a hint of cloud cover
the last several days. Consider staying with dry flies and really
working them hard before switching out to a nymph if you are on the
water today. Good luck!
We beat the heat and started early today - good dry fly fishing in the
Lower Canyon right now! Tomorrow looks like it should be great and
will fish mid-day and the evening should be smokin' hot based on the
number of Caddis that we saw on the water that hatched last night.
From now through August is the best time for dry fly fishing on the
Yakima, just do it!
WATER FLOW NOTES AND TIPS: Look for the Farmlands esp.
Irene to Ringer to fish very well the next few days as the water dropped
a bit. It seems like anytime there is big summer flow, and the
volume takes a dip the Farmlands light up. The heavy water in and
against the tree lined banks will have softened up a little bit giving
the trout a little better look at your bugs as they go zipping past.
There are lots of summer stoneflies hatching in the Canyon, but the
Farmlands hasn't been seeing nearly the number of Stoneflies so think
about using an indicator and a #6 Stone nymph most of the day.
The dry fly fishing right off the bat yielded a few takes but the big
fish were not looking early. Mid day was productive nymphing in
"spots" - finding the right ledges and drops is important as the Canyon
has changed a lot over the past year and a half since the big flood of
January 2009. It is amazing to see the gravel constantly changing
places and maturing down there. Fishing was decent even through
the near 100 degree heat, and the late afternoon/early evening dry fly
fishing was productive for experienced casters. The late evening
is great fishing right now too, as the Caddis hatch is going full boar
for the last hour - 2 hours of daylight. All the way around, good
fishing. Watch the flow charts for the next boost of water.
Naches Report - Our guides have been having GREAT fishing on the
Naches on dry flies and this prime time if you have ever wanted to float
one of the best "small" rivers in the Pacific Northwest. It is
fishing well for Cutts in the 10-14" range (good numbers) with a few
that will push the 18" mark once in a while. It is a good white
water ride mixed with some fun trout fishing!
Fresh off the water, with some good info for y'all. Dry fly
fishing this morning early was pretty good but it only lasted about 1.5
hours which may not warrant getting out of bed in the wee hours (unless
of course you are a die hard dry fly guy or just LOVE the mornings).
The fish were taking well in the seems and only peeled off the bank when
the current was pushing tight to the shoreline. There were quite a
few fish eating Caddis and I think a Caddis trailer would have been a
good idea but we stuck it out with a big dry. In hindsight, the
Caddis would have put up bigger numbers and likely extended the bite
window for us. We hit the cycle by catching fish on nymphs, dry
flies, and streamers today. All were productive at different
times. The dry fly fishing right off the bat was good, that slowed
down and we threw streamers against the bank... that worked too, then
that slowed down and we switched up to nymphing... waaalaaa! that worked
on the first cast. The plan worked out smooth today and switching
strategy versus flies was a good call by the offensive coordinator
because when one technique died, it died fast, and when we switched it
was ON fire right off the bat.
WATER WATCH - Note that the river is on the rise, but isn't going
to do anything too crazy. There is a release that started
yesterday and they bumped flow up again today and hopefully they will
stop with that. If so, we are golden. If it goes up another 500
cfs after today we have cause for concern but I think the Canyon can
handle the flow. The upper river and the farmlands always seem to
get hit the hardest because the gradient is faster. The Lower
Canyon is more mild and the flow seems to even out better in the broad
channel down there.
7/6/10
late pm
The dry fly fishing is gaining some MAJOR momentum with water
temperatures finally climbing to historic summer levels and the Stonefly
hatch is going great. The hot flies seem to be the Gypsy King
family, in tan, peach, brown or black and the Plan B has been hot in low
light because the wing is so easy to see and the foam body has a clean
profile for after hours fishing. The hot weather is really fueling
the bite as of right now, but we will need to keep an eye out for
releases from the reservoirs. Hopefully they apply some finesse to
the release and we won't get plugged up with mud. Hoppers still
haven't started to show but flying ants and stoneflies with Caddis
hatches every night are getting us by just fine! Updates everyday
for the next few days, so stay tuned!
Results: 10+ Trout Landed, one fish 18" and most of the others were
9-13"
We did something amazing yesterday. Fished all day and did not
lose a single fly in the trees or on the bottom! Only one fly was
lost and that was on big hot rainbow that broke us off on 3X tippet.
What is more amazing that that? Not one single tangle. Zero,
zilch, nada, nill, nothing. That is smooth fishing and literally
the only knot that the guide tied all day was was when the fish broke us
off and we needed a new piece of tippet material. Other than that,
a single dry fly graced our line the entire day. It didn't even
get soggy because the angler took good care of it and made false casts
at the right moments. That is the textbook definition of line
control. To fish all day without losing a single fly deserves
praise.
We fished dry flies almost exclusively and the fishing was pretty good.
Every 5-10 minutes we would turn a fish and about every 30-45 minutes it
would be a nice big one. Fish tight to the bank whenever there is
current pushing flush to the shore. If the seems veer out.... then
bring the fly out. Just follow the flow. Summer Stones are
active, good luck!
6/28/10
- late late pm
Not quite as good today, exact details to follow Dry fly
fishing was a C+ and the nymphing for smaller fish was productive during
the mid day hours. The big boys were hiding well today. Our
biggest to hand was 14" with only a few lunkers hooked. A system
blew in (litterally) in the afternoon and I think it stomped the fishing
because it was hot, cloudy, and the Canyon is in perfect shape. Oh
well, everyday isn't a whackfest. Good thing too, if it were the
river would be packed! We didn't see more than one other boat all
day. How cool is that? The river to ourselves. We'll
take it. Great time had by all, let's go get 'em tomorrow.
6/28/10
Anglers: Linda, Robbie, Ro, Terry, Leif K., and Mike C.
Results: 10+ Trout Landed (after this weekend, it felt like 100)!
The nymph fishing was decent all day, but at 4 pm we went dry fly only
and turned a fair number of fish and landed some big ones on dry flies.
The dry fly fishing is here finally and we are super happy! The
Lower Canyon is fishing good again.
6/27/10
3:30 pm
Back in action, look at the graph below to see a fishy drop and
leveling effect at Umtanum. If you see this trend on rivers in the
future, the river is likely going to be fishing pretty well. We
have guides out right now and haven't gotten a verbal report yet but one
thing is for sure - we finally got through the mud ball that was
dropped on us from above Friday and we are getting back at it. The
Canyon will be the place to be for a while. It seems to handle the
initial "summer volume" a little better than the other stretches.
The Farmlands and Upper River are flowing awfully fast, and it will take
some time for the gravel to settle and create a relaxed pattern for the
river. The currents will go from "boiling and mushrooming" to a
steadier flow as the summer goes on.
6/25/10
- 6 pm
Ouch, we got hit with another burst of water late yesterday and it
put out the whole system from the Cle Elum River confluence downstream.
We did some creek fishing in some of the local tributaries instead and
that went well, and Leif got a few fish guiding down in the Lower Canyon
but it was in rough shape. As of 5:30 pm, the Farmlands looked
good enough to fish but we can't claim it will be good fishing.
The good news is that the Canyon has leveled off and should green up
within 24 hours and provide some type of opportunity to catch fish.
All in all, conditions have been very favorable this year so we can't
complain about a few rough days. At least its not raining. I
had better go check the forecast... it might start now that I said that.
There are only 3 rules in the guide boat, NO Bananas, no mentioning a
lack of wind (aka the "W"), and NO saying "at least it isn't raining".
Guides have been know to receive a wedgy followed by a charlie horse for
saying those things. If you do say that, and it does start blowing
or raining - take a careful look at the fly your guide tied on because
it might not be the right one! We hope to see you this weekend,
muddy water and all. Just go have some fun and let the bite be
what it is.
6/24/10
- 4 pm
Good news, the Lower Canyon is looking better and should fish ok
tomorrow! We were a bit nervous and cancelled our Canyon trips
today and ran a few upriver but tomorrow we are good to go. In
fact, some guys were floating by near MM19 today and we saw them hook
and fight a nice fish - good job guys in the high side Clack!
Also, the Summer Stonefly hatch has started get those dry fly rods ready
- this next should be turning on!
We knew it was coming any time, but it hit us a little by surprise
anyway. The Lower Canyon fished great on Tuesday, and it was gone,
bye bye, sianara, see ya later, OUT of here, and ugly yesterday morning.
We looked at the gauging stations and quickly found that the "operators
above" started a release out of the Cle Elum River and the deluge of
water had the Lower Canyon completely blown and was making a mess of
things throughout the whole system, except for the upper Yakima
above the Cle Elum River confluence. So we changed out boats and
hitched up some rafts and made the drive back towards Easton and did
Ensign to Cle Elum. The fishing was good, but I think that there
will be a lot of pressure up there over the next few days and the
weather was perfect which helps immensely up there in the clear water
and compact runs. Warm temperatures combined with a dark rainy
thunder storm is a super-fishy combination. There are a series of
log jams that require some SERIOUS lifting below Bullfrog Road, we had
the luxury of 6 guys to portage the rafts which was a good thing. There
is one serious log across the river blocking the river between Ensign
and Bullfrog - that can be dealt with if you have a good boat full of
guys with strong backs. 2 anglers alone would have a heck of a
time getting their boat over it.
As for the future of the river over the next 24-72 hours, it will be
back in fishable shape by Friday but most likely pretty tough fishing
until some of the particulate and litter settles out. The plan
will likely be for the water level to rise steadily over the next week
or so and bring the river up to about 4000 cfs (typical summer flow).
It is possible that the fishing will be a little rough for the next
couple of days, but we have also seen it where the fish go bonkers and
feed heavily on all the nymphs that are being knocked loose by the
increased flow. I still remember a period in 2002 that they suddenly
raised the river to 5,000 cfs this time of year and we all thought that
the fishing would be rough, but a Black K Stone and a Zug Bug in the
L.C. put up 40 fish days for a week! Not saying that will happen
here, but it has happened before and you never know. It depends a
lot more on the attitude of the fish than the attitude of the river, and
the attitude of the angler has even more to do with it! Take it
head on and fish hard because you can't afford not to give it 110
percent - especially when the conditions are adverse. Sometimes
you will be pleasantly surprised on what you can accomplish. Good
luck out there!
6/21/2010
Great fishing this weekend, and the Father's Day event was a hit.
Some highlights from the weekend.... fishing so good that Steve J.,
Troy, and some of the guys kept floating and fishing in the "Thailand
like rain" even after they were done guiding for the day. The
entire Picard family learns to Double Haul at the BBQ event. Gary
Thompson wins an expensive bottle of adult beverage from Joe R. in a
casting competition on the lawn in front of the lodge. Fishing so
good, that Leif's anglers went out on Friday, and were back for another
trip within 48 hours!
Fishing wise, the whole staff reported great fishing this weekend.
Shan was guiding by the in front of the lodge while we were giving
casting lessons and landed 2 fish and hooked 3 just in the time they
were floating by! The dry fly fishing has picked up some steam,
but a lot of anglers are taking advantage of some seriously hungry fish
that are ravaging the nymph population subsurface. The streamer
fishing has also been good, so if you prefer to feel the tug rather than
watch the indicator feel free to heave some streamers . A floating
line works find for that right now, just make sure your fly is heavily
weighted. A tan Sculpzilla (not yet available online, so just
phone us if you want a few dropped in the mail) has been the best
streamer pattern. Bo predicts "nothing under 20" on that fly" ....
maybe that is not entirely true, but even if you still get a few little
16"ers that is good fishing and we love the idea! For fly
suggestions, take a look at the last several reports. We have no
profound advice today that will break the game for you - and be sure to
link up and look at the pictures of the flies too. That is a great
way to help prepare yourself for either buying in the shop, or tying
flies on the bench.
Good dry fly fishing on big dry flies for a while today, but the
nymphing was too silly to pass up. Great fishing had by all the
guides. I wasn't able to catch up with anyone else that was fishin,
but the wise guys did great today and were all pretty pumped up about
the size of some of the fish too. Steve J. said they pretty much
spanked 'em in the canyon as well. Reports from the Farmlands have
been positive, but guys aren't reporting as many heavy fish as we are
seeing in the L.C. If you are in the area, come out to the lodge
tomorrow (Saturday, probably "today" in your present tense, but then
again - maybe you are a junkie and needed a hit of good solid fishing
info before you hit the sack and head out tomorrow.... or today I mean),
The event will be a fun BBQ/fly fishing get together. $20 will get
you some casting lessons, drift boat rowing lessons, and a tummy full of
good food. We'll be there crackin' jokes, casting rods, and tying
flies. See you at the lodge! Fishing tips: A single
small nymph with a chunk of BB shot 3-4' feet under a yarn indicator
worked great for me. Not sure exactly what the other guys were
doing but it worked for them too, just go with this type of setup or
whatever you have confidence in. Bare in mind that we did have
good dry fly fishing with big Stimulator type flies, so you don't have
to married to a nymph... but it wouldn't hurt either if you catch my
drift.
The most valuable part of this report is that a Chernobyl Ant tight to
the salad is not working at all, we threw it enough again yesterday to
know for sure. The nymph fishing on the other hand.... oh my gosh.
It has been good the last few days.
The most valuable part of this report is that a Chernobyl Ant tight to
the salad is not working at all, we threw it enough again yesterday to
know for sure. The nymph fishing on the other hand.... oh my gosh.
It has been good the last few days. The river is in prime shape,
and the trout population (at least in the Canyon) is the best we have
seen it in a long time if not ever. Maybe it was the high water
the last several years, or maybe the handling of big fish has gotten
more responsible, more gentle, and the releases have been faster (this
is very important). Either way, it is a great thing to see the
Canyon so healthy. A nymph setup about 5' deep fished in the heavier
seems was great yesterday. A dry dropper was not effective, the
fish seem to be grouped up in the big seams. Use some shot, lose
some flies, and catch some trout. Snagging bottom every now and
then behind the boulders has been better than the suspension nymphing.
Which probably explains why the dry dropper fishing has been nill -
compared to a week ago when it was quite good. We are also seeing
a lot of stonefly shucks that appear to be Summer Stones - which means
the evening big dry fly fishing should turn on within about 2 weeks.
We fished into the dark of night hoping to get some great "early summer"
dry fly fishing, but the fish were not too interested in the big dry
fly. We got a few teeners on dries, and a few others using a dry
dropper setup which was fun because you can pick fish out from under the
brush with that set up - whereas an indicator rig is too hard to control
against the bank. There was not much of a Caddis hatch, but the
fish were thumping nymphs so we finished up smiling. Overall, good
fishing. We nymphed all the way up until dark and it was quite
good. Most of the fish ate a #16. Back to fishing civilized
hours today.
We have been asking ourselves, "where were all these fish in the
spring?" We thought that the fishing was good this spring, but there
just seems to be more fish in the river now. The bite will probably flat
line at some point soon (it rarely continues like this for more than a
week), but just work hard and try to break the river up into smaller
pieces as you read it at this volume. The fish are starting to
creep towards the shoreline a little more each day and with sunny
weather inbound they will be seeking the shadows. The nymphing was
great yesterday, so after catching a handful of nice fish we threw dry
flies tight to the grass but to no avail. That program is coming
soon though. As the evening shade made its way onto the water
there were some fish feeding on emerging Caddis so keep your eyes peeled
for risers in the evening.
6/11/2010
Anglers: Guy, Jim, and Steve
Location: Red's to Mahre's
Flies:
Gold Lightning Bug (hot fly), Pearl Lightening Bug sz. 14, 16, CDC Prince sz. 14, 16, FB Hare's Ear sz. 12, 14, Pat's Stone sz. 8
Posted By: Steve J.
Time: 10 am - 6 pm
Results: 10+ trout
landed
The past couple days have fished very well. The larger trout are keying heavily on sub surface food, but there are a lot of smaller fish eating dries along the grassy banks. The entire river is in great shape right now, and the weather forecast through the weekend looks great with sunshine and 80 degree temps. We did have our best fishing yesterday when the clouds were overhead, but no one was complaining about the sunshine! With flows bumping up over the past week, the fish have pushed in a little tighter to the banks. Don't be afraid to challenge the brush - even with the shallow nymph rig!
6/11/2010
Anglers: Joe and Rich
Location: MM 20 to MM 10
Flies:
Gold Lightning Bug (hot fly), Knotty Girl Stone sz. 8 - 2 flies all day!
