Fishing has been all over the board recently with some worthy highlights .

The best of the day currently is during the 1-3pm March Brown hatch extravaganza.  If you are not in a spot with bugs or fish rising, move:)   The window of opportunity for this hatch can be short.  Try to be in a spot early – like 12:30.

Also a common mistake is walking in ‘on’ the fish.  You can find feeding trout in very shallow water, especially on March Browns.

Hot patterns include
#8-12 Unit Skwala
#14-18 Purple Haze, Quigley BWO
#12-14 March Brown Trigger Nymph
#12-14 March Brown Parachutes etc.
#16-18 CDC Pheasant tails, Flashback PT’s, Lightning bugs
#12-16 CDC Princes, Halo Prince
#16-18 Brassies
#6-10 Sparkle minnows, Sculpzillas, Bow River Buggers,

Snow pack is worthy for our 2021 fishing season here in Washington. We ar fortunate as a lot of othere states have not fared as well.

UPPER COLUMBIA

This spring continues to be a bit sporadic.  Water levels in the lake are way higher then normal for this time of year?

Bugs include Blue Wings Olives, Amelytus and a few Skwala.

Recent trout release….

YAKIMA

The last warm spell bumped the river up quite a bit.  Since the weather cooled the river is in great shape.  We are going to see some GREAT FISHING between here and stabilization (somewhere around the first of June)  but we are also going to see some serious fluctuations in the flow.

Current hatches include;
Skwala #10
March Browns #14
Blue Wing Olives #18
Amyletus #14

Coming soon;
Caddis #14-18
Salmon Flies #6
Fly Ants #12

Clarity Chart;
Upper Proper 5 ft
Upper Flatlands 7 ft
Upper Canyon 5 ft
Farmlands 5-4ft
Lower Canyon 3ft

OLD School Spring Dry Fly Selection for the Yakima

UPPER COLUMBIA

Catching has been sporadic.  Lake levels are higher than normal and the river flows are lower than normal.  Bugs include a few Skwala with some reasonable Blue Wings on select days.  Tactics have included both the swing and nymph.