Upper Columbia

'Black Bear Lodge'

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5/16/12

Good Fishing!

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5/8/12

We are back on track with some gooooood nymphing and even some dry fly fishing!

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5/2/12

Really tough lately.......Should be good to go around the 10th of the Month

The Hatch

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4/25/12

OK we are at 155K now.....The fishing remains good with the nymph, and we are right on the edge of the 2012 American Grannom/Mother's Day Caddis Hatch - The water will continue to bump up from now until the end of June as they fill Lake Roosevelt. The Columbia will FISH right through run-off....pretty badass! See our Mother's Day Cadddis Special at the top of this page.

The Hatch

4/22/12

The flow at the border is basically flatlined recently at about 125K. Each day has been different. A stable barometer has been an added bonus. It seems that has mad quite a bit of difference. Gooood numbers of fish today and yesterday but not so good the two days prior. Nymphing has been the tactic with a reasonable number of good patterns including....

#6-8 Pats Stones
#12-16 Red Coppper Johns and Flashback PT's

The Hatch

 

4/18/12

The flow at the border is flatlined at just over 100K. The lake continues to drop and is at 1239! Fishing remains good with multiple tactics workings - Nymphs, Dry Flies, Swinging' and Retrieving.

Best Bugs lately....

Nymph - The Bubbleback PT
Dry - Hatch's Skwala
Retrieved Bug - The UC Soft Hackle
Swingin' Bug - 'The Catch All'

Water temps is at - 43.5

The Hatch

4/15/12

The fishing with the nymph has been avg to great depending on the day and time of the day. Best nymphs lately include a #6 Pats Stone and a # 14 Copper John.

The swing fishing has been a bit unpredictable but certainly worthy here and there. The dry fly fishing has been the same.

Water temps are at 43 degrees and the river is in great shape.

The Hatch

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4/10/12

Fishing continues to be good...

The Hatch

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4/9/12

The fishing has improved quite a bit.... Good numbers of fish and a variety of sizes. Predominant tactics - Both nymphing and swing tactics. Best bugs - Pats Stone, Red Copper John, UC Special and The Catch All

Water temp is at 43 degrees. Looks like a stable barometer!

The Hatch

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4/7/12

A little better fishing over the past two days....Nymphing; but still real tough. Water Clarity is as poor as I have ever seen at this time of year. Water temps are up a little and the flows are hovering around 85K at the border- Lake level is dropping 1 foot a day.

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4/4/12

Fishing/catching over the past week has been on a steady decline. Both the lake level and the flow levels have decreased as well which should make it better?

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3/26/12

Lake Roosevelt is dropping a foot a day and is down to 1263 - The flows are ranging from 80-100K - Water temp is up to 38.5
Little tougher fishing then two to three weeks ago... Haven't nymphed much. This technique should pick up of the next two weeks as the bugs become more active.

Best line recently - 24 foot 150 and 200 grain
Best fly recently - Black and Olive Wooly Bugger

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3/24/12
Recently the flows are ranging from 70 - 95k. Lake level is at 1264; Dropping a foot a day!!!!

Best line recently - 24 foot 150 and 200 grain
Best fly recently - Sculpzilla

Water temp at 38 degrees

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3/20/12
Recently the flows are ranging from 70 - 95k. Lake level is at 1268; Little tougher fishing the past day or so?

Best line recently - 24 foot 250 grain
Best fly recently - Super Duper
Best fish lately 22 inch Bow

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3/17/12
Recently the flows are ranging from 60-90k. Lake level is at 1268! Decent midge activity. In fact, found a reasonable pod of fish on midges the other day. Most of our fishing has been drifting and retreiving and or swinging.

Best line recently - 24 foot 150 grain
Best fly recently - Stamms Bugger
Best fish lately 24 inch bow @ 6 pounds. Also a nice 4 pound 21 inch Brown!

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3/11/12
Flows are ranging from 50-80K and the lake level is down to 1272! POW!

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3/10/12
Spot on! Swing time!

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3/2/12
Tough fishing recently but should improve as the air temperatures are coming off an arctic chill.