Posted By: Joe R.
Time: 10 am - 6 pm
Results: 10+ trout
landed
The fishing in the canyon was off the hook today - unbelievable!
The fishing was reeeeaalllly slow in the morning. Probably the
leanest bite that I have seen this year, in fact, the fish had to have
been moving out of the way of the flies. The bite came around
though and started to get cranking about 4 pm and then it went automatic
for us and we hooked multiple fish in every slot. The big fish
were simply not taking very well, and Leif fished the Farmlands 2 days
ago and just gave me the same report. Ample numbers, mostly 9-13".
Nice solid little trout though, and if you like wade fishing it is a
nice volume for it because most of the braids have enough water to hold
fish. We personally did not find many fish in the channels though
yesterday. I think that is because they need a little more time to
acclimate to the higher flows before migrating in. PMD's are the
primary hatch and there are a few other big yellow Mayflies out there as
well. A
Gold Lightning Bug seems to be the hot ticket right now.
The bite was very active on nymphs and the Teanaway dropping back into
great shape means that the time is right to get back into the lower
canyon. Focus on small flies, the PMD and mixture of Caddis are
enough to feed them right now. We hooked fish on most flies that
we ran yesterday, if we lost a bug... time to try a different one or a
different strategy. We nymphed, threw dries, and dry droppers.
By far, the dry dropper was our favorite technique due to the ease and
fun of casting a dry combined with the productivity of a nymph.
The
ThingamaPeacockbug is
really cool, and works awesome. We smacked a few fish using it as
a dry but it was mostly an indicator for us. Sometimes it is fun
to experiment and see if it is you, or the bug catching the fish.
90% of the time it is you, so keep working on your casting during your
down time. Most of the fish were 9-13", nice wild little river
trout. Nothing wrong with that. We expect that the Lower
Canyon should be kicking out some big fish soon now that it is back in
shape.
6/5/2010 late pm
Fished up river today, East Cle Elum to Thorp - details on bugs and
patterns to follow in the morning. Most importantly the Lower Canyon is
back in good shape so it is time to head down river again! Yes. Great
fishing today, but the big fish bite in the L.C. is the best - or it
least it seems that way as an average over the past few weeks.
Lots of small to mid sized fish today with a few larger Cutts thrown in
to spice it up. A few fish up on big Golden Stone dries, a few on
PMD's, and lots on nymphs. This next week should be rockin'!
6/5/2010
It looks like the Lower Canyon will be back in shape by today, it
didn't get quite as dirty as it did the last time it rained like this,
the tributaries must have been flushed a little cleaner by now.
The Farmlands is quite clear this morning, and the Canyon isn't far
behind. Watch for PMD's - tis the season!
Tip of the Day: Pick your style and stick with it, don't switch
between big dries, small dries, nymphs, streamers, and dry droppers too
frequently.
Results: 10+ Trout landed.
We switched between big dries, small dries, nymphs, streamers, and dry
droppers too frequently! There was a great PMD hatch combined with
a few other various mayflies yesterday that brought the fish up to the
surface in a frenzy. They were tough to get though, most were
eating emergers under the surface in heavy current lines which are the
toughest to imitate. Given the choice, always go for the fish in
the smaller seam-lines. We hooked a few really nice fish on Salmon Fly
patterns, but overall the big dry fly fishing was slow. We did
VERY well on a dry dropper setup during the hatch, there was about 45
minutes that you could catch 9-12" fish 'at will' on a dropper. Overall,
great fishing but unfortunately this morning we are suffering from a
storm that seems to have snuck over from the westside, you guessed it, a
rainstorm. Too many of those lately! The Yakima was dropping
into great shape and now this? We'll see if it goes anywhere.
For now, plan for fishable conditions in the canyon, phone the shop for
an up to the minute report. Also, it is a good idea to check
Facebook. Sometimes we'll post there from on the river.
6/3/2010 - late pm -
Great fishing upriver above the Teanaway on dries and nymphs, more
info to follow. The river is dropping back into SUPREME shape!
It will be great by Saturday easy. In fact, tomorrow the Lower
Canyon will be in prime form. We have great availability for
guides this weekend, it would be a good time to get a rower!
6/3/2010 early am -
Teanaway down is in rough shape this morning! Portions will be
back in great shape by the weekend, rain in the mountains are pushing
through and it shouldn't take long.
Fishing over the weekend was incredible, it seems like these
are the most enjoyable reports to post, but the kind of numbers and size
the guides in the Lower Canyon had left them in a state of euphoria and
delirium. I worked the shop so I was forced to listen to the
aftermath of the carniage. Steve Joyce in particular, and I heard
him quote this, that "2 days in a row were the best 2 'big fish' days he
has ever had on the Yakima. He has spent a lot of time fishing
that Lower Canyon since he moved there in 2002, that should give you an
idea of what the fishing is like right now! They taped several
fish at 19"+ and lost one that ran 100 yards into their backing while
they were netting a fish that went 18 plus. There wasn't a
freestone river in the country that could have competed with the Yakima
on Monday. They fished nymphs all day because it was such a
slugfest, but we did talk to some very experienced anglers that fished
tan CDC type emergers and said they put 30 fish in the boat on dries,
and quite a few were 16"+ The fishing is great for a couple of
reasons, - the spawn is done and the big fish are hungry. Handle
the trout with extra care (they didn't take any pictures), Steve said a
few of the fish had pretty serious rub marks in their tails. That
combined with low flows because they operators at the reservoir systems
haven't opened the gates yet. Hopefully with the cool weather and
the massive amount of rain we have had there won't be a major release
until at least mid to late June. We have seen it a few times that
they haven't released till the third week, it depends a lot on the
weather in the lower valley.
We decided to brave the wind and float the "Thorp Wind Tunnel" yesterday
and it was worth the effort. We fished dries hard in the first
half of the day with no takes, threw on a nymph and went to town.
In the big wind and fast water it is important to get the boat set up
right and the casting angles downstream into the slot before the boat
gets there. Otherwise the wind will just knock down mends that are
both crosscurrent and crosswind. Angle down except for the
high-stick spots, be patient, wait for the boat to pull up alongside,
dig in with the oars, and high-stick the eddies and boulders hard.
Lessons of the day - choose your battles wisely. Don't try to fish
every inch of the river when it is gusting big. Hyperfocus on the
good water, then give yourself a breather... find the next buttery piece
of water and repeat the exercise. If you are scheduling guided
trips with us and would like to fish the upper portions of the Yakima,
or any section in particular to learn it, simply let us know in advance
and your guide will be happy to meet you in Cle Elum or Ellensburg at
one of the local coffee shops. Yesterday, Steve Joyce fished dry
flies only and fished till dark in the Lower Canyon. He said they
landed a fair amount of fish, most were small but they were on dries and
he pulled of a DFO trip. You definitely couldn't have done that
upriver, nothing was up on dries yesterday, but the upside was that the
fish were good sized. We hope you are having a good weekend, and
it looks like summer will be here soon. lt feels more like March than
May in Ellensburg today.
5/28/2010
Anglers: Tyler, Jim, and Joe R.
Location: Irene to MM20 (we do run shuttles in the Farmlands, just
download this waiver to leave in your car and phone in your shuttle with
payment and/or details.)
Download Red's Shuttle Form: Acrobat PDF or Word DOC
The Irene to Ringer float is pretty much wide open with no blind
channels to float down right now. Just look ahead and be smart.
The Farmlands fished well yesterday on nymphs, the Canyon better on
dries. With the water dropping the bite was on early in the day but
slowed down during lunch only to pick back up again about 3 pm - 6 pm.
The Streamer fishing was pretty good on the
Sculpzilla pattern, we also hit some nice fish on Caddis, but I will
be quite honest in saying the dry fly fishing is not beginner friendly
right now. The fish seem to be pretty sporadic on dries until
dusk. The seams are tricky with a lot of current lines to choose
from at 3000 cfs. This means that the caster must be highly
selective upon which seams he/she chooses to fish and land the fly.
Not to mention, small dry flies are apt to sink in heavy currents and
don't take the "punch" of a harsh mend. Delicate casts that are
very accurate seem to be essential. Maybe that will change and it
will go back to the free-for-all Royal Fork type feeding action we were
seeing a couple of weeks ago. Focus on breaking the river up into
small pieces if you are dry fly fishing and remember that the smaller
seams you choose to fish and land that dry fly the better chance you
have of bringing up a fish while blind casting. It is rare to
catch canvassing the big seams with a small dry (unless you are seeing
them rise frequently). Typically rises in big water are sporadic,
whereas a rise in a small seam is more predictable. Focus your
eyes on finding "a" fish and get that anchor down or move on foot into
good position to make a few careful drifts over that one spot. We
landed 5-6 trout on dry flies yesterday afternoon and almost every one
of them we saw feed first, in fact, I think the anglers caught every
nice fish we set up on. They made great casts. The river
should hold out nicely over the weekend unless we get another monsoon.
Of course it is Memorial Day so if you are camping it will probably rain
on you.
5/26/2010
late pm
Heavy rains this morning have made the Lower Canyon pretty dirty,
but it will be back by mid-day Friday if not sooner. It was a
short heavy blast and the river was LOW to begin with so the dilution
from the ditches put it out in a hurry. If you are out here tomorrow
consider going above the Teanaway, or just drive down to the lower river
and have a look. If there is more than 12" of vis then it should be back
up and fishing by the afternoon. Steve Joyce said that the big
fish were feeding in the muddy water today and they stuck some piggies,
not a lot, but big heavy fish though. The hatch is still rippin'!
Your chance to fish Caddis on dry flies has never been better.
Mike Canady fished till dark night before last and WHACKED 'em.
CDC Caddis Emerger chasing an EHC was the hot ticket.
Ah.. the joys of beginning fly fishing. Naturally there are both
experienced anglers and beginners alike that read this report and I
genuinely hope that the experienced anglers can still remember what it
was like their first couple attempts at catching fish with a fly rod.
It wasn't exactly Brad Pitt casting was it? Nope, there were
tangles, snapped off flies, sloppy casts, an occasional good cast, and
some new types of casts that have yet to named. That is the ugly
truth. Beginning fly fishing isn't always pretty but something
amazing happens during all this chaos. As I was fearing for my
life each time a fly or rod was swung dangerously close to my face I
noticed something special on the face of each angler... a smile.
In the beginning, no matter how bad you are casting or few of fish you
catch it is still fun. Learning to fly cast is simply fun, with or
without fish. Furthermore, it seams like those that are learning
to fly fish and focus on enjoying the essence of fly casting are the
ones that make it in this sport. Catching is easy to love, casting
takes a person that is willing to dedicate themselves to learning the
art. Eventually, the catching will take care of itself as the
skill sets build.
I got to watch a 60 year old woman that has wanted nothing more than to
learn to fly fish her entire life finally get to start fulfilling that
dream. It seemed there was always something in the way.
Finally she got to do it. We fished hard, lost flies, got tangled,
laughed about it, moved on, and finally caught a couple of very nice
trout. Her first trout, her only trout. The last one was on
an Elk Hair Caddis which we meticulously sight casted at a nice rising
trout just above our takeout at Red's. All the hard work of
learning to cast, mend, and strategically place the fly in current paid
off. The feeling of satisfaction and pride was gleaming off of her
from ear to ear. That is what fly fishing is all about. I
have seen a lot of beginning anglers leave my boat with more fish but I
don't believe any one of them was more proud than Diane was. I
sincerely hope that you can find people in your life to take fly fishing
and teach them. As guides, we get to do it everyday. Teach
them to cast first, then they will be begging to fish. It isn't
easy, you will get frustrated, but it is likely that somebody did it for
you! If you know somebody that is interested in fly fishing and
just doesn't know how to get started, or you would rather use your
precious time off to fish instead of untangle (who can blame you, we get
paid to do it) get them in a fly casting class to start. It is a
great way to get going on fly fishing. Our
Introduction to Fly Fishing course is
perfect.
Bug wise, the epic volume of Caddis continues to roll on in the Lower
Canyon. The weather today is a little damp which will keep the
flights down until their wings dry. The fishing on the sunny days
is starting to get very good at around 5 pm till dark. We saw LOTS of
rising fish on both Caddis and PMD's in the afternoon but it takes a
good caster to place the flies in the tiny seams that most of these fish
are holding in. Nymph wise, the trend over the past week has been
that nearly all the fish caught have been on small dropper flies with
very few reacting to a Stonefly Nymph. Just a trend, I won't
bother with any hypothesis. Ok, I can't help it. Although
there are Golden Stones the MDC and the PMD are just flat out
overwhelming right now. The trout's radar is set on small.
5/22/2010
This calls for celebration, the graph above is as fishy as it gets
and the entire Yakima River system is in GREAT shape. Best
conditions we have had in a week. The dry fly fishing should be
back on this afternoon, in fact, Steve Joyce pulled into the Ringer
access yesterday afternoon to check the water clarity and was shocked to
see it running green yesterday and there were trout feeding on dry flies
right then and there. Things are looking good in the Canyon again
and the fish should be willing after a 5 day rest period. The
extended forecast suggests that we should be fishing steady for the rest
of May, so get your trips planned with confidence for a shot at some of
our best dry fly fishing. Golden Stones, PMD's, various Caddis,
Yellow Sally's, Fly Ants, and lots of other bugs will be very active
over the next couple of weeks. - Also, there is a small fly fishing fair
at the Waterbrook Winery in Walla Walla today that we will be at, so if
anybody is in that part of the state stop by. It is right Highway
12 west of town, you can't miss it.
5/20/2010
We were all set to be fishing the Lower River until the Forest Gump
style rain entered the valley. It came in sideways. The
Teanaway was back in shape and starting to become pretty clear until the
deluge hit. Oh well, minor setback in a very accommodating spring
thus far. Before the weekend is over we will be green down here
again. The Yakima River above the Teanaway (in Cle Elum) is
fishing steady and in great shape for either wading or floating.
5/18/2010 late pm
Short report, fished the upper river above the Teanaway today and it
fished pretty good. Everybody caught fish including a few nice
ones. The Teanaway was gnarly this morning and the river was completely
out from the Teanaway downstream. By 6 pm, the Tway was looking
pretty good, in fact, I would say the Tway downstream was fishable if
only by a small margin. By tomorrow, the Thorp run should be
fishing, and the Farmlands perhaps. The Lower Canyon will still be
in rough shape in the morning but will see some clearing in the
afternoon hours. The Caddis hatch will be relatively light over
the next few days anyway. Bring nymphs and a good lunch.
Look for the L.C. to fish on Thursday again.
The Lower Canyon was pretty muddy today, in fact, everything from the
Teanaway down was in pretty rough shape. I opted to fish the
Canyon despite the poor clarity. An epic hatch and not a single
other boat on the river helps offset the yucky color. Although the
bite wasn't half of what it was the last few days we made a good day of
it and threw dry flies at a few nice rising trout. They were IN
the sticks though and it was pretty tough to get at 'em. We finally had
to wave the white flag and call it a truce with only 3-4 casualties to
the fly box. If you see some little tiny white crosses hanging in
the willows above Umtanum that is where we buried 4 EHC's trying for an
18"er that looked like it morphed into a beaver. I swear it had to
be getting bark in its mouth every time it took a Caddis off the sticks.
The LC will be muddy for a few days, still fishable but aesthetically a
little off. Rowing ability pays huge dividends right now and the
advantage of a guide in these conditions is huge. For the average
boat owner it is very tough to find fish right now, so consider giving
it some time to clear up if that is an option. If not, take it head on
and have no fear! The worst thing that can happen is you don't
catch fish, but at least you are fishing and ANY day of fly fishing is a
good day? Question of the day... is fly fishing one word or is
flyfishing 2 words? I think it should be one word and nominated as
a Proper Noun along with Red'sFlyShop in the new Webster's.
Fishonandwewilltrytopostareporttomorrow.
5/17/2010
(fished 5/16 on this report)
Anglers: Troy, John & Karen
Float: Umtanum to Big Pines
Posted by: Troy
Flies: Pats stone sz. 10 & 8, Pearl Lightning Bug sz. 12 & 14, Silver
Lightning Bug sz. 12 & 14, Black and Red Copper Johns sz. 14.
