Upper Columbia late spring 2021

[lestrout]

Anyone have advice? My pals who usually took me down the Deschutes for a 3 dayer are now wanting to do the Upper Columbia April-May, basing out of Big Bear Lodge. I'd like to hear about anyone's experience/advice.

tl
les

[Marco]

Hey Les,
Unfortunately I can't help with your "advice" however. As a TOTAL aside, GREAT to see you posting herein again. It's been a while.

Mark

[JohnScott]

...a 3 dayer are now wanting to do the Upper Columbia April-May....

Les -

I have no personal experience to rely on, but I do have a few thoughts.

As of the past few days, at the Canadian border the Columbia was fluctuating rather wildly at up to about 90,000 CFS, and that is winter time flow. If you check out Washington Streamflows on the USGS site ( just search Columbia River Streamflows ) you can check the April-May flows in its history function. Last April, the flows ran up to about 100,000 CFS, and during May, during run off, they hit in the 150,000 CFS range before tapering off, as I recall. But the long term historical flows for the month of May trended up to close to 200,000 CFS by the end of May. In other words, the Columbia is not a big river, it is more than huge. Why anyone would want to fish it in May is beyond me. March might be a better option, or early April.

Leavenworth WA is located fairly close to two other good WA trout rivers, the Methow and the Yakima. I've not fished either one of them, but I spent some time in the neighborhood when I lived in Western WA some time ago. Both of them probably necessitate having a good drift boat or raft or hiring a guide to fish them effectively, but if you hope to fish on the Columbia, you are almost certainly going to be paying a guide anyway unless someone in your crew is really good on the oars.

BB member Sagefisher fishes the Yakima quite a bit. Shoot him a PM and you will probably get some good intel on that river. Also, there is Red's Fly Shop ( I think they are in Yakima ) which has quite a few YouTube videos on the Yakima and seems to be a pretty decent source of info. They might also cover the Methow and give you some good info on that river.

John

[ScottP]

Anyone have advice? My pals who usually took me down the Deschutes for a 3 dayer are now wanting to do the Upper Columbia April-May, basing out of Big Bear Lodge. I'd like to hear about anyone's experience/advice.

tl
les

Did you mean Black Bear Lodge? Reason I’m asking is because a friend of mine was supposed to fish there last year but had to cancel the trip.

Regards,
Scott

[Lotech]

It's BIG water. Suggest power boat only. You'd be well advised to hire a guide service. Black Bear Lodge would know best.

[lestrout]

Did you mean Black Bear Lodge? Reason I’m asking is because a friend of mine was supposed to fish there last year but had to cancel the trip.

Regards,
Scott

Yo Scott - well duh. But I guess them black bears out there are big bears too. Thanks for the correction.

tl
les

[lestrout]

Yo John - thanks for your thoughtful reply. I do plan around the snowmelts when I ffish the Rockies or Sierras, but I guess that Columbia watershed up there, which I am less familiar with, has the same dynamic.

tl
les

[lestrout]

Yo Marco - great to "see" you. \\

tl
les

Hey Les,
Unfortunately I can't help with your "advice" however. As a TOTAL aside, GREAT to see you posting herein again. It's been a while.

Mark

[ScottP]

But I guess them black bears out there are big bears too.

Les,

Hope you get to make the trip; love to hear about it.

Regards,
Scott