2/20/12
Like a broken record!

2/16/12
Great fishing recently... all on the swing and or retrieve.

2/5/12
Fishing is good on the UC. All of our fishing has been done with flies on the swing or retrieved...Best line has been a 150-200 grain 24 foot head and the best flies have been Stamm's Bugger and the 'Catch All'. Water temp is 37-38 degrees and flows at the border have come down recently and are ranging between 50-85K with the lake level still hovering at 1280ft.

1/11/12
No actual fishing report for the past week. Water levels are pretty much the same as they were last week with flows at the boundary ranging between 80-100K and the lake level hovering around 1279-1281.

1/6/12
Fishing continues to be good on the UC. Roosevelt Lake level is hovering around 1280ft while the flow at the international border is ranging from 70-100K daily. Utilizing various sinking lines based on depth and flow for the arsenal is a good idea. Best line recently - 150 Gr 24 foot head. Best flies - #6 Bow River Bugger, #8 and 10 Black pearl bugger.

12/28/2011 - Reasonable swing fishing - Small black bugger and 10 feet of T-14 yielded a handful of Rainbow trout in 3 hours of fishing. Lost one real big fish ... Estimated 5-6 pounds / 24 inches. Photo'd one fish.

4/21

In Forks

In Montesano

The Hoh
near Forks

The Wynoochee
near Black Creek

 

4/21/12 - All in All an awesome year on the OP. The South OP was incredible from the end of January through the Mid March closure, some days had us shaking our heads at how incredible the fishing was. We finished the season on the Forks area rivers, which produced some awesome fishing as well. February through the mid April Hoh closure was great with a few marginal days mixed in right at the end. Lack of rain, lower water, blue bird sun, and an obscene amount of boats has never improved
steelhead fishing in my experience but we managed to scrape out a few fish and end the season on a positive note. Of course the bobber ruled the season but swinging the fly was pretty darn good as well. Thanks to all that came out and fished with us this winter, we look forward to another awesome winter season next year!

3/26/12 - The rivers have all been on a steady drop for a while now. looks like that is about to change .... which ia a good thing!

3/17/11 - Little tough lately..........We cancelled our trip recently based on flows.

3/10/11 - Should be an interesting week on the OP - Lots of fish will be moving with the weather pattern....Photos from this weekend and guest coming soon!

3/5/11 - Some waters are marginal....Looks as though ALL will be in shape in the next 48 hours

3/2/11 - All OP Waters are in shape!

2/19/11 - Most OP waters are currently out of shape; looks like we have a few days down and out. According to Mr Weather the rivers should be in shape mid week. As the rivers were blowing out yesterday Nate and his dad had a rally with CJ in the south OP...See photo above.

2/16/11 - Pretty good fishing on the South OP lately - All Chehalis river tribs will be closing early this year - March 16!

2/12/11 - Gotta love chrome

1/24/11 - Good, consistent action so far this early season. It's been 2 to 1 hatchery to wild, with some really nice 10-13 lb chrome hatchery fish and a few bigger wild ones that proved tough to land. Now is the time, the days are getting longer and there should be a big push of fish with all this rain.Best nymphs: yarn bugs and beads. Best Swing bugs: the Kwikfish, big Intruders

1/11/11 - Everything is stable.....Clarity on the Hoh was 1ft on Sunday and 3 ft today.

1/6/11 - Dropping and clearing as we speak. The rivers in Forks have been fishing goood just as the SW Washington rivers have. hatchery brats at about 85 and the remainder wild ones.

12/31/11 - Dropping and clearing... should be great fishing.

12/28/11 - Mega Precipitation has the rivers up right now - Looks like this coming Saturday things will be getting better ...

12/20/11 Hatchery Brats are swimming through and some wild ones as well - Definitely in packs/like hungry wolves- Great fishing today under the bobber out in Forks; photos coming! The numbers today were AWESOME

Klickitat
'The Steelhead Ranch'

Klickitat
@Pitt

No current report
The rivers
were just opened

See here

Closed until June

Closed

WDFW Fishing Regulations