Memorial Day Update

Overall, the Yak is coming back into shape throughout. The upper river around Cle Elum is in good shape, but runnning a little high. The Farmlands is still a little murky and pretty high, but definately fishable. The canyon is still a little too dirty and high. So, my recomendation would be to stick to the Cle Elum area for now. We did the Farmlands yesterday, and overall we worked really hard but had a decent day, hooking around 12-15 fish and getting a few less than that in the boat. Again, we urge you to be very cautious floating the river. At these flows, it is a lot of work and there are some very dangerous spots. The East Cle Elum launch is tricky with a lot of water, you have to be on your toes to get over into the creek mouth. A few folks have misjudged it and been taken downstream past the takeout, and theres no getting back up. In the Farmlands, there is a major bloackage at the weir a mile above Irene Rinehart. You can portage to the right over the rocks or through the bushes, but its a pain in the ass. There is also a very tight spot 4-5 miles belove Irene that you have to row, no portage option. Please be careful, with these flows it is very dangerous and unless you are really good on the oars, hold off until the water drops some more and settles. Overall though, the river is coming back and we should be into full summertime fishing mode in the next week or two.
-JW

Bass Attack

Sorry about the lack of posting lately. Brett had been down in Belize for a week or so and I've been really tied up watching NBA and Stanley Cup playoffs amongst many other fine television programs. I will tell you one thing, it has definately not been because I've been fishing. I did manage to make it over to Lenice with a few buddies for a couple of days last week, and we found some pretty decent success. Nothing over the top, but pretty consistent fishing and nice sunny weather. The method of operandi was chironomids anywhere from 1-20 feet under a bobber. Leeches, damsels, and calibaetis nymphs trolled and stripped slowly caught fish as well. The highlight of the two days was a 3 or 4 hour period back in the islands where we were able to pick off a number of fish on either hatching midge patterns or calibaetis emergers/adults/floating nymphs. I will say that it appeared to me that chironomids are still the name of the game. If you are heading over, go prepared with a load of chironomids including a variety of smaller #16-#22 in black, rust, and most certainly olive. Our best bug day 1 was black #20 and day 2 was #16, 18 olive. Word on the street was a few guys did pretty well on bloodworms as well.

Overall, reports have been quite good from all of the desert lakes. Local lakes have been solid as well. Aside from trout, many of our lakes have began fishing quite well for bass. Head Guide Chris Senyohl has been putting his time in on a bunch of local lakes and doing quite well. Below is evidence of just that.If your interested in switching things up a bit and perhaps learning a bit about how to catch largemouth and smallmouth bass on the fly, give us a shout and book a trip with Chris. You will have a great time, learn a ton, and catch some fish. With not much else going on right now, it's the perfect time to learn about some of our other fisheries. Now is primetime so jump on it before it's too late.

Oh, and as for the Yak, the lower is still a mess but the upper is fishable but moving pretty fast. Wading is pretty much out, floating is really the only good option at the moment. So if you must, go fish the upper. Otherwise, stick to the lakes and such for another little while.

-JW

Going, Going, Gone....

The Yak is gone for the time being. It hung on until Saturday when this rainstorm worked its way over the hill and dumped from Cle Elum to E-burg. The last week or so the fishing had been solid. For the most part we were restricted to the upper river, mainly above the Teanaway, which has been the main proponent of keeping the lower river a little out of wack. The Cle Elum area has been a busy place for guide traffic over the last week, but the fishing was pretty solid. Even the upper canyon below the Teanaway had fished OK. Expect the upper river to come back considerably faster than the lower. This morning the graph peaked and has began to drop at Cle Elum to just under 4K, we'll see if that is temporary or not. We may sneak in a day or two before full summer runoff.

For me, it's a great time to get everything organized and get the summer stuff ready to go. When the river comes back, we will likely be well into a couple different kinds of caddis, pmd's, goldens, early summer stones, the tail end of salmon flies, drakes on the upper, and probably some others I'm forgetting. For now, we'll be stuck on the lakes but fortunately they are fishing quite well. Lenice or similar is the destination for Thursday-Friday, we'll let you know how it goes. Couple from the other day below.

