Yakima River 3-24-08

I did a drift on the Yakima River on Monday, March 24, 2008. I met my guide, Danny, at The Worley Bugger Fly Co., located in Ellensburg, WA. We headed out and got the drift boat in the water. The weather was cold but sunny in the morning turning to sunny and warmer in the early afternoon then to mostly cloudy and cooler in the late afternoon. The water temperature was 41 degrees when we started, warming up to 43 by late afternoon.

I did not catch a lot of fish on this trip but the four that I did catch were decent fish and all put up a good fight.

I started off with a nice fat 14 inch Rainbow trout in the morning, and then I caught a decent sized Whitefish.

After a great lunch there was a small hatch of Skwalla Stoneflies coming off, not many but some of the fish were paying attention and were feeding on the surface. Danny managed to temporarily capture a female Skwalla Stonefly and I tried to take some pictures of this fast crawling insect. Notice the egg sack attached to the rear of the Skwalla in the one photo.

I managed to catch one really nice and fat 16 inch Rainbow on a Skwalla dry fly. I cast to the rising fish and it took my fly the way it was taking the real Skwallas, with tons of gusto. Once it felt the hook it went airborne and jumped a total of three times. I had a good fight getting the Bow to the boat. That was one of those moments that will be filed in my memory bank, to be relived time and again.

Later on I caught a rather large Whitefish and we took a picture of it as well.

Overall, it was a good day of fishing for me and I totally enjoyed myself.

Check out the photos in the Blog at:

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/blog.php?b=85

Larry :D ---sagefisher---

Great, report S-Fisher thank you! I haven't fished the Yak for a few years, but darn it all, if your report hasn't got me "dig'in out the maps, checking the "toon's air pressure and going through the fly boxes!?!
The Skwallas,coming out in cold March weather like that............ is that normal, for the Yak? I know all areas of course, differ greatly, but I was thinking that the Skwalla hatch on most waters wasn't until the first of April or at least until warmer weather!?

They do tend to be an early hatch on the Yak. All winter long the trout feed on the Skwalla nymphs because they are moving around heading for the edges of the river.

We also had a ton of midges hatching all day, but the trout seemed to ignore them. There were a fair number of BWO's coming off as well, and a few March Browns, but not too many of those big babies.

Larry

I have not had much success on the Yak I guess in my case the yuk ... only kidding it is a beautiful stream that for me has been frustrating at times but I am up to the new learning curve how everlong it may be!
Flyfisher121

Flyfisher121

I don't know how long you have been trying your luck on the Yakima River, but just for info, I believe the river is in a slight downswing right now. I believe the numbers of fish and the size of the fish is down from just two years ago.

Up to last year, the fishing has been really good on the Yak. Lots of fish and many of them were 19 to 20 inches in size. My personal best on the Yakima River is a 22 inch Rainbow.

But, last winter and early spring, the river went through a series of floods that really changed the shape of the bottom of the river and I believe took out a lot of fish.

I have high hopes that the fish will recover really soon and fishing will be get back to where it should be within a year. Meanwhile, keep going out and fishing this beautiful river.

If you want to do a drift on the river someday, send me a PM and we will see if we can hook up and do a drift with The Worley Bugger.

Larry :D ---sagefisher---

That would be Great...But due to the job probably late summer or fall...I am an Inspecter on some road projects assisting in many areas in nc area with WSDOT
flyfisher121

Really late summer or fall is a great time to fish the Yak. I don't fish it during the really hot portion of summer, the water gets too warm and the fish are already stressed.

Larry :D ---sagefisher---