Hunger level: 6 out of 10
5 -6 fish landed with 4 over 17"
As we launched the boat at Umtanum campground yesterday there was a
thick haze of caddis flying around, so thick in fact that you almost
needed your Buff to cover your mouth to keep the caddis from coming in!
Floating in a hatch like this is every fly fisherman's dream. As we
pushed away from the boat launch we noticed very few trout rising to the
billions of caddis laying eggs on the water, so we decided to set up
a shallow nymph rig. Our best set up throughout the day was, 3 feet
between indicator and the first bug followed with a lightning bug or a
copper john, with one piece of .2 g Dinzmore split shot right above the
first bug.
The last couple of days on the river have been fairly good, with some
very large fish caught, but some reports have shown some people
struggling in the canyon. The biggest key to hooking trout in the canyon
is having the person in the rowers seat working their tails off! Really
focus on the outer portions of the seams coming off of rock piles and
walls and don't be afraid to cut over to the inside corner and row a few
laps. This has been really helpful the last couple of days.
Props to Karen and John who before yesterday had practically never
casted a fly rod before, they landed some absolute dandies! Just take
your time and have good confidence in the bugs your using and really
focus on the foam pockets in deep swirling back eddies.
5/16/2010 late pm
Anglers: Many, but not compared to some other great trout waters
across the west.
Results: Some anglers reported slow fishing, while some of us
crushed 'em. Find a system that works for you and fish your brains
out. It might not be easy. This could mean high sticking hard
behind turbulent boulders, along rock walls, and fish the heavy water
with tough-to-get drifts. It might mean staying out till pitch
dark and having to pick ONE out of 25 fish rising to cast at and work
because there are so many Caddis. Or, the fish might be so tight
in the sticks that you have to go through 1/2 dozen Caddis to get 'em.
Or, maybe it will come easy to you and you'll stumble into some pods of
rising trout on Caddis that haven't been touched and you can use an EHC
on 3X and hammer 'em, this has happened to more than a few guys coming
through the shop over the past few days. Whatever the case may be,
even good fishing can be challenging but our guides have been wrecking 'em
the past few days and hopefully this hatch cycle will continue despite
the cloud cover. Generally Caddis are happy to hatch on the
clearest days (unlike Mayflies) and we'll see the trends continue!
One of our guides had 3-4 doubles of fish that went 18"+! That is
is Missouri River like. We don't see that very often, but every
once in a great while.... we do. Fish on, the river is in prime
shape.
5/13/2010 late pm
Anglers: Jon, Patrece, and Joe R.
Location: Bighorn to Red's
Flies: (should have had this one!!! darn it, this bug is a parachute elk
hair Caddis with a Peacock body that floats like a cork, fishes awesome
and is easy to see)
Hogan's Last Call Caddis #16,
Tan Parachute X-Caddis #16 (worked great, but the peacock body on
the Hogan's is thin and just seems to get 'em!)
Posted By: Joe R.
Time: 12:30 am - 8 pm
Hunger level: 7.5 out of 10
Results: About 10
trout landed, all on dries.
The dry fly fishing came on hot this afternoon from 5 pm - 8 pm, prior
to that it was pretty slow. We committed to fish dry flies all day
and it paid off, find a fish, get the drift, hook the fish, and land the
fish. Ok, so it didn't go quite like that every time but we had
literally hundreds of casts at rising fish this evening with LOTS of
takes. My hunch tells me that it will start a little earlier
tomorrow. Great casting pays huge dividends right now. Lots
of fish are away from the bank in harsh currents. Keeping the fly
buoyant and drag free is key, also, sharp casters seem to always be able
to see their fly because it lands exactly where they want it to.
If you are having trouble tracking your bug, try stopping your rod tip
crisp to get tight and accurate leader turnover.
5/12/2010 late pm
Anglers: Steve, Guy, Jan, Kathy, Steve J. and Joe R.
Results: About 7
trout per boat, overall... pretty slow fishing.
GREAT hatch today, but the fish obviously had some different ideas on
what to do about it. Maybe they thought the river was being taken
over by Caddis and went to hide somewhere else, because they sure were
not feeding on the surface very well! We did manage to scrounge up
3 to the boat on dries, and about 8-9 good takes but relative to what
kind of fishing this hatch can produce it was tough duty. Likely
the last hour of daylight is rockin' - that has been the norm as of
late. It's not always the case though, the fish we landed on dries
were at about 10-11 am and rose willingly. Then it shut down, and
probably didn't start back up till dusk. It will be absurd over
the weekend, hopefully the fish will float to the top and gobble bugs
during banker's hours for us. The strange thing is, we fished till
6:30 and didn't see it start. It has got to be isolated almost
solely to the last hour and a half or so. We'll see what happens
tomorrow, we'll have guides out both early and late.
5/11/2010
Packing the boat for a big trip today right now. Rod's, flies,
camera, Caddis, and oh yea... waders. Won't need those much
longer. Can't wait for summer when it is simply shorts and and
sandals door to river. On of our guides, Shan, has a personal "no
wader" policy after May 1st that he invoked years ago. It is
pretty funny to watch him stand in the cold water and pretend he enjoys
it. Just watch the vein in his temple swell up and you will notice
he squirms around a lot too and then finds an excuse to get back in the
boat right away. Bring your waders, but it will be 80 degrees this
weekend and the Caddis hatch will EXPLODE over the weekend. If you
are on the water these next few days in the Lower Canyon it will likely
be the biggest hatch you will ever see. Hopefully the trout are
hungry!
5/11/2010
We got this email from a customer, it pretty much sums up the hatch
yesterday.
"Thanks for the tip on starting later in the day on
Saturday. Fishing was slow most of the float but the Miracle Mile
delivered as promised. Our friend from Germany hooked some very nice
fish on a double Caddis dry rig. He had trouble keeping them on but did
put a solid 18-19" fish in the net. It made his trip. He is already
talking about visiting again. The caddis hatch was fairly strong but
short. Funny thing was the fish weren't keyed on the hatch but once it
ended they started taking our imitations."
Erik
We also got this
email as well, this is a cool story! He went lake fishing with
Gary Thompson from our fly shop, and used an ol' classic. "My father taught me how to fly fish before I was 10. He
fished with a bamboo 4 piece 8 foot rod that was my grandfather’s. When
my father passed away I went through old family photos and found one of
my grandmother in 1932 with that very same bamboo rod in Petersburg
Alaska where my father was raised. I kept the rod and still have kept
it in its orginal case. I was been taped together by my father with
black electrical tape and it is in a fragile condition. I took the rod
with me when we went fishing at the private lake. I was on a pontoon
boat and started casting with that rod. I caught a 12” trout and
continued to fish with it. I changed flys and then started casting
again and caught a huge trout (Gary has photos). I was very concerned
that the rod would snap! It was my dream to catch one more big trout
with the rod and then take it in to have it reconditioned and then
retire it to a wall mount with photos of my grandmother with rod and
then with me catching a big trout using the same rod. The rod is 86
years old and it still caught a big one!"
5/09/2010 late pm
The MDC Hatch blew its top today and began spewing Caddis by the
tens of thousands. Fitting, as if on cue it erupted ON Mother's
Day. The hatch got heavy in the afternoon hours and it was really
strange, the Farmlands was very slow and tough fishing as reported by
Troy. He said the fish were literally moving out of the way of the
fly, while the reports from the Canyon were positive. We have seen
this before. This hatch is complex and just because the food is
available doesn't mean they are hungry. Take your pick on the section of
river, its a roll of the dice anyway. You never can be sure what
the trout will be thinking, but I know what you are thinking. You
had better get a few dozen Caddis, a doctor's note, a tank of gas, a
sausage McMuffin, a Triple Venti, and hit the road! This hatch is
the biggest, baddest, and it is the Mother (no pun intended) of all
hatches across the Pacific Northwest. We can't promise each day will
produce great dry fly fishing, but there will be a few that EVERY fish
in the river will be looking for dries. For the best look at good
dry fly fishing, fish till dusk. Sometimes the fish will be
getting 90% of their required caloric intake in a matter of just a
couple hours. When it is tough during the day, you can almost bank
on the evening being great on dries. Good Luck, and cross your
fingers for a good barometer and sky to make them rise to the dry!
Results: 10 trout
landed, 16" was our big fish of the day.
Great nymph fishing before the storm rolled in yesterday, it POURED in
the Lower Canyon. Apparently in Ellensburg it was nice the whole
time while in the LC it dumped rain and hale. The storm nestled
itself on top of Umtanum Ridge and the skies opened up. The
fishing was great in the sunshine, convenient for us, and then when the
storm and pressure change came in it shut down over a period of just
about 10 minutes and went stone cold. Then, the rain, it was
Forest Gump rain for about an hour and then the fish started eating dry
flies. The drifts were really tough to get in the wind and hale
but there was an ample number of trout up feeding on the surface so the
game was fun. Good casting skills pay dividends in those
situations. The ability to lay out a strong 30-40 foot cast
accurately though the wind practically requires that you know how to
Double Haul. Take the time to learn that and it will increase your
accuracy in those types of situations immensely, and when your accuracy
increases.... your fish count increases. A great caster yesterday
could have rocked 'em on dries for a couple of hours straight, but it
was nearly impossible without a strong cast. The fish were popping
up all over in random seems meaning you had to jump short to long, long
to short and do so at a moment's notice all the while fighting a
blustery head wind. Another tip, ever had trouble seeing a
#16 dry fly in flat light? Of course, but did you blame the fly or
your eye sight. Something that you may not realize when it comes
to fishing small dry flies is that accurate casters can almost always
see their fly because it lands almost exactly where they expect it to
land. If your cast is errant, of course you can't see your fly
because you don't know where to look. Learn to set that fly down
"spot on" and you will start to see it better, and catch more fish!
More importantly, on dry flies too.
5/06/2010
Snowfall in the northern end of the Ellensburg zip code yesterday,
man oh man it is cold. The good thing is the river is clear as can
be for May and we are about to have our Mother's Day Hatch BLOW UP in
the next 10 days or so. You haven't missed anything yet, except
big wind and some rough fishing. It is almost show-time right now
and although it is cold I am getting a good vibe from the river already.
The cold weather is almost making me feel like it is Steelhead season,
and in honor of that thought I figured I would spur any readers that
fish Steelhead with us on the Klickitat at our riverside camp, the
Methow, or Wenatchee into booking soon because the phone is ringing like
mad right now and it would be wise to get your fall trips planned soon,
just fair warning! The Methow and Wenatchee will both open for
Steelhead this fall as fisheries managers see fit to do so. There
is stamp, or permit, that you need to buy if you are going to fish
Columbia River Tributary streams. This money that is generated
from this is intended to help fund the monitoring efforts on the Met and
Wenatchee fisheries. Try and set a couple of days
aside now, because if 2010 is even half of what 2009 was it will be
stellar (and it looks like if the Chinook run heading back is any
indication of the steelhead... holy cow).
5/03/2010
Anglers: Steve J, Joe R, and a bunch of great new guests!
Results: About 6 trout
landed in our boat with one very nice one in the 16-17" range.
Fishing reports seem easier to write when the weather is nice, the
fishing is great, and there is some big fish to brag about - but this
has been a rough week! Big wind everyday, gusts to 50 mph
yesterday and a soft bite. Truthfully though it didn't seem to
matter, we fished with some great guys. I'm not sure how we could
have had a more fun day. They made no excuses for the wind, lack
of a bite, cold weather, or anything else. Just a great can do
attitude which goes a long ways. We wound up hooking some nice fish and
a good attitude was a more valuable asset than a strong fly cast (which
they possessed both of, and that is the most deadly combination).
Tips from yesterday, same as a few reports ago. Pick your battles
wisely. Don't just try crusing downstream casting at every little
spot. Use very focused effort. That can mean wading,
attempting to anchor, or just high energy rowing for small bits of time
to maximize the potential of one key spot and then.... breathe for a
minute, choose your next battle and man up for the next bucket.
You can't hit all the spots but if you can fish a few of them really
well that is much better than fishing all of them poorly. Just my
2 bits worth. Fly wise - almost every single fish was on a small
nymph again.
Lime Green Caddis Larvae #16 was the best bug by far. The
Mother's Day Hatch looks like it isn't going to break free on any
particular day. The high temperature over the next 2 weeks is
predicted at 70 degrees which is pretty much average. If that changes,
and there is a day that is predicted to jump up to 80 or so unexpectedly
then that will likely be "THE" day. Unlike Mayflies, Caddis
hatches are usually the biggest on warm, sunny, clear days with no cloud
cover. They react to a spike in water temperature usually.
Kelting Steelhead story - This is very cool and testament to good
things happening on the Yakima. In all the years I have been
fishing the Yakima (12 1/2 to be exact), I have never seen a single
Steelhead that has died enroot back to the ocean. Why is this?
Because there simply wasn't very many. Yesterday on a soft inside corner
we had a Steelhead holding a few feet away from our boat that was in
rough shape. It had the "cheese head" effect of a Salmon and was
on its last legs... or fins for that matter. It wasn't going to
make it. It was spawned out and waiting for death to set in.
It was about a 9 pound wild fish and it had a heck of a journey.
The Steelhead in the upper tributaries of the Columbia, i.e. the Methow,
Wenatchee, Yakima, essentially have the life cycle of a Salmon with one
spawning cycle. It is simply too far for them to make it back with
any regularity. Few, if any, ever make multiple trips back up to
spawn versus coastal Steelhead which sometimes have only a few miles
separating them from the ocean at time of spawning. To finally see
a Steelhead like this, combined with the fact we are hooking more than
ever while trout fishing is a great sign. They are coming back
which is a pretty inspirational concept in the presence of adversity and
historical decimation. Keep in mind that these are nearly all wild
Steelhead that are regenerating their population from what was at one
time nearly a lost population. After witnessing the pure number of
Steelhead caught this year it is tough not to be inspired and admire the
steadfast dedication of fisheries biologists and managers that have
stuck with the "wild steelhead" only idea on this river. It seems
as though if this trend continues we will be witnessing a pretty special
thing over the next decade on the Yakima.
Results: 10+ trout
landed, and a few very nice ones in the 16-17" range.
Gust timing was the key today, figuring out just the right time to shoot
our cast out before a blast of cool Cascade air knocked it back is a
fine art. That and trying to keep the boat lined up, slowed down,
and under control. Hug your guide for handling the boat well in
this wind, I think my wingspan grew an inch today. The last few
days have been rough, but truthfully today's bite was good. VERY
hard work though, but almost every time the drift was there - fish on.
The beautiful thing - we did not see a single angler today. Not one,
zip, zilch. That is pretty cool. You can head out for a
great float on a Blue Ribbon stream in the 21st century and still have
it to yourself. That is the inner beauty of the Yakima, we love it
because it is a challenging stream and won't ever get over run by the
crowds. My guests today fish the Madison a lot and it is not
uncommon to see 50 guide boats a day! For a guy that has guided
trout on almost nothing but the Yakima that seems absurd. Think
about that next time you cringe because there is a mere 5 boats at
Ringer! We truly have it great on the Yak, the angler to fish tio
is just perfect. Today we fished a litany of flies, but almost
every single one was on a Pearl LB#16. Buy plenty, we snapped a lot off
in the trees and on the bottom today and could have used a1 deeper box.
The Stone nymph game is dried up, or at least it was today. Try a Bitch
Creek, the Montana boys I fished with today said that bug hammers 'em in
MT when they get picky on the Pats. Most of the Salmon Flies have made
their way safely to the bank and once things calm down and continue
clearing up start looking for a big attractor dry to produce on the
surface. We need it to warm up a bit though, the Salmon flies I
have seen on the water haven't been laying eggs yet. Goldens should be
coming very soon (a few have shown up, but now many), and the Caddis are
only making a light appearance. There were a few tardy March
Browns today but overall the hatches were very light.
4/28/2010
It has been pretty rough the last couple days, with the big wind and
the bite being off. The anglers though are sticking with it and having a
good time and the mantra that keeps us all goin' is - "any day of fly
fi6shing is a good day!" Do short floats and isolate small pieces of
water when the wind is bad. It is wise to take it one single fish
at a time and not cruise downstream with your rod set on fully automatic
burst.
Results: 5-6 trout
landed, and that was good considering the bite was off.