-JW

Another Day in Paradise

Spent the day on the upper river with CJ. One of those wierd days, had a front moving through, which may or may not have affected the bite, but the bite was definately off. Snow you ask? Yes, it sprinkled a little snow for a few minutes. There were a few bugs around, some March Browns, some BWO's, Midges, and a few Skwalas. We looked down in the raft to find a big female skwala that was a true #8 and bordering on a #6, odd for this time of year. Usually they're tapering off and the ones you see are #10 and #12. Sometimes when the bite's off, you just gotta keep fishing the water. Fish it, then fish it some more. Though the bite wasn't stellar we wound up finding around a dozen solid 14-18" fish that wanted to eat. Best bugs were Pats Bl/Br #6, Purple Holo Prince #16, and Flashback PT #12. From the sounds of it, the fishing throughout the river has been a little off the last few days. The water conditions are perfect and the weather has been fine, it's just been a little funky. You just have to keep plugging away, fish the water hard, and stick to your guns. It'll pay off in the end. You could just accept the fact that the bite is off, fish half-assed, and go home unsatisfied. Or you can work hard, fish hard, and wind up turning a bad day into a decent or even good day, the choice is always yours. That's my 2 cents for the day. 

Brett just touched down in Belize at some point in the last 24 hours for a week of fun in the sun. I'm expecting a report with a some photos of giant Tarpon and Permit in the next couple days, we'll see.  

Thanks for reading, till the next one

-JW

Yakima 5-2

Well just as it seemed the weather was about to turn, we got hit with another day of mostly cold, windy, and rainy weather. Got to sneak out for a day of goofing off with buddies Josh and Lex. We fished Bristol to Green Bridge, known also as the "Thorp Wind Tunnel". Lucky for us, the wind wasn't much more than a constant 5 mph with some rain mixed in, though it got a little gusty at times. Nymphing was pretty good, though a little sluggish in the AM. We saw a few BWO's and Midges, but nothing worth writing home about. Had it not been for the constant light wind, it would have been a great day for BWO's or March Browns: dark, cloudy, and rainy. Most productive flies for us were Pat's #4-8 black and black/brown. We got a few on some different smaller nymphs as well, such as the Anato-May #14, Flashback PT #16, King Prince #14, and Red Brassie #18, but 90% of the fish were on the Pat's. The water was 39 degrees at Bristol and warmed to around 42 mid-day near the homestead, still cold stuff dumping in at the Teanaway. Reports were good from the weekend, the river fished pretty decent throughout. Saturday was a little tough for some, as the bite was a little lean paired with some strong winds, but most folks did some good on Friday and Sunday. Here's a few from the day, we'll be back at it Thursday and Friday with a report to follow.
Thanks for reading,

-JW

Is it Spring?

It finally feels like spring. It's May 1st, and this is the first day where its warm(relatively speaking), the sun is shining, and there's even a little bit of pollen in the air. The lowland lake opener was a big success. We had a number of customers in this morning who fished our local put and take lakes, and excellent fishing was had by all. The method of operandi was trolling buggers and leeches near the surface. After stocking, the fish generally stay in the first few feet of the water column for a few days if not a week or two(yes, it's sad to say, but they still think they're in a fish tank at a hatchery that bottoms out at 3 feet). Therefore, an intermediate or floating line is generally all you need.

Haven't heard much from the folks that were headed to the Yakima this weekend, but there were plenty of them. If I had to guess, the fishing was probably pretty darn good. They finally stopped releasing water out of the resevoirs last week, and the river is down to a nice, comfortable level with good clarity. Get it while it's good because who knows how long it will last. Skwalas, BWO's, March Browns, and a few caddis are buzzing around right now. Even though we have been fooled by mother nature to think its mid-March, it is May 1st and the Mother's Day Caddis hatch is not far away. We just got some killer new caddis pupa in stock. Hogan's Petrified Pupa and Silveys Beadhead Pupa to name a couple, along with quite a few members of the Prince nymph family. Psycho Prince, CDC Prince, King Prince(my favorite for grannoms), Beadhead Prince, and the standard unbeaded are all weapons that should be in your arsenal from now throughout the entire summer.

Below is a nice one from a few days ago. As George Cook would say, "she's a fat pig". 22 inches with some serious girth, it's the biggest fish I've laid eyes on in person this year on the Yak. I'll be on the water tomorrow and will try to give a report on Tuesday.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts. -Johnny