The river bumped up recently and slowed the dry fly fishing a bit.  Streamers and nymphs have been the ticket over the last 48 hours.  Prior to the bump, the overall dry fly fishing  had been good and should resume.  

The water levels have been up and down lately with the clarity less and more respectfully.  While some days have been tough on the swing, some have been incredibly memorable. There have been a few that got away, that we wished didn’t.  Every fish is remarkable but recently we witnessed a LARGE steelhead with remarkable proportions.  The fish was fought well but did not end up landed.  Regardless, the memory and the sight of such a specimen was awesome.

Best swing bugs lately include:
Black and Purple Bucket Bouncer
Black and Pink Medusa
Black and Pink Moal
Orange Searcher

Best Line lately: I Flight with 10 feet of T-11

Best nymph junk lately:
Yarn, Pink Worm and the Bead

Tip of the day – Don’t be afraid to step into your presentation to get it down and slow the swing.

Troy and Kristian

We have been from the headwaers to Roza on the river lately. Due to the big rains this past week the volume increased and the clarity diminished,  but the river is definitely on the mend and we were able to fish through it.

Tim with a Yakima Bow

Nick and a Yakima Cutthroat

Mr Weather report has been all over the board, and so has the actual weather.  It appears we are good to go for some days on all watersheds. The last couple of days has been worthy. We tossed the two hander all day on Sunday with one encounter…..it literally ripped the fly off the end of the leader on the take – 12 pound maxima – Viciously.

Best swing flies recently;
4 inches of purple egg sucker
4 of black and blue Bucket Bouncer

Best nymph junk lately;
Yarn

Steelhead Bob

Kevin Davis and Bob Chadwell

The coastal waters just got a MUCH needed injection of agua.  The Queets was down to 1000 CFS prior to 36 hours ago.  Heard tell it was at it’s lowest winter level on record since 1945….I wonder if global warming was happening in the 40’s as well?

Honorable swing mentions…

Tomo Higashi and a black and white steelie, fresh from the salt

4 anglers all the way from japan for a week

Gorde’s first

Matt and his 4 to hand in two days.

Super Flat

Overall a great week and a half of swinging on both private and public water.

Gorde’s first

Tomo(all the way from Japan) and a black and white one.

The Song Remains the Same – The adult Skwala stone combined with the  Blue Wing and Ameletus mayfly have provided some good dry fly fishing lately. The Ameletus looks a lot like a small March Brown but it is smaller in size.  The March Brown is an average size 12 / The Ameletus is a size ’15The Ameletus is a swimmer mayfly where the March Brown is a clinger mayfly.  

Lately, the bright sun has made the dry fly fishing a little ‘less good’.  Regardless, the shadows of the afternoon have proven worthy.  The river is LOW and clear. March Browns are just around the corner.

Adult Skwala

Ameletus Dun

The river is in great shape.  Flows at the international border are ranging between 90-100k daily and the lake level is @ 1265 above sea level.

The elevation of Lake Roosevelt is expected to gradually decrease over the next week to be in the range of 1257 – 1259 by March 7.  Lake Roosevelt is currently being operated to meet power demand.  The predicted elevations are…
March 31 – 1255
April 30 – 1249.5

Swinging and retrieving a variety of patterns has proved effective.   Sculpins to Minnows to Stones and more….

We predict the next 45 days to be awesome on the Upper Columbia…..

Call 509.962.5959 or 509.859.2280

The Yakima has had some reasonable dry fly Skwala action lately.  Every day and zone will be a bit different with no guarantees, as it is fishing!  Best dry fly pattern for us recently is the #10 Unit Skwala.  

Recent trout that fell for the Unit Skwala

Unit Skwala