It is always amazing how much different the trout look at conditions
than fisherman do! We crushed 'em on Saturday in muddy water and
now that it cleared up the bite slowed. It was likely the high
pressure system that moved in and brought some intense wind but overall
the water was in good shape and we got a lot of good drifts in.
The fish seemed to be moving out of the way of our flies though!
We did stick a few nice ones on the Morrish Stone and any day of fly
fishing is a good day. Hopefully the bite will turnaround in the
next couple of days. This time of year has such potential to be
great that you have to fish everyday to find out. The Grannoms
Caddis are all sealed up in their shucks meaning they are in the process
of metamorphosis for the big Mother's Day Hatch which is right around
the corner.
4/26/2010
The whole system is
in great shape and fishing solid. Also, BIG NEWS - Bighorn Boat
Launch is back open and the guys maintaining it appear to be doing a
great job. $5 to launch, not bad eh? We'll pay that any day
of the week if it will open up a little more access.
Results: 10+ trout
landed, several 16"+, first Pike Minow of the year, and Zero Yfish.
We decided to go for it in the Canyon today despite off colored water
and it was well worth the gamble. The trout were on the take and
we fished the same 2 flies all day and hooked about 50/50 on each fly.
The Knotty Girl Stone ROCKS by the way. It is nice to have rival
for the Pat's to compete against finally. We also have a new
Moorish Stone on the way in that is that one of the guides had been
hiding from us. The whole river is back in fishable condition.
I would not say that the fishing was "easy" at all today, which it never
is but having spent the last 4 seasons guiding in the spring at 3,000
cfs to as much as 7000+ cfs the flows today seem weak in
comparison. There are a lot of tricks to fishing slightly high off
colored water and 2006-2009 definitely polished some of those for all of
us. Don't feel bad if you had a tough day, just remember what you
learned and try some different approaches next time out in these
conditions. I should award Silver Stars to our guests today that
fished really hard start to finish. They started as novice anglers and
left with some great skills on casting, line handling, reading water,
and entomology.... guests for a day now they are fly anglers for life.
Some tips for slightly high water with some color in it: Try
fishing to specific fish - rather than runs or holes. Find a spot
that you KNOW there is a fish there and set up one great drift to cover
it. Don't spend too much time in deep water because most of the
trout will be on the weak/shallow edges. Fish your nymphs slightly
off the bottom, there is a lot of food suspended. On inside
corners, strategically work from inside out and then deepen up your
indicator afterwards to work the bottom and get dirty.
There 1`was a decent Caddis hatch today around noon that is beginning to
hint that the Mother's Day Caddis hatch might be a little earlier than
planned. Look for it to spring open by the end of the month.
It will likely peak the first week of May prior to Mother's Day (don't
hold us to it though!).
4/24/2010 - 6:30 pm
The Lower Canyon fished good from Ringer to Umtanum, more to come after
dinner.
4/21/2010 - 8:30 pm
It looks like we are back in for tomorrow. At 5 pm in
Ellensburg the river had 12-18" of visibility which is good enough for
us. The Canyon had not seen the response in drop that the
Farmlands did but by tomorrow it should be looking good at least by the
afternoon. Steve J. guided the upper river yesterday had a decent day
but we are looking forward to the Canyon and the Mother's Day Caddis
Hatch! (which is right around the corner). Salmon flies are spread
throughout the river but unless there is a good hatch don't expect to
search with dries for at least a few days. Stick to Stones, San
Juans, Lime Green Caddis, and Prince nymphs in the size 14 range (Caddis
that will be exploding in about a week or two). Our plans are to
guide the Canyon tomorrow if there is 18" plus visibility because by the
afternoon it will have improved and as the trout begin to see the river
clear up they usually get aggressive. If it is less than about 18"
then we'll hit the Farmlands or Upper Canyon to get above Wilson,
Manastash, Swauk, Taneum, and some others that resemble something more
like irrigation canals. The Teanaway is much less of an issue than
it was, it should fish ok below there tomorrow and will clear from the
top down as the day goes on. We witnessed dropping and clearing in
person today in the Canyon.
4/21/2010 10:30 pm
We are
likely out of shape from the top down due to the monsoon. It is
possible that the Yakima above the Teanaway will hold its clarity
through tomorrow but the odds are slim. Look for Saturday to be
the prime part of the drop and gooood fishin! Below you will see 2
graphs, the first is the Yakima River at Cle Elum. This is a hard
rise, but is still only up a total of 500 cfs over the last day which
the river can usually handle at this volume. It depends a little
bit one which drainages got hit the hardest with rain. Some creeks
get ugly fast, while others will filter the water pretty well. The
next graph is a forecast for the Yakima River at Umtanum. It shows
us leveling out late Friday, which means the river on Friday and
Saturday should be fishing great. Especially Saturday. Also,
keep in mind that this graph is at Umtanum too, the fish in the
Farmlands and Upper River will feel the water pressure decrease before
it hits the canyon. The abnormal currents that accompany a rise in
water are the worst, these should subside upriver early on Friday.
This is just a guess, but if you are planning to fish I think you are in
fine shape! Bring a few San Juans just in case. Also, check
this out. This link is reposted because it probably will get lost
below the graphs.
http://www.redsflyfishing.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=15114
Flies: Prince Harry #12, Abdomen Beaded PT #12, Lime Green Caddis Larvae
#16, organic (hand tied) Stonefly Nymphs, Black K Stone #6, San Juan
Worms (used from Teanaway downstream), Split Wing Adams
Posted By: Joe R.
Time: 9 am - 5 pm
Results: 10+ trout landed, a couple of BIG fish as well.
In honor of the Teanaway's digestive difficulties resulting from this
last stint of hot weather, we decided to fish above the influx of muddy
water at the junction and had great fishing with few other boats.
My hunch is that there will be a lot of pressure up there as the week
goes on and the Teanaway stays high, however, we had equally good
fishing from the Teanaway downstream yesterday (although it is higher
today), it isn't bad. There is still 18"+ visibility in the Canyon
and if you are willing and able - there are fish to be caught. You
will probably find us guiding the upper Yakima, but if you don't mind
using a San Juan worm it is likely you will have the Lower Canyon almost
to yourself for a change. It should come back into shape by
Thursday for sure and remember that a dropping river is a fishy river!
Tips yesterday - stealth was key. Quiet casts, longer casts, quiet
oar strokes, and a looooooowwww profile helped a lot. One good
cast is worth more than 100 crappy ones.
4/19/2010
Anglers: None yet - early a.m. still
Location: trouble at the Teanaway!
Flies:
--
Posted By: Joe R.
Time: 6 am
Results: Take a good look at the river today before you put your boat
in, the Teanaway is gaining some momentum this morning and from appearances it likely
has the river down below in rough shape. (haven't seen the river this
morning, but may post on Facebook once I do). This might be our first "mini
blowout" of the year. It shouldn't last long and frankly the fish
could use a little freshet to mix things up, push the smolt out, and
give the anglers a chance at some big fish when this thing settles down.
The river in the canyon is still "low" in comparison to a typical year
so who knows... maybe it
will fish great.
A dropping river is always fishy so look for it to stabilize and then
start kicking out plenty of fish.
Results: About 4-5
trout landed, some others gave us the slip.
The freshet released by the controllers above has moved through, and the
fishing is steady and we stuck several fish on dries during our short
float yesterday. The weekend looks good, and we still have some
room in the
Advanced
Fly Casting Course hosted at the lodge tomorrow at 10 am. You
can register online, call the shop, or just show up with rod in hand!
It is a GREAT course to go through and it runs for about 4 hours will
allow you plenty of fishing in the afternoon. Plan for Baetis,
Midge, and small Caddis in the Lower Canyon, pack some March Browns for
the Farmlands and the upper half of the lower canyon. If you plan
to float the farmlands, we run shuttles up there too. Just make
sure to you call in and fill out the waiver.
Download Red's Shuttle Form: Acrobat PDF or Word DOC
Results: 10+ trout
landed, a few 16"+, all on nymphs.
The powers that be spiked the flows yesterday to spur the migration of
juvenile Chinook and Coho migrating downstream along with kelting
Steelhead. After being on the river today and realizing that there was
recently a release of hatchery Chinook we hypothesized this idea, and
last night it was confirmed when I read a great email from a Yakima
River Basin Fish Biologist enlightening us on this fact. He gave
us some great information. Due to the moderate snow pack and lack
of natural runoff, managers are using storage release to aid migration.
Increased flow helps expedite the migration, but it also allows for
managers at Roza dam to better manage flow gates and allow for juveniles
to migrate through the dam on the surface without harm. We
are fortunate to have such a well educated group of fisheries bios and
managers on this river. With the increased number of Chinook,
Coho, and Steelhead returning to the Yakima each year it appears that
they are doing the right things.
The nymphing was
great yesterday but we didn't see the stellar dry fly fishing like we
did 2 days ago. That was primarily due to the lack of cloud cover,
but it might have also been to slightly increased flows which often
kicks loose a large amount of subsurface material and keep the trout fat
and happy down deep. The March Brown hatch was light, there were
some BWO's (which are usually slow on sunny days), GREAT Midge hatch,
and there were actually quite a few small Caddis in the #16/18 range.
Something we didn't try and should have, was a CDC Prince #18 or some
type of #18 Hare's Ear. A Prince Harry makes a great Caddis pupae.
It has a flash back and the white biot looks like wings trying to pop
out of the pupal skin. In the afternoon we found that the #20
Black WD-40 was the best dropper. Once the Mayflies were done the
fish turned to Midge.
Results: 10+ trout
landed, a few very nice ones - but great numbers of 10-12" fish!
Fishiest day of the year so far! Who knows what this week will
bring though, last week it was snowing! It was very good fishing
yesterday with lots of fish to the boat. I am in a huge hurry to
get the boat loaded, lunch packed, and head to the river, but I wanted
to get this report posted with some advice on flies. Good luck and check
out the video for more incite!
4/12/2010
WOW!! This is quite a story, a 9 year old angler fly fishing for his
1st time ever lands a HATCHERY Steelhead on the Yakima ( a
non-river-of-origin fish)! Not only did he get it, but it was his
first cast ever, after just a few minutes of instruction from the guide!
He fought and landed it like a pro thanks to Red's guide Mike Canady and
some great coaching!
4/11/2010
In case you are still wondering. That is just a small Clack in the pic
below, although Bo and Troy would contend that it their massive
masculine builds. The Rendezvous this weekend was spectacular and
thanks so much to everybody that came by. Congrats to Ricky,
Richard, Patti, and everybody else that participated in the casting
competition. Everybody did so great and it is fun to watch people
enjoy and improve their fly casting abilities. The fly cast is the
heartbeat of this sport - it is what makes it so enjoyable, without
it.... you would be gear fishin' and it just isn't the same thing!
Thanks also to all the industry reps, Dick Sagara, Eric Neufield, Gary
Sandstrom, Jon Stenerson, and of course - thanks to everybody on the
Red's/CRR staff that truly make events like this worth doing! You
guys are great. Congrats to Bo Lybeck that won a new set of Simms
G4 Pro Waders, you may recall he has the oldest most torn up waders we
have ever seen. We shot a video of it. We plan to shoot
another and title "Extreme Wader Makeover"! Thanks to everybody in
the Drift Boat Class you did a great job and it sounded like Gary
Thompson helped the lake class submit a ton of fish during the
Stillwater clinic, so good job on the lake out there folks. We
plan to post more pictures from the event later in the week.
Regarding fishing, good hatches today and the water is in PRIME shape.
Expect the fishing to hold a strong bite for the next week or two.
See you on the river!
4/10/2010
Location: Red's and the Lodge
Results: LOTS of fun, info, and an all around great time
celebrating and learning more about the sport of fly fishing.
Either these
guys are HUGE, or that is a really small Clack. Which is it?
Come to the Rendezvous today and find out!
Results: 4 trout
landed, all of which were the first 4 trout ever landed on a fly by this
father/son combo!
NOTE: The Rendezvous is
Saturday, it will be a blast. Here are few reasons to go. 1)
The NCAA tourney is over, so now you need to find something else to do
2) There is a chance for you to leave with FREE stuff from Red's.
3) You will get to watch some of the very best fly casters in the
northwest duke it out at 4 pm. 4) It's basically free.
5) You can get your buddy that is a terrible rower in one of the
drift boat classes. 6) It is mostly indoors. 7)
You can ask our guides about a free 20 minute guided trip (which is
sweet - upper Red's to lower Red's 8) Beer is at 3:30 pm 9)
LOTS of free info from the guides 10) Lasagna dinner 11)
Let us tune up your cast 12) Spey curious? There is a good
clinic! 12) Watch the guides tie their favorite patterns 13)
Cast in the non-pro division of the casting competition and see how you
do!f
"Any day spent fly fishing is a good day", this was yesterday's mantra
as we battled against big wind, cold water, and picky trout. In
the face of adverse conditions though we battled ahead and fished
through 40 mph winds, with bigger gusts and fought to get the wind in
our favor. Sometimes that meant setting the boat up to fish slots
on the left or the right depending on the direction of the wind.
It also meant skipping a lot of marginal water and focusing on just
getting a few good floats through the prime water. The guests
yesterday had big hearts and did great considering it was their first
time fly fishing.... ever. They had never cast a fly rod once. We
spent the better part of the morning time just learning the concept of a
drag free drift, various mends, casts, line handling, entomology, and
more. It is really cool to see a 14 year old kid leave pumped up
about fly fishing when he can't feel his hands and the wind is howling!
That is the true measure of a fisherman. As a guide, we can
measure somebody up in a hurry; "Are they in love with the struggle, or
do they let it get them down?" If they relish the challenge, then
they will most certainly go onto be great anglers someday, Yesterday,...
if you didn't love every aspect of the game it would have been easy to
give up. You have to enjoy the cast, a new style of mend, a new
way of feeding line, a new type of roll cast, seeing a new insect, or
whatever. These should be the things that keep you going through
the tough times. When the chips are down, the bite is slow, and
tangles begin to happen more frequently just remember that it is the
battle that makes this sport great and not the catch (which never hurts,
we catch as many as we possibly can), but making yourself better and
learning to enjoy the process will take you a long ways in attempting to
master this sport. Most anglers would have given up yesterday, but
Nicholas and Keith fished it hard and loved every second of it.
I admire anybody else that fished through the storm yesterday, my hats
off to you. No pun intended, as my hat did fly off at least once
during the gale force winds.
Results: 10+ trout
landed, all 15" and under - but VERY solid little trout. We're
happy to catch the little guys!
We did a wade fishing special today and got out of the boat a lot to hit
some "obscure water" that we have been leaving behind while guiding.
We casted over logs, under logs, through the trees..... into the trees
and even wound up with a few trout when our flies weren't hanging
helplessly in the brush. I think our fly loss today was equal to
that of the startup volume for a small sporting goods store. Be
sure to try and find unpressured water. Each time we found a fresh
riffle or a subtle drop it was fish on, but the primo runs tended to be
pretty sterile. Low clear water helps wise up the fish in a hurry.
The March Brown hatch was light but there were fish on the surface and
we did stick a few on dry flies but there wasn't a lot of consistency to
it. We are still looking for that big hatch that makes your knees
shake as you watch EVERY fish in the river simultaneously coming to the
surface for Mayflies. It happens about 10 times a year, but we are
still waiting for the first. A warm rainy day can do it on March
Browns, and then look for it to happen again during the Mother's Day
Caddis hatch. Be sure to come out to the Rendezvous this weekend
and say hi. Even if you are just going to stop in for an hour or
so while hitting the river. At 4 pm is when the casting
competition finals occur and the beer gets tapped.
Fishing started out slow in the morning and progressed steadily as the
day went on. We encountered an awesome March Brown and Blue Winged Olive
hatch at 2:12 pm that would make anyone's day. As soon as we noticed the
abundance of March Browns landing on the water we switched our dropper
nymph to a Pheasant Tail (the one we used has a bead build into the
Thorax rather than on the head, and is tied on a Scud Hook and capped
with red thread) and the games began. Although the fish were not feeding
a lot on top we were able to convince some hungry fish in slow back eddy
water to come up and enjoy a tasty lookin' Skawla dry. Have
confidence in your nymph set up and don't be afraid to switch up bugs
time to time because you never know when that big trout is going to be
on the end of your line after passing up the initial offering. The
Upper River requires some persistence so don't get impatient up there.
We fished all day to land 6 trout and would consider that a success, in
the Lower Canyon our catch numbers would have been a lot higher but
combining gin clear water with fish over 18' is a good rush!
4/3/2010
Anglers: Dennis, Zach, Ben, and Steve
Location: Lmuma to Roza
Flies: Black and Brown Pat's #8's/10's, Prince Harry #12, Lightening
Bugs 12-16, sz. 16, 18 WD-40
Layering: Wool socks, Cloudveil Run Don't Walk Pants, Under Armour Top,
Cloudveil Flat Creek Jacket, Simms G4 Dry Coat, and the Simms G4 Waders
with Muck boots!
Posted By: Steve J.
Time: 9:30 - 6:00 pm
Results: GREAT fishing.
The weather in the Lower Canyon was much nicer than what was forecasted,
with periods of calm, and lots of sunshine! The nymph fishing was
productive from start to finish, and we would have thrown dries except
for the stiff upriver wind that tormented us from lunchtime on. There
were ALOT of BWO's on the water around 2:00 pm, and some nice fish
eating them sporadically, but the wind just didn't give us any
opportunity to target feeders. The fish are in great shape right now,
and this Spring snowburst that the mountains are receiving is making the
summertime outlook better by the day. Low water years are great for
Spring fishing, but take their toll if the summertime flows can't run
high enough to keep water temps low. We spent a lot of time out of the
boat wading today. A notable key to our success was to run more split
shot (not deeper, just more shot). This gets your flies tight under the
indicator quicker, which makes the indicator more responsive. If a fish
puts the fly in its' mouth, the indicator is going to move. If there's
slack, that leaves enough of a delay that the fish can spit the fly with
little or no indicator movement. REMINDER: Your fishing licenses expired
on April 1 - get your new one NOW! The fly shop will be closed tomorrow.
Happy Easter to you and your families!
4/2/2010
Anglers: Ed, Terry, Mike, Bryan, Joe R. and Mike C.
Location: Farmlands
Flies: Black and Brown Pat's #8's/10's, Double Beaded Peacock Stone #10,
Double Beaded Hare's Ear Stone #10, 20"er w/ Black Cone #8, #16 Powerworm,
Mayfly Soft Hackle #16, Gary's Pt #16 w/ Bronze Bead, Prince Harry #12,
WD 40 Olive #16, Trout Bead - 4 mm Pink
Layering: Wool socks, Simms Fleece Guide Pants, Waderwick, T-shirt,
Hooded Sweatshirt, Buff, Insulated Vest, Windstopper or Shell
recommended most of the day (snow is in the forecast, yee ha!).
Posted By: Joe R. and Mike C.
Time: 9:00 - 6:00 pm
Results: 10+ trout, 10+ ytfish - per boat - GREAT fishing.
Although the dry fly game wasn't present yesterday in the Farmlands,
we'll take nymph fishing like that any day of the week! The dry
fly fishing has been better in the Lower Canyon (I didn't post a report
but it was great on Wednesday afternoon), but if you don't mind strike
indicator fishing all day long and want to roll the dice on getting into
some rising fish during the March Brown hatch - the Farmlands is a great
place to be. The Pontoon boat fisherman we talked too reported a
stellar afternoon as well - swinging wet flies! That is class act
gentleman's fishing right there, swung flies on a tight line. More
of us should be trying that during hatch time. Tip of the day,
unique ledges and boat angles seemed to be the key. Posting up on
the "same ol" spots wasn't all that productive for us so try and get
creative in order to find some unpressured fish. Be advised that
we do run shuttles from Irene to Ringer so give us a buzz and we'll get
your truck moved down if you want to float that stretch.
Otherwise, see you in the Canyon this weekend!
3/31/2010
Anglers: Mike E. and Joe R.
Location: Thorp to Diversion
Flies: Black and Brown Pat's, and a #16 Powerworm
Layering: Wool socks, Simms Fleece Guide Pants, Waderwick, T-shirt,
Hooded Sweatshirt, Buff, Insulated Vest (gloves were almost necessary in
the early hours).
Posted By: Joe R.
Time: 9:00 - 2:00 pm
Results: 4 trout, several Ytfish to hand. 1 big boy!
It went something like this... freezing fog in the valley, drove up into
a beautiful sunny sky in Thorp, had a great patch of sunny weather and
then at 1 pm - a major hale storm! After that, a beautiful day
again. Gotta love springtime on the Yakima. Fishing
yesterday was pretty good considering the angler didn't have a ton of
experience but still managed to land a trophy trout. The March
Brown hatch didn't show but there was a decent BWO hatch as we took out
that may have triggered a rise. Shan and Derek J. fished the lower
canyon and reported a mild BWO hatch with not a lot of rising fish.
We need a stable cloudy day to bring the both the bugs and the fish to
life. They had a few fish up on Skwala dries but it didn't sound
like anything spectacular. The river is on a rise right now but we
think that it will stay fishable, and the increased volume should spread
the fish out a little bit and might actually be a good thing for us.
Keep an eye on the graph, if it continues to rise in Cle Elum all day we
might have trouble. If it levels off - that means good fishing.
A good tip from yesterday was to work nice and slow and then once you
locate a fish or two stay on that spot for a while.
3/29/2010
Anglers: Fred, Eric, Craig, Shan, and Leif
Location: 19 to Roza
Flies: RCJ #18, Anato May Peacock #16, Anato May Hare's Ear #14,
Pheasant Tail Flashback CDC #14, Double Beaded Peacock Stone #8, Olive
Winged Thing #10, Organic Skwala
Layering: Windstopper Soft Shell, Hooded Sweatshirt, guide shirt,
T-shirt, fleece pants, wool socks, plan on bringing a rain shell every
day, you never know what you are going to get. The guys upriver
got poured on yesterday!
Posted By: Leif K.
Time: 10:00 - 6:00 pm
Results: About 10 trout landed.
The nymphing was average in the morning and the dry fly fishing turned
on about 2 when the cloud cover rolled in, a typical trigger for a good
Mayfly hatch. The dry fly fishing was pretty good with some really nice
fish hitting Skwalas and sporadic risers to the BWO's especially in the
flat water. We had to contend with some wind in the afternoon but
if a guy sticks with the dries all day they could do pretty well if they
are an experienced caster. My best pattern for us was a hand tied
foam/dubbed Skwala pattern with no hackle, it seemed to outfish
everything else in the box.
3/27/2010
Anglers: Steve, Roger, and Floyd
Location: Red's to Roza
Flies: sz. 8, 10 MT Fltwing Skwala, sz. 8,10 Winged Thing, sz. 10, 12 Para Skwala, sz. 12 Split Wing March Brown, sz. 18 BWO, BWO Emerger
Layering: G4 Guide Jacket, Hooded Sweatshirt, guide shirt, T-shirt, fleece pants, wool socks,
plan peel the shell jacket off around noon.
Posted By: Steve J.
Time: 11:00 - 8:00 pm
Results: 6-8 Rainbows landed, that many more eats
The wind that was forecast did arrive, and made things challenging for several hours in the afternoon in what has been our most productive dry fly window. We did see a pretty good pod of fish eating on the surface at one point, which should get more consistent over the next couple of weeks. The first cloudy day we get is going to be amazing. We hooked some very nice trout on Skwala dry flies. Bringing them to the net is not easy, especially with the shape these fish are in right now. They are chunky and strong, and very difficult to move them in a heavy down river current. We are definitely at a point where it is important to show the fish a different fly. There are now fish out there that could tell you who tied a particular pattern, and they are much less likley to be fooled on the "same old fly". Don't be afraid to size down, especially if fish seem to be bumping or splashing the fly and not putting it in their mouth. Although we stayed on top all day yesterday, the nymphing has been steady, with March Browns now becoming a player. We have some new Skwala dry fly and nymph patterns in the shop; and Gary's favorite, the purple lightening bug nymph, has attracted some interest over the past few days. We still have a couple spots open in the Ea WA Lakes clinic on April 11th with Gary Thompson. It's offers a great chance to "get the lay of the land" for the Eastern WA lake fishery. I'll now be heading down the canyon behind the marathon runners with my drift boat in tow. I'll keep an eye on the rear view mirror to make sure none of them climb on board!
3/22/2010
Anglers: Mike C. and Chris, Mike C. and Steve
Location: Various stretches, a couple of days worth of info.
Flies: Typical fare, Mike C. did mention that the smaller more natural dry flies like Stimulator types (less chernobylish) patterns were better. Nothing fancy on the nymph drill, pat's and lightning bugs.
Layering: G4 Guide Jacket, Sweatshirt, guide shirt, T-shirt, fleece pants, wool socks,
plan peel the shell jacket off around noon.
Time: --
Results: Good conditions, cool nights are keeping the runoff nill.
Hunger Level: --
From the "no BS" texting thumbs of Red's guide Mike Canady... brief but informative and to the point. Ringer to Umtanum, tons of Ytfish on Nymphs and a big Rainbow, slabby 18" edition. Dry fly fishing was... ok at best. Nothing special though. Fished Red's to Mahre's the next day, much better dry fly fishing - 15 nice fish to the fly and most of the got hooked. Several BIG trout these past few days, check out the pics! Luck of the Irish... I think not! Skill of the Irish maybe. Mike.
3/20/2010
Anglers: --
Location: --
Flies: Get your Baetis ready...
Layering: Sweatshirt, guide shirt, T-shirt, fleece pants, wool socks,
with only a light fleece jacket required for part of the day.
Time: 3 pm
Results: Good conditions, forcast is friendly too.
Hunger Level: --
It looks like the onset of the Baetis hatch is in the forecast for the next couple of days, but be aware that it is sometimes hard to predict. Baetis, aka Blue Winged Olives, aka BWO, like most other Mayflies, prefer to hatch on cloudy days. Tomorrow looks like it will be dark and cloudy, plus the overnight low is only predicted to get down to 37 which gives the daytime warmup a jumpstart on getting that water heated up. When it comes to BWO's, you will want to have some sort of action plan in place before the hatch even kicks off. It will likely happen about 1-2 pm and will come on strong. Have a 9' 6X leader ready that is clean and new so that it will set your fly down soft. Preferably, you have a hatch rod ready to roll with this leader on it, just get it all set up in the morning ready for a quick-draw.
1) Hatch Rods should be an 8'6" 3 weight or 4 weight, 9' rods are great too but most people tend to be slightly more accurate with 8'6" rods at practical fishing distances. The lighter line sets down more softly, it is more limber (manages tough seams better), and you will spook less fish. The properties of the fly itself yield a better overall drift than your 5 or 6 weight because smaller/lighter line is easier to mend. Plain and simple light lines outfish heavy ones. Plus the soft action of the rod tip does a great job of protecting 6X tippet. All this, plus if you carry your hatch rod there won't be any startup and breakdown time switching from Skwalas or Nymphs back and forth from a BWO. There are lots of times that a hatch rod come out for just one or two casts, we stick the feeding fish, and the rod goes back in the holster.
2) Starter Bugs - defined as the first fly that you cast to a feeding fish, or search with, at the onset of a hatch. This fly goes on your set up before the hatch even starts and is 'river ready'. It should float good, be easy to see, and even turn some fish. There are a handful of good patterns that come to mind. A variety of parachutes, especially if you can find some good ones with a Hi-Vis Orange Post, will work as a starting bug. The key is they have to float good so they don't get swamped by your first fish or just a series of drifts. The idea is that this fly keeps you moving efficiently and fishing, instead of tying on fresh/dry flies or reaching for your dry shake every 10 casts. Our guides play a lot of various Baetis but the go-to seems to be the Split Wing Parachute. It is darn tough to beat. It has 2 calf hair posts (Wulff style) that make it float great and it is easy to see. The body has a flashy rib over the olive dubbing so it makes a good attractor. It gets 'em, and it floats good. However, there are times that the Starter Bug just won't trick 'em... enter the "kill bug".
3) We call it the "kill bug", because the idea is that the fly is so good, the fish you are shooting at is well scouted and isolated in a specific seam, and therefore... it allows the angler a one shot kill. Of course it doesn't always work like that this, but you get the point. These flies are the "naturals". Top picks are Quigley Cripples, BWO Sprout Emergers, CDC Emergers, and last but not least... one you probably aren't expecting. An old school Thorax Hackled Dun. The Thorax Dun is just an old classic fly, but it by far looks the most natural out of all the patterns. It is great for flat water situations, and part of the reason it is so deadly is because it looks very real no matter how it lands on the water or what angle it is viewed from.
4) Perspectives and Efficiency - of course, some of you are wondering... "why not fish the Kill Bug right off the bat if it is so natural and effective?" Frankly, fishing big rivers is a whole lot more about presentation, presentation, and efficiency of that presentation. The more you make and the better they are... the more fish to the boat. Don't play the small fly until you have to. If fly fishing were run like Bass Tournaments (which guiding sometimes is), we would have 8 rods rigged with a variety of patterns and during a Baetis hatch, it would be all Split Wing until a quality fish doesn't eat it... then we grab the rod with the Quigley and hit 'em with that. One shot one = one fish or something to that effect. Success on big water is often (not always) all about how fast you can cover the water, and that means being able to see your fly and keep it afloat at all times. Seeing your fly means constant feed back on your drifts, meaning you know if the drift was bad. You can have the best fly in the world, but as you park yourself on a feeder you have to be able to identify "drag spots" (defined as a portion of the drift that no matter what you do there is drag", a visible fly shows you these... you figure out how to fix it (move your boat, walk upstream, add tippet, reach cast, etc.) once fixed, put the Kill bug on and go to it. Use the visible fly to learn what is wrong with the drift, then switch it up. By using both styles of patterns to their advantage and maximizing your river time with a hatch rod (or at least nominate a rod in the boat as the "community" hatch rod), you will flat out catch more fish. Use these strategies next time out and it might mean a few more bends in the rod, and these are good bends because it will be on dry flies.... the reason we got into this sport in the first place! Be ready for a fish to show its head this week, good luck, thanks for the support, and straight casts to all!
3/19/2010
Anglers: Bill, Doug, and Joe
Location: East Cle Elum to Thorp
Flies: Nymphs in the morning: CDC PT w/ Copper bead #16, hand tied
Skwalas (nymphs and dries), #10 Olive Pat's, Little Green Machine
#16
Layering: Sweatshirt, guide shirt, T-shirt, fleece pants, wool socks,
with only a light fleece jacket required for part of the day.
Time: 10:30 am - 6:30 pm
Results: About 10-12 trout landed, all very nice fish primarily Cutts.
Hunger Level: 4 out of 10
A guide's dream. We stop for lunch, and I literally had a sandwich
in one hand and a 16" trout in the other. Then, a few minutes
after the guys crack open a bottle of wine a deer comes out and feeds
along the bank and gets a drink as though my cronies just released it
for aesthetic effect. If there was going to be a children's book
about the perfect day on the river I think that would be it. I can see
it now..... "and then little Joey reached down and unhooked the trout
only after taking a huge bite of his club sandwich."
The Upper Canyon, East to Thorp, fished good for us but was very
technical and we had to cover massive tracts of water fast to get the
results we wanted. Good casting was paramount and hitting every
seam that popped up on the first shot with a clean drift was key to our
success. We had a great day, while some others got skunked.
The Hunger Level registered only a 4 out of 10, but if you like
serenity, low pressure, big fish, and a challenge the ask of the upper
canyon. Newer anglers, best if you stick to the Lower Canyon right
now. There were adult Skwalas on the river along with some BWO's
but we couldn't sustain any kind of strong rally. The water is
very low and the fish were isolated to the edges of the best holes,
rather than spread evenly out along the duration of the float.
It is also important to stress the importance of learning to fly cast
well. As the hatch progresses it will require better drifts, more
accurate casts, and the ability to cover a great number of seams fast.
Picture this, Angler A hits a main-line seam with a fast accurate cast
way down stream on a sharp angle. Fishes it a few seconds, the
boat is approaching the hole and in the next 3 shots he hits 3 different
seams with no more than 1 false cast the entire time (with good line
speed so that the boat doesn't float out of position between shots).
Angler B, has to wait until the boat is 20 feet from the main-line seam
and has to take 3 attempts and by the time he/she gets it the boat is
floating by out of position and has no shot at the other interior seams
closer to the bank. We see it every day. Scenario B is all
to common an part of the learning process, but as guides we analyze it
and that is why we have some of the best fly casters around on our guide
staff. Being able to cover water fast(moving the fly about the
river in multiple seam lines with no false casting) allows an angler to
fish 3-4 times the amount of water and it all starts with learning to
cast well and shoot line accurately at longer distance. Learn to
double haul, learn to shoot line, and learn to build tight controlled
loops. It directly reflects your body-count on the river. Plus,
casting is fun. If you find pure joy in fly casting you will become a
great angler some day. Practice makes perfect and you will even
love fishing on the slow days because you can work on the cast.
3/17/2010
Anglers: Mark, Jim, Garth, John, Steve, and Joe
Location: Irene to MM20
Flies: DFO for Joe, Steve ran nymphs in the a.m. (much better than dries
early on) and DFO after lunch. Skwalameister #10 (a small
parachute Skwala w/ 6 small rubber legs and a biot tail).
Layering: Guide Shirt and a Vest most of the day, followed by
Windstopper in the afternoon. Fleece pants and wool socks under
the waders.
Time: 9:30 am - 6:30 pm
Results: About 10 trout per boat, the very formal big fish contest was
won with a 16"er that broke a long and dramatic stalemate of dualing
15"ers. In fact, now that I think about it. It was still a
tie, each boat got a 16"er in the evening. Everybody is a winner
at Red's.
Hunger Level: 6 out of 10, (but it made the other days prior feel like a
7.5)
We encountered two distinctly different types of Skwalas yesterday....
the upriver Skwala and the downriver Skwala. You can tell the
difference based on the insects' behavior on the water. The
downriver Skwala will float along with minimal movement and typically
floats helplessly down the fishy seams for long periods of time until it
gets eaten by a hungry trout. The upriver moves fast along the
surface blatantly dragging behind the boat after 6 six useless mends it
is usually recasted...... upstream! Please tell me you got that
joke. It is true though, Skwalas need to be fished with precision
and the hard downstream angle from the boat promotes a great float and
it keeps your tippet clear of the take, many of the rises are soft and
you get a MUCH better eat-to-hook up ratio. It also requires a lot
of skill to move the fly about the river fast and effectively. In
these water conditions, an angler must be able to read his own water and
take the fly from the main seams with short casts to long casts to
bankward seams with one quick shot and the switch it all back as the
seams pop up close to the boat again. Also, since the water is in
the mid 40's (relatively cold), the trout are fairly isolated to
distinct lines and usually won't follow outside of a seam. The
smaller the seam, the more isolated you have that fish. The trout
love to dominate their own little seam too so that there is no
competition. Being able to read all of these lines and move the
fly about fast and cover many of them (one fast accurate cast per seam),
is king. It shouldn't take more than one cast, if it does, you
probably won't get that fish anyway. It is amazing what a
difference it makes when an angler can lay down long quiet shots spot
on. With other Stonefly hatches, it isn't nearly as critical
because the water is usually up and the trout are holding in choppy
noisy water already and are pretty tolerant. In quiet water, frog
water practically, the trout will be very unwilling to tolerate noise.
We can't stress enough how important it is to practice your casting and
learn to shoot tight loops fast and accurate. Long distance
practice helps immensely with this because long casts are only achieved
by good loop control. It will serve you well come game-time if you
put a little time in at the practice range. Expert guides still
practice every time a rod and a line come out of the tube, so should
you. Go out on your lawn, if you don't have a lawn go to the park.
Especially if you want to be a good dry fly fisherman. Nymph
fishing doesn't require a whole lot of grace from the caster, flop it,
mend it, set it! Good luck out there, the dry fly fishing is going
to hold steady for a while. Slow to start, switch to dries at
lunchtime.
3/15/2010
Anglers: --
Location: --
It is a beautiful thing when your wading boots don't dry out for weeks
at a time.
3/14/2010
Anglers: Oly, Alex, Carmen, and Joe
Location: Ringer to Umtanum
Flies: Dries ALL Day! We fished Organic (our term for hand tied) Skwalas, Yarn Wing Skwala #8, Peacock PMX (it has hackle tied into the body for a wiggly effect) #10
Layering: Windstopper over a sweatshirt in the morning, guide shirts in the afternoon sun, reverting back to Windstopper in the afternoon hours. Bring a good shell, the spring wind out here can have a painful bite to it.
Time: 10:30 am - 5 pm
Results: Good dry fly fishing for the anglers that can move the fly around and hit lots of seams efficiently, it can be a challenge for anglers that don't drive a good loop. 8 nice trout for our experienced angler (sneaking in drifts as the 6 year old in the boat dominated both the water and the air space with some wild but enthusiastic casts), a few grabs for the novice.
Hunger Level: 6 out of 10, (ditto from last time) we would make it higher but it can be tough. It would be easy for anglers "less than dialed in" to have a tough day. If you didn't do well yesterday, don't feel bad for a second. That is just fishing and Skwala hatches can be tough... but sometimes it is as easy as leaving your backcast in the water too long!
The Skwala hatch is rolling on, and good fishing is the consensus. Some guys had it tough yesterday, but don't feel bad if you were one of them. This river is rarely easy. When we were able to get our "ringer" lined up some seams yesterday we pretty much crushed 'em. We only threw dries, the nymph anglers had a hay-day I'm sure. However, the last thing we want to be accused of is hyping a report, so please come out with realistic expectations and plan on working hard for your fish. The trout get very pressure sensitive on the Skwala hatch in hurry. Their lips get sore fast and it doesn't take them long to realize that a #8 Bitteroot equals DANGER! Tie some unique flies, and pack some small guys in the #12 range to use as your plan B if a big fly isn't working or you spot some stubborn rising trout. BWO's are starting to make an appearance so get your #16 Quigleys and your Comparaduns ready. Anything with CDC is usually a good "kill bug" to use when the others fail, but the trout remain on a steady feeding pattern. Just keep in mind that you can't fish it, if you can't see it! That is the downside of CDC. Keep working hard out there, and take care of the big fish this year. We have nearly stopped taking pics of fish so that we can keep them in the water and maybe it has helped. Big fish seem to be more present in the Canyon this year than the past few. Low clear water is great for fishing in the short term, but the trout take the brunt of our hooks a little more often. Handle with care, and just like you guys we are trying very hard to do our part and be easy on the fish. If the fish never leaves the water it has a lot better shot at getting back to eating... and growing... and getting big. We all like big. ALSO, a guide had his Loomis Streamdance GLX 9' 5 weight rod w/ a Lamson Litespeed and a Sharkskin line get dropped out of his boat yesterday and wasn't recovered. :( OUCH! That is a $1000 set up. It was near Mile Marker 21. I can only imagine the prank emails that could get started out of this, so please don't torment us. If you find it bring it in for a reward paid out in good fishing Karma and Shuttles.
3/12/2010
Anglers: Bo, Derek, and Joe - Connor and Mike
Location: MM20 to Red's
Flies: Bitterroots #10/12, Organic Skwalas, Pat's, Pearl Lightening Bug
Layering: Windstopper fo' sur.
Time: 10:30 am - 5 pm
Results: Great dry fly fishing in the late afternoon, slow to start,
good nymphing early. 10+ trout to hand.
Hunger Level: 6 out of 10, we would make it higher and although we
landed a lot on dries it was pretty technical casting and drifts.
Yesterday was the best spring dry fly fishing we have seen in years.
This was the first day of good dry fly fishing for us. Thursday
was pretty good too, but the anglers included a first time fly caster so
it was tough to get a good read on the day. They worked hard
though and managed about 15 nice trout to the fly and landed a couple.
Yesterday it was cold, windy, and technical casting to generate eats but
it was stellar if you had good fly control. We saw about 50
Skwalas on the water, most laying eggs. This hatch should be
strong through the weekend but expect to work hard and be persistent as
this is not an easy hatch for the novice. For the experienced
angler, it is like picking ripe apples.... just reach out and grab it!
We are also starting to see a few BWO's as well so keep that in mind
when you find picky trout.
3/9/2010
late pm
Anglers: Jim, Tom, and Joe
Location: Red's to Roza
Flies: Hand tied Skwala nymphs in the morning, hand tied dries in the
afternoon. A few "tester" swings with sink tips and streamers to
see if they are chasing in the morning.
Layering: Windstopper, stocking cap, gloves, long johns would have
been smart.
Time: 10:30 am - 6 pm
Results: We got a beat down from the girl, it just wasn't there on dries
BUT we did land a Steelhead and that doesn't happen every day. 7
nice trout landed, 1 Steelhead, and a handful of Ytfish.
Hunger Level: 3 out of 10, pretty rough.
What a weird day. It was nice in the morning and then got super
cold with a wind in the afternoon. The fish were doscile and did
not move much for the fly. We ran a single nymph rig working
Skwalas and that was kind of slow, hooked a few on droppers once we
threw that on. Got a Steelhead, then landed 4 nice trout on dries.
So, it turned out good now that it is in text. For how hard we
fished and efficiently we covered the water it was pretty slow.
Regarding the Skwala hatch it is still early, the dry fly fishing will
improve over the next 3 weeks. Look for a trend of warm nights,
and fairly warm days. Part of the guide gang fished a busman's
holiday behind us today (thank goodness they were behind), Mike, Leif,
and Derek landed 15-20 fish and another Steelhead! (weird?). That
is just crazy, we don't see very many of these on the Yakima. We
release them fast so the pictures are kind of crappy, but hey, it is
still a Steelhead on the Yak. Fish of a lifetime for most of us
and a heck of an honor to behold. Overall, we were happy to get 4
landed on dries, if you see that girl and her 3 weight throw a rock at
them.
3/9/2010
Anglers: --
Location: Not sure yet, gotta listen to what the water has to say once I
get there.
Flies: Hand tied Skwala nymphs in the morning, hand tied dries in the
afternoon. A few "tester" swings with sink tips and streamers to
see if they are chasing in the morning.
Layering: Windstopper is a must have, and a Buff to keep the wind
out of my ears. I think I'll leave the gloves behind today.
Time: 6:30 am now, meeting 2 anglers at 10 am, trout hooked up by 10:30
am?... knock on wood, but that is the plan. I have a couple of
"starter slots" in mind that can drag down the skunk flag early.
Results: We had better get 15+ trout to the dry, or I will be heckled to
death by another guide (and his girl, which is in fact worse!).
Her picture is above, if you see her - do not fish behind. Hearing
that she moved 15 and landed several should motivate all of us to get on
the water and get it done.
Hunger Level: --? t.b.a.
The boat is loaded, rods on hood rack, flies are tied, kit bag is dialed
in, coffee is brewing, lunch is packed but food feels like more of a
formality. This time of year is an exciting time to hit the river.
After a long winter of waiting it is time to make the most out of your
days on the water and this morning I am especially pumped up and
prepared. For all of us this should mean tying bugs, buying bugs,
polishing the fly cast, ordering the right rods and reels, getting new
fly lines, buying good tapered leaders, Flourocarbon Tippet, and getting
some waders that don't leak (it is amazing how nice a new set of waders
feels). The quality of your pregame is often what determines the
mood during postgame, plus it is fun. I never get bored tightening up my
fly gear. Getting geared up right just feels good. Once that prep work
is out of the way, it is time to put that meticulous preparation to work
for you on the river. That is about to happen in a few hours.
Guiding and hard core angling feels a lot like being a competitive
athlete on the brink of a big game. As you piece that fine fly rod
together it isn't unusual for it to stimulate a few goosebumps knowing
that you are nearing kick off. Time to see what you can do other
water. Did I bring the right flies? Is my cast strong? Did I choose the
right section, and do I have a slot routine dialed in? Right now I
am mentally reviewing my own playbook, and if all the right moves are
made at the right time, on the right pieces of water, it will all come
together for us. This might mean knowing when and where to nymph, and/or
when switch it up to dries or streamers. Just like an offensive
coordinator it is your job to move efficiently out there. Later
today we will have 5-6 rods in the boat rigged with dries, nymphs, and
streamers so that we can make the right moves at the right time.
Time is precious and your pregame routine might make the difference
between epic and average. Of course it can't always go perfect,
hence the passion we carry for it. It is hard, sometimes we don't
catch fish and it is never easy nor predictable out there on a big wild
river. But, for the anglers that put in the prep work of casting,
tying, buying the right rods, good fly lines, and have the right gear -
it is a certainty that they will have a leg up on the less prepared
anglers. If you want to make the most of your time on the river,
be prepared. Now that my own gear has been checked the 3 times, it
is my time to head down into the Canyon and get after it. Kind of
like coming out of the tunnel and onto the field. Goosebumps you
ask?... maybe just a few.
3/8/2010
Anglers: Connor and Trish
Location: Red's to the Slab
Flies: Brown Wing Bitteroot Skwala #10
Layering: Polarfleece w/ Windstopper over long underwear worked ok
in the afternoon, still bring your gloves and stocking caps as the wind
can be bitter!
Time: 12 - 4 pm
Results: 3-4 trout landed on dry flies for Trish.
Hunger Level: 7 out of 10
The Skwala fishing is warming up on dry flies!, and you haven't missed
anything yet. Plus, it looks like the hatch won't burst this next
week with any one day offering a high temp. Instead it looks like
the hatch will continue to trickle off at a steady pace which is
perfect, and should offer us a few weeks of opportunities using Skwalas.
Connor and Trish wend DFO, dry fly only, and moved 15 fish to their fly
which we would consider good fishing. If a girl and a 3 weight can
move 15 fish, we would HOPE that you can move at least a few if you come
out! The hatch activity definitely peaks in the afternoon so
plan your fishing time to put you in your favorite run about 2 pm.
Nymphs in the morning, dry flies for lunch. No BWO's to speak of
yet, in the evening there have been some sporadic risers on Midge but
not enough during the day to warrant 6X and a Paramidge. Other
than fishing, we wrapped up our Sportsman's Show season this last
weekend in Spokane. It was great talking with all of you that were
there and thanks for all the compliments on the Powerhour Page.
We also got the opportunity to cast A LOT of rods for hours in the
casting pond and put the Sage 99 series rod through the ringer.
Leif, Bo, and Joe casted the 599-4 for hours and learned a lot about it,
and it is really impressive how it prevents tailing loops. We
aren't sure how exactly they did it, but we casted the Winston BiiX,
Sage 590-4 Z Axis, Sage 596-4 Z Axis, and the Sage 599-4 a lot and out
of all the rods the 599-4 was nearly impossible to throw a Tailing loop
(no matter how hard you pushed it at fishing distances ). It also
threw the longest distance out of all those rods, which usually a 9' rod
will out cast longer ones for pure length. It kept the loops open
but powerful and didn't stretch your elbow like traditional 10' rods
will. It is the real deal and with nymphs, sinking lines, and
streamers it will keep them untangled and prevent you from getting rung
up in the back of the head by a Tungsten bugger. Our overall
review of it is very positive. The only downsides are the obvious
ones, longer rods are typically less accurate at short range and don't
deliver flies under trees as well. For open water, Puget Sound
Cutts, weighted flies, indicators, chironomid rigs or sinking lines it
would be hard to find a better rod.
3/4/2010
Anglers: --
Location: --
Flies: (bring some San Juan Worms, especially pink with beads and
brown/red 2 tone), Pat's Stones (various colors #8), Home brewed Skwlalas nymphs, San
Juan Worms, Bitteroot Skwlaa #10, Winged Thing Olive #10, San Juan Power
Worm Brown/Red #16
Layering: --
Time: 12:30 pm
Results: The river is on the rise, but should stay fishable from
Ellensburg upstream through the weekend. Call the shop at
509.933.2300 for an up to the minute clarity report for the canyon.
Hunger Level: --
The warm weather has kicked loose a light batch of runoff, nothing to be
too concerned about the river needed a little boost anyway to help the
fish make their way towards the shallows where the Skwalas are.
Work inside seems and try to cast from the weak side of the current line
you want to hit, it can be tough to get these fish to eat fishing from
the outside in (so if you are in a boat, consider wading!) In
slightly off colored water, sometimes the plain old Black K Stone with
long rubber legs is your best bet, and a very bright green Caddis Larvae
is easy for them to spot. The Canyon will be a little dirty for the next
24 hours but should clean up by Saturday (just a prediction!).
Skwalas are becoming abundant and the next week should mark the first
week of good dry fly fishing, you are not too late as it has just begun.
Bring a few San Juan worms, this past week after the rainstorm brought
the river up the trout were all over it. Just phone the shop for
clarity reports, we will be in Spokane at the Great Western Sportfishing
Show and won't update until Monday again. Thanks! Good luck
out there, the weather in Ellensburg is unbelievable. If you live
in the Spokane area we will see you at the show and Joe will be putting
on a great presentation about fishing the Yakima River, and some fly
tying in the booth all weekend and on stage Saturday.
3/2/2010
Anglers: Joe R., Mike, and Roger
Location: Irene to Ringer
Flies: Pat's Stones (various colors #8), Home brewed Skwlalas nymphs, San
Juan Worms, Bitteroot Skwlaa #10, Winged Thing Olive #10, San Juan Power
Worm Brown/Red #16
Fun day yesterday, we learned to cast and throw dry flies in an effort
to cultivate some action on top and learn to throw a good loop. A
little time invested specifically on the topic of casting early in your
career will pay enormous dividends in the long run. If you learn
to throw long, tight, and accurate loops there isn't much you can't do.
Your ability to move the fly all over the river at an efficient rate of
speed and accuracy is huge. We put a lot of emphasis on skill that
yesterday and made a lot of progress. A more Nazi-ish guide could
have eaked out a few more fish to the boat with some hollering but that
isn't what we were the for. Fish counts are more interesting to
add up after a few years. As far as tips go, we did turn one nice
trout on a dry fly towards the end of the day. The remainder of our
hookups came to an even split between Stonefly Nymphs and San Juan
Worms. The river is back in a steady flow pattern now and should
start pushing some fish towards the surface for sure in the next week or
so. Still a little early for "good" dry fly fishing.
2/28/2010
Anglers: Joe R., Ed, and Andrew
Location: Irene to Ringer
Flies: Sculpzilla big and small, Woolhead Sculpin w/ Tungsten Bass
Weight slid onto leader, Olive/gold bugger w/ rubber legs, Pat's, San
Juan Worms, Winged Thing Olive #10 (no fish on dries but we did see 2
adults almost dry fly time!!!)
I got to row the boat for 2 really cool guys yesterday, Ed Soczino and
Andrew Bennet. Ed is president of the Washington Fly Fishing Club
and is doing some great stuff with the club and also one of the world's
best competition fly casters and a heck of a fly fishing and
architectural photographer (which supports a healthy fishing habit).
He routinely beats me by a healthy margin in the FFF 5 weight distance
and accuracy competition for the past several years. Watching a
guy throw a 5 weight 120 feet is a truly awesome spectacle. He'll
be at the Red's Rendevous April 10th, so
if that sounds like something you want to see come on out. When he
shows up we are all competing for 2nd place. Oh yea, he pitches a
heavy streamer inches from the bank pretty well too! 40 footers
are chip shots when can throw tight loops at 100+ feet. Practice
your distance casting, sign up for our Advanced Fly Casting Course, and
work in your down time to get better. He practices routinely at
Green Lake. Casts are perfected on the grass, utilized on the water.
The other angler, Andrew Bennett, owns Deneki Outdoors and has
operations that you have likely heard of: Alaska West, Chile West,
Andros South, B.C. West, among others. If you are even thinking
about planning trips to Alaska, Chile, B.C. for Steelhead, or the
Bahamas call us and we'll get the process rolling for you. It is pretty
cool sharing a boat with these guys who have both fished all over the
world and they are still energized by a nice afternoon on the Yak when
they can stick a dozen average trout. The pure joy of hooking a
fish of any sort should never old. It speaks to a certain level of
class when you are still content to politely accept a river's offering
regardless of fish size, quantity, or species. Take what you are
given, and appreciate the gift because that is exactly what it is..
Make the most of it. Yesterday was pretty muddy after all that
rain. The river didn't come up a lot but the ratio was just high
enough to dirty things up, rubbery meatloaf. We did alright
regardless of the less than ideal conditions. SHOCKINGLY, we did
not hook fish on streamers although we threw them with conviction.
When you have one of the best casters in the world fishing alongside a
guy that spends more time on the rivers of Chile and Alaska than anyone
else I know.... it is a certainty that the job is getting done right.
However, the fish were not in the mood to chase for some reason.
Usually a spike in water volume kicks loose some Sculpin and they big
fish go on the prowl. Nymphs and San Juan Worms were the producers
and you had to be in the right riffles. We did not do well fishing
along on the go, it was spot specific. Today should be better
especially in the afternoon as the river drops in right. Here is
this mornings graph, a hard drop is goooood! Warmer water and a
dropping graph = good fishing most times.
2/27/2010
Anglers: Joe, Lynn, and Jon
ONE day left to take advantage of the $225 Feb
Special. If you are ever thinking of taking a spontaneous guide trip,
maybe plan one for tomorrow which is the last day of our special rate.
Also, the Wenatchee heated up BIG TIME yesterday with nearly double
digit Steelhead hooked. The rain and dark weather finally came in and
there is one day left on that river the whole season and we are guiding
at only $355 per boat. Call the shop today if you want to pull
something together! You won't regret it.
Location: MM20 to Red's
Flies: Red Winged Thing #10, Olive Winged Thing #10, Anato May Peacock
#14, Olive Flashback Hare's Ear #16 (beadhead) The Ytfish LOVED this
one. Pat's #10 Various colors, Double Beaded Olive Stone w/ Amber
Biot Legs #10, Sculpzilla big and small
Results: 6-7 Rainbows landed, plenty of Ytfish and LDRs galore.
Is there a better way to start your fishing day than finding a wrinkled
up, wet, dirty, old $20 bill in the foot of your waders? Has that
ever happened to you, if so, then you know the pure joy of which I am
describing. It was no doubt some long forgotten portion of a
guest's tip gone MIA. Maybe this could be a new savings plan for
guides. Just throw all your money in the foot of your waders so
you don't spend it. Then after a few weeks if it isn't all torn up you
can use it to buy tippet and pizza. It would work a lot better
than the current one we've been using where you just spend it as soon as
you get back to Ellensburg. Fishing was pretty good yesterday, we threw
dry flies a lot and had 2 very nice fish eat but didn't connect on
either one. We ran dry dropper set ups most of the day so we
weren't fishing the dry fly nearly as "clean" as we would have liked as
most our intent was placed up on getting fish on the trailing bug. If we
had fished dries solo, certainly we would have turned a lot more fish on
the surface. We also could have caught a lot more fish if we
nymphed using indicators more, but we sort of like plucking fish out of
the shallows on droppers if we can. Each time we nymphed a green
slot, fish on! Lots of Ytfish though. Streamers were dead.
No fish to the Sculpin.
The Forest Gump rain yesterday didn't deter the fishing but it might
have a slight effect over the next few days if the river keeps climbing.
Below is the hydrograph as of 6 am today. It looks bad, BUT if you
look at the scale on the right you will notice that the river is up only
a total of 150-160 cfs right now which isn't much. We'll see what
happens over the next few days, right now it looks like good fishing!
The river needed a little boost. There are a lot of fish in the
slow shallow pockets that will be easier to present a fly to with a
little more water. One of the most difficult things while fishing
Skwalas is that there are so many various speeds of current to lay your
fly line across that it gets messy and the drifts are tough. A bit
more water will smooth things out and make the fishing water more
uniform.
2/24/2010
Anglers: Joe, Robert, and Rich
Location: Wenatchee River
Flies: Blue Pat's #4, Caddis Pupae (Olive/Green/Gold) #12, Black/Brown
Pat's #4, Brown K Stone #6, various Egg Patterns (small was better, from
our limited experience)
Results: 1 Wild Steelhead Landed, several Ytfish that we are counting
just because the fishing was slow.
It was downright cold yesterday, it barely got above 40 and the water
temp started at 37. Today is looking MUCH better with heavy cloud
cover and an overnight low that barely got below freezing. The
fishing should be on today, focus on nymphing the Yakima if you are out
for numbers. Dry fly anglers, be patient and dilligent and you
will get a few takes. There is NO dry fly take on earth better
than the first one after a long winter of dreaming about. Just
don't pull up too quick, it is easy to do! On the Wenatchee, dead
drifted flies rule the roost right now. Get your trips scheduled
for later this weekend if you like our guide staff, there is only a few
more days for the $225 special on the Yakima, and the Wenatchee is still
on sale at $355 till it closes March 1st.
2/23/2010
Anglers: Joe, Bryan, and John
Location: MM19 to Umtanum
Flies: Pat's of course, Double Beaded 20 Incher #10 (out fished the
Pat's! a miracle!), Red Brassie #20, Green Winged Thing #8
Results: About 8 trout landed, 12-17", great average size and build.
A spontaneous call came in for a February Special guide trip yesterday,
so we did a quick float in the afternoon and it was well worth it.
It was a gorgeous day out with not a cloud in sight but the shady zones
held frost all day so it never really warmed up. Jackets all day
long. We did throw dry flies though and saw an Adult Skwala on the
water so the time is coming for some of that sweet action. We need
a spike in water temps to really set things off though. The warmer
nights that are headed are way should help. The day time highs
aren't anything impressive this next week but it looks like it will
barely dip below freezing versus nightime temps in the teens like this
past weekend.
We also want to
congratulate Steve Joyce for winning the Central Washington Fly Casting
Competition held in Yakima at the Sportsman's Show this last weekend -
nice job Steve! He won a James Henry custom built rod and reel and
graciously donated it to the FFF to use in their annual banquet coming
up on the first weekend in May.
2/21/2010
Anglers: Joe, Natasha, and Matt
Location: Wenatchee River
Flies: Blue Pat's #4, Caddis Pupae (Olive/Green/Gold) #12, Black/Brown
Pat's #4, Brown K Stone #6, various Egg Patterns (if curious or planning
a trip, phone the shop and they will put together an assortment and send
it out ASAP)
Results: 2 Wild Steelhead Landed, and some Ytfish tallied for
competitive purposes.
OUCH, 18 degrees last night. Beautiful afternoons usually have one tradeoff this time of year and that is frigid cold mornings and nights. Yesterday's starting water temperature was a startling 35 degrees on the Wenatchee! In case you don't speak Farenheit, that is cold cold cold. Especially since the day before it was close to 40. On the Yakima, this mornings water temp is 35.8 right now, and will likely get a little colder before it begins to warm up. That type of shock will put the fishing down be it trout, Steelhead, or whatever. That makes for tough
fishing. We pulled it off on the Wenatchee though, 2 great Wild Steelhead in the net. Each angler boated a fish. When the temps take a dive a strategy change is in order. Deepen up your nymph rig for starters, skip any water that is "marginal" and focus exclusively on holding lies that you know there to be some fish. This might mean spending more time in a lesser number of holes but that shift in strategy will certainly make the difference between fish and no fish. It might have meant only 2 fish yesterday, but for those folks gripping the big tail of a Native Metalhead that is all the difference in the world!
The day before yesterday, we landed 4 Steelhead (2 per guide boat), and
2 Bull Trout were landed one of which was 8-9 pounds! No pics
unfortunately but it was a big one. In cold water, fly changes don't create much action.
However, lighter tippet and generous spacing between split shot and flies
definitely will. The last 2 days on the Wenatchee, every fish has been holding in big open large pools. Therefore the fish are seeing the fly coming from a long ways out and the bite is not reactionary. They analyze it for a great period of time. The more spacing between gear and the lighter the tippet, the better it looks. Get rid of the mono, and go all Flourocarbon tippet. Also, Dinzmore Split Shot in dark green is a nice touch. It is drab colored and escapes fish radar in comparison to that shiny split shot that you bought at Fred Meyer for 89 cents with the big jaws that never work and just create tangles. Skip the Jalapeno Corn Dog
in the deli case next time so you can afford Dinzmore shot. Back to the Yak, the Trout fishing hung on the afternoon yesterday, but reports showed a sloooow first half. That is just fishing, nobody said it would be easy and as long as you enjoy the journey even the slow days are a treat to be here. Fishing conditions will improve later this week, but it will take a few days for the water temperature to completely recover from the last 2 nights of arctic freeze.
2/19/2010
Anglers: Joe, Bill, and Steve
Location: Red's to Mahres
Flies: Skwala orinted Stonefly Nymph Patterns (Olive Pat's and a home
brew of our own creation) Black K Stone #10 Olive K Stone #10, Olive
Winged Thing, Sculpzilla Tan #4, Sheila's Sculpin #6, Brassie #20, Lime
Green Caddis Larvae #16, Olive PT #16 (tungsten head)
Yesterday was about as good as it gets weather wise. Fishing was a
little slower than we hoped, but we made up for it angling skill.
As you read our reports, make sure to bare in mind that the anglers have
a lot to do with the catch numbers. Make sure to check out the
Skwala video and see what action is happening. The next few weeks
will be getting better and better so you haven't missed a thing yet!
2/16/2010
Anglers: --
Location: Lower Canyon, Asc Bay, Wenatchee, and the casting pool at PNW
Sportsman's Show
Flies: Skwala orinted Stonefly Nymph Patterns, Midge Pupae, and on the
Wenatchee Stone Nymphs, Egg Patterns, Figs, and other various Steelhead
flies should do the trick if you are in the right spots.
Layering: About the same as before, but it looks like a good Gore-tex
Wading Jacket is in store for today! Fleece Pants, thick wool socks, long underwear top,
sweatshirt, Windstopper Fleece, and gloves in the morning and evening
plus a stocking cap. Same layering deal, day after day right now.
Time: 8 am
Results: Great conditions from the Methow to the Yakima and everywhere
in between.
7 days without Powerhour, how are you getting by?! Spent the week
in Portland for the last 7 days hosting a booth at the Pacific Northwest
Sportsmans Show, and Steve was still wrapping up Week 2 in Ascension
Bay. 5 Permit landed in AB again in Week 2! Tony Robins
takes the big Permit award for the week with a dandy. Another
great week, we have 3 spots open for February 28th - March 6th if you
are up for some sun and some incredible flats fishing.
On the Yakima, fishing continues to be good, BUT we want to keep any
hype in check because this time of year a temperature swing or pressure
irregularity can starve you off the river in a hurry. We don't
want you guys mad at us! However, the guide staff all reported
good fishing including a primitive text stating "big fish were hungry on
Yak today". Well put. Maybe that in itself would make a good
fishing report? Start thinking about working up against the
shallow edges, with some dry fly fishing starting to happen a
significant majority of the fish should start migrating inward toward
the shore and can sometimes surprise you on where they are holding,
especially in the later half of the day when the air temperature is a
great deal warmer than the water's temp. The Wenatchee continues
to produce, it will only be open for another 2 weeks so nail down a date
soon. With record numbers of Steelhead it would be wise to make a
trip up there. Double digit days are not abnormal. Same on
the Met.
Congratulations to Joe Rotter for winning 1st Place at the Pacific
Northwest Fly Casting Competition held at the PNW Sportsmans Show in
Portland this past week. There were some great casters in the Pro
Division and it was a very close contest, congrats to everyone that made
it through the qualifying round and casted in the finals on Sunday
including Red's guide Troy Lichtnenegger.
2/9/2010
Anglers: Mike B. (fishing solo on the Yak)
Location: Lower Canyon
Flies: Lightning Bugs, Stones, and a Streamer (for the contributing
customer's sake we won't give you exact patterns, but he did by them all
at Red's!)
Layering: Fleece Pants, thick wool socks, long underwear top,
sweatshirt, Windstopper Fleece, and gloves in the morning and evening
plus a stocking cap. Same layering deal, day after day right now.
Time: 9 am - 5 pm
Results: 10+ trout landed, 6 on one Streamer.
We got a great email from a customer yesterday. He had a great
float in the Lower Canyon and used flies right out of our shop to have a
great day! It always feels good to get some positive feedback on
the flies we send out the door and into the river. Fishing on the
Yakima has been quite good lately, and we are extending the existing
Special to the end of February and adding a full day option for the
hearty angler that would like "MORE fishing time"!
Steve sent an email late last night from Ascension Bay, and was happy to
announce he got another Permit! Not to mention, about 20 Bonefish
yesterday! Sounds like goo fishing down there again this week. He
said the weather was even better than in Week 1 with a lot of sun and
great visibility. Thanks for checking in, starting tomorrow the
Portland Sportsman's Show is going and we will be there. It is a
great show for Fly Fisherman, so consider stopping in. It goes
from February 10th - 14th.
2/6/2010
Anglers: Joe, Larry, and Oly (Wenatchee River)
Troy and his college buddy (name? we will just call him Otis)
Location: Cashmere to the mouth on the Wen. River, Irene to Ringer on
the Yakima River
Flies: Various Pat's Stones, WD-40's, Olive PT (tung head), Anato Mayfly
in Grey (rust or hare's ear is fine), and a small Lime Green Copper
John. For the Wenatchee, Purple double beaded Stonefly, Mottled
Trout Bead w/ Gamakatsu #4 trailing behind, #4 Blue Pat's Stone, #6
Black/Brown Pat's
Layering: Fleece Pants, thick wool socks, long underwear top,
sweatshirt, Windstopper Fleece, and gloves in the morning and evening
plus a stocking cap. Same as last report, great weather. Only had
gloves on for a little while.
Time: 9 am - 5 pm
Results: Good fishing! Both rivers fished well.
Good things are happening right now. The Yakima was dead before 1 pm yesterday, but ignited with an afternoon rally
for Troy and Otis that left Troy stuttering on the cell phone describing it. He said the fish were not real bug specific (of course he made some pretty educated guesses on pattern), and the afternoon was the time to rally. We have 9 days left of the $225 Winter Special, so if you have an urge to go jump on it. Trips meet at 11 am and fish the prime afternoon and early evening hours. Also, the Wenatchee is fishing very well and will likely only be open for a couple more weeks. It doesn't get much better! Expect to nymph for numbers though, the fish this time of year are not very reactive to a swung fly. It can be done, but you would need to dedicate yourself to it with a devout heart. As long as we don't get a nasty cold spell fishing should continue at a steady pace. Pre-runoff and pre-spawn are a sweet combination.
Look for Skwalas by the end of February, we have a hunch it will come
early (NO promises! but some of the hills are greening up giving us a
spring vibe). We probably just cursed the hatch. Dang it.
2/3/2010
Anglers: Andy, and Johnny
Location: KOA to Rhinehart
Flies: Various Pat's Stones, Double Beaded Peacock/Biot Stone #10, Red
Copper John #18, Little Green Machine #16, Olive Tung. Bead PT #16,
various Streamers, San Juan Worm Brown/Red #14
Layering: Fleece Pants, thick wool socks, long underwear top,
sweatshirt, Windstopper Fleece, and gloves in the morning and evening
plus a stocking cap.
Time: 11 am - 2 pm
Results: Good fishing!
The fishing was good yesterday for Johnny, and it looks like the current
weather pattern should keep a decent bit alive. Don't hope for an
explosion in the fish count arena, water is still pretty cold and it is
wintertime. 6 fish to the boat might be an average day for the
average casters, certainly we do much better than that much of the time
but our goal is to keep the "hype factor" in check. Dream big, but
accept the supreme challenge that is winter fly fishing!
2/2/2010
Anglers: --
Location: Yakima, Wenatchee, Methow
Flies: --
Layering: Less than a couple of weeks ago, bring it all though, gloves,
stocking caps, puffy jackets, the Malto Meal Boy look is in right now.
Time: --
Results: --
The rivers are all in great shape. Although we don't have any up to the
minute reports conditions are ideal, in fact, this is some of the best
weather we have had this winter. Most of the snow is gone yet the
river is still in perfect shape. Streamers and Nymphs of course,
but bring a few Midge patterns just in cast. The Wenatchee should
pick up some steam as the water warms a surge of fish will charge in out
of the Columbia.
2/1/2010
Anglers: Joe, Steve, Gary M, Conrad, Richard,
Troy K.
Location: Ascension Bay
Flies: Raghead Crab, Captain Crabby, Exuma Puffs, Bonefish Scampi,
Poppers, Black Death, Cockroach, and a bunch of other flies with cool
names.
Layering: Not much!
Time: January 25th - late last night.
Results: 5 Permit, LOTS of Bonefish, a few Snook (plenty of
shots), Baracuda galore, Jack Crevale on occasion, lots of shots at
60-100 pound Tarpon one day (Steve hooked one in the 80-100 pound
range), plenty of shots at stubborn 10-20 pound Tarpon.
What a great trip, where to begin? I don't think it is possible to
adequately describe in words your first Flats Fishing trip (for Joe),
or your first Permit (Joe and Steve this week!:). We'll let the
photos get the story started, and we will follow up with some killer
video footage and will try to reflect in text just how awesome it is
prowling the flats in search of anything swims!
1/23/2010
Anglers: Joe and Gary Thompson
Location: KOA to Irene
Flies: San Juan Worms, Pats' (of course), Olive K Stone #10, Anato
Mayfly Peacock/Black #16, Scupzilla #4
Its
amazing what a few hours of fishing will do. Dinner tastes better,
comedies on TV are funnier, your kids are cuter, and work seems like a
distant past. It was a nice day on the water, sunshine and a some
humor will wash away the wintertime blues pretty fast. Overall,
decent fishing. Just because the weather got nice doesn't mean it
isn't still cold still, so keep your expectations in check when it comes
to the fish count. If you love fly fishing the way we do though it
doesn't matter much and you will begin to find that even the lean days
are still a worthy venture. Feeling the rod load and a solid tug
on the line make the drive to the river and money spent on gear less
relevant. It is likely this will be the last report for about a
week unless we get some good internet coverage in Ascension Bay Mexico,
we'll see how the report writing goes after sticking a few Bonefish and
Snook and then drinking some Coronas. We apologize in advance for
any grammatical errors or if we accidentally write the report in
Spanish. Adios my amigo brethren of the Powerhour. Stay
tuned.
1/23/2010 late pm
Anglers: Joe and Gary Thompson
Location: KOA to Irene
Flies: San Juan Worms, Pats' (of course), Olive K Stone #10, Anato
Mayfly Peacock/Black #16, Scupzilla #4
Its
amazing what a few hours of fishing will do. Dinner tastes better,
comedies on TV are funnier, your kids are cuter, and work seems like a
distant past. It was a nice day on the water, sunshine and a some
humor will wash away the wintertime blues pretty fast. Overall,
decent fishing. Just because the weather got nice doesn't mean it
isn't still cold still, so keep your expectations in check when it comes
to the fish count. If you love fly fishing the way we do though it
doesn't matter much and you will begin to find that even the lean days
are still a worthy venture. Feeling the rod load and a solid tug
on the line make the drive to the river and money spent on gear less
relevant. It is likely this will be the last report for about a
week unless we get some good internet coverage in Ascension Bay Mexico,
we'll see how the report writing goes after sticking a few Bonefish and
Snook and then drinking some Coronas. We apologize in advance for
any grammatical errors or if we accidentally write the report in
Spanish. Adios my amigo brethren of the Powerhour. Stay
tuned.
1/23/2010 early am
Anglers: Joe
Location: The Yakiam River
Flies: A San Juan will make its debut in slightly off colored water
today.
Layering:
We'll have to wait and see, the temps have lightened up quite a bit.
Time: Heading out later today, 12pm - 3 pm
Results: Wait and see.
The river is coming aback into good shape. A few days of dirty water puts me into a slightly foul mood, can't imagine what it would be like if I had to wait
any longer. I know someday I'll read about somebody in Seattle
going into a fit of "office rage" because not only could they not fish
that weekend, but we didn't update Powerhour and they needed it to calm
their nerves. Perhaps this page helps many of you cope and
prevents office violence. I'd like to think it does, sort of a Dr
.Phil's violence prevention tactic. We are going to fish later today and shoot a video to see how the fishing is
after the freshet of rain and melt muddied things up. No matter how it is, it is good enough for me. A common answer when people ask "how is the Yakima for fly fishing", default response "good enough for me". It is sort of a litmus test for measuring an angler's spirit. If you have to have
80 degree weather and 5,000 trout per mile to love a river or fly fishing.... you might not be much of an angler. No offense intended to lovers of the Missouri or the Bighorn, as I myself could always use more fish
and enjoy the sun, but is that really why we got started on this odyssey called fly fishing? The perfect cast, the rise, shooting line, feeling the rod load, wading big current, reading a hatch, tying a new fly, all of these things are part of the spirit
of angling. If you love these things as much as I do, do yourself a
favor and go fishing sometime soon. Try out some new gear, try
some new water, make a plan for 2010, envision some goals for yourself,
and this might sound silly but it is a good exercise. Write down a
new destination, new species, or new technique. Maybe this will
help keep fly fishing fresh and new for you because it is far more than
just Chicken Soup for your soul, it is Chicken Soup for your entire
life. Eat it up, it just might make you a better person. The
same type of hard work, love, dedication, and intellectual demand that
is required for fly fishing is required in almost every aspect of life
if you plan to be successful. What does all this mean? You
should fishing more, and I am here to help you justify it. Kind of
like that little red guy on your right shoulder whispering to you, but I
would prefer Powerhour is more like the Angel on your left.
Fishing equals mental health.
In the meantime before hooking up the boat and heading through
Ellensburg for the "5 minute" commute to the Yakima, it is time to start
packing for Ascension Bay Mexico. I feel sort of like a big game
hunter heading to Africa. Each piece of gear is slightly more
refined and bigger than the typical trout stuff. Big leaders,
complex knots, fresh backing, big reels, 4/0 Tarpon hooks, and a
slightly different clothing set to keep the evil Equator rays off our
skin. You could also equate it to being an NFL player gearing up
for the Super Bowl. You have waited all year for one shot, one
opportunity to do this trip. Just like lacing up a set of cleats,
as I lace up my Flats Sneakers I can't help but feel some goose bumps
creep up my back knowing that in 72 hours I'll be searching the flats
for Permit, Tarpon, and Bonefish. For me, this is truly the trip
of a lifetime and my first trip to the flats and not something to be
taken lightly for sure. Each piece of gear is carefully
scrutinized over and this is not the time to try and save a few bucks by
going cheap. Sage Xi3's, Z-Axis's, Ross CLA's and Big Games Reels,
Abel Reels, and properly tapered and constructed leaders for Permit,
Tarpon, and Cuda are key. Dreaming of the flats, but trout in
January is still plenty good enough for me today. Stay tuned,
video tonight.
What’s
nice about the upper Wenatchee during January is that you basically have
the river to yourself: glassy-smooth surface, gin clear water, and fresh
steelhead coming up the river on a daily basis now that there is a
little snow melting off. Perfect! This section of the river differs from
the down-stream floats in that it’s calmer – almost serene: smooth,
glassy runs separated by deep pools and bank-side troughs.
For some reason, the fish this far up river have a passion for pink as
was confirmed by our pink / purple “Jimbo’s Fig” flies drifted right
near the bottom in “steelhead slow” water. Now we all know that
steelhead are “the fish of a thousand casts,” but the two bright hens we
caught apparently had not read the email: we both had fish in the within
the first half hour! Being stealthy is a must in these conditions, but
the pay-offs are handsome. And with more fish in the system in over 80
years, it looks like the Steelheading on the Wenatchee will continue to
be hot.
The great weather and heavy rains put the river out overnight and it is big and dirty
now. It is good to see a little snow melt on the hills, it is shaping up like we will have the best spring in years for fishing conditions with a moderate snow pack. The inverse of the last 4 years which has
plagued us with big mud flows during our prime hatches so many times over the past half decade. In the long run, big water is good for the trout but we won't complain about nice clear flows in the spring from an angling standpoint. Clear water is MUCH more
conducive to dry fly fishing which we haven't seen much of these past few springs. We will make sure to get another video up when the river gets back in shape. Also, a big thanks to everybody we saw at the Tri-Cities show this weekend - what a great show that was. Thanks for all the orders, sales, and it was good meeting so many of you. We look forward to seeing a many of our readers and customers at the Puyallup Show soon (Jan 27-31st) and we want to encourage you to give us a call if there is any gear that you want to see there in the way of rods, reels, lines,
waders, bobbers, jackets, gloves, hats, flies or whatever. Give us a call and we will sure to have it even if we have to Super Special Order it for you just to look at and check out.
We will make sure to have it there. Give us a call soon and you can pick it up at the show in person or give it a good demo. Especially with waders and boots, having every size and model combo at the shows is tough to do. We feel like Gypsies this time of year traveling from show to show with a trailer full of goods to pedal. You could be a part of that
action, give us a call, let us know what you want and we will deliver to Puyallup and
firm handshakes will come free with purchase.
1/13/2010 late pm
Anglers: Ted, Johnny, and Joe
Location: Irene to Ringer
Flies: Black/Brown Pat's #8, Pink Scud #16, San Juan Worms (variety
pack), Brassie #20, Choc. WD-40 #20/18, Lime Green Caddis Larvae,
Sculpin #4
Results: 3 fish landed, pretty tough fishing but still worth being on a
great river.
Fishing was surprisingly tough today, we were probably overly optimistic
with the temps above freezing all day but the fishing was challenging
and there were a lot of short strikes on the streamer that we couldn't
convert and the nymphing was almost non-existent! There are always
going to be days like this, even in the spring, summer, or fall.
The fishing should pick up a little consistency though as the days
lengthen the trout will sense some urgency and take advantage of the
warmer days as winter begins to soften up. In hindsight, we did a
very long float for 3-4 hours of fishing and could have done better
#wise if we had stuck to just a few "gimme" zones and worked them over.
General tips: dress right, you will be amazed at what having the
right gear will do ESPECIALLY good wading pants and wader wick type
material that keep the humidity in check. If you can stay warm
without looking like the "Malto Meal Boy" you will have a good time.
There is a lot of wildlife, serenity, few people, and just enough nice
trout to make the balance come together.
1/10/2010
Anglers: Cory, Bob, and Joe
Location: Wenatchee River
Flies: Black/Brown Pat's #8/6/4, Blue Pat's Stone #6, egg patterns, and
a Big Green Caddis Pupae tied on a #12 Scud hook, Bloody Mary #14,
Results: 3-4 Steelhead hooked, one landed (ditto from last trip).
Did you notice that the annoying auto start on the Simms video did not
cue today?! Sorry about that last week, you should just order new
waders instead of patching them it is easier. Patching is for
scrubs, in fact, buy 2 sets of new waders. Just kidding, put some
duct tape on there and you are good to go.
Another cold day on
the Wenatchee yesterday, but we got a nice wild fish to hand and hooked
several others. Our trips up there this time of year are pretty
short days making the drive to and from easy, and we don't like our
guests to get hypothermia so when the hot coffee is gone we try to hit
the takeout. Layer up right and it is very comfortable. The
Wenatchee should get better and better as the water warms slightly and
the days get longer a big push of fish will surge in from the Columbia
and fill the river up with fish. The Yakima is prime right now
with no ice on the banks and pretty moderate temps both day and night.
Concentrate on the afternoons and try to pick 2-3 pieces of water you
really like and work them thoroughly. Change depths and flies to
see what works and don't try to cover a lot of water fast, it is simply
less productive unless you are sweeping streamers. Nymphs this
time of year you are always better off casting at a known quarry and
doing so continually. Fish the big buckets.
1/07/2010
Anglers: Connor and Joe
Location: Wenatchee River
Flies: Blue Pat's Stone #6, egg patterns, and a Big Green Caddis Pupae
tied on a #12 Scud hook.
Time: 11 am - 4 pm
Results: 3-4 Steelhead hooked, one landed.
It is tough to be two places at once, but with the warm weather (?
relative) we decided to hit the Wenatchee yesterday instead of the
Yakima and it felt good to hook up with some metal and warm up the fun
way on the river. It was very comfortable with highs near 40 and
the fish were on the take in the later half of the day. It does
take some skill on that big clear water to get long enough floats to
make it happen. The wade fishing is tough and water temps aren't
breaking 35-36. The fish are in the long open glides rather than
the pocket rocks where you can get away with a high stick or a quick
float. Plan to feed LOTS of line on the Wenatchee right now.
We have no report from the Methow, but it won't be long before it is
fishing for sure. Make sure to note our Sportsman's Show schedule
above in the left column. We would love to see all the diehard
Powerhour readers there, BUT there will be no Fly Fishing Show in
Bellevue this year. So you can take your $25 for admission and
parking and spend it on flies or a Red's hat instead. Or maybe get
really creative and get a haircut, a taco, and some new aftershave with
$5 to spare.
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