North Washington guide service

The OP received a much need insurgence of water to mix up the long cold snap.  Reasonable numbers of fish around with a mix of hatchery and wild depending on the watershed.

It appears  that the rivers will continue to drop with the up coming weather pattern.

STEELHEAD FISHING TIP….

• Steelhead connections do not come easy, especially on a swung fly. Therefore, preparation and strategy make up a crucial part of the potential for catching….   Sharp hooks,  Good knots,  Cover likely water, systematically, with a likely pattern (based on conditions), Confidence and patience.
• Fish where the fish are. Remember, steelhead move a lot!  Winter fish, far more than there summer counterpart .
• Sometimes playing the water is half the battle. When the river has been dropping and clearing for ‘awhile’, fish the hole.  If the river is ‘fresh’ on the drop or rise, fish the heads and tails.

Again we are certainly in need of some water and it is coming.

Everything is low and really clear except for the Queets and Hoh.  The rivers will definitely shoot up this week from the rain coming Monday-Thursday.

Recently we have met with success on both the bobber and swing.

Check out the Catch Magazine video – Pacific Northwest Steelhead – Realistic look at swinging a fly. I spent 3 days on the water, 6 steelhead encounters – 4 fish on, 2 other major grabs and 1 fish landed. Some adventures produce more, some less, but this is an uncensored look at my 3 days.

Little tough on this one lately……lots of ice flow down low.  Next warming trend should be awesome we don’t get to much melt.

Overall we could use some water.  There are some fresh fish around but some precipitation would be helpful.  The fresh fish we have encountered have been incredibly hot and hard to land .  Multiple tactics have been successful with the drift being good as well as the swing.   No lack of snowpack throughout the state which bodes well for this upcoming year.  This wild fish was healthy and had been in the system for a few weeks. We have some day trip availability as well as some overnight packages as well.

The Yakima river water temps has been ranging between 37-34 degrees depending on time and one.  As seen in the picture below,  the Lower Canyon has significant ice and slush.  Best zone right now would be the Upper Flatlands or the Farmlands.  Watch for the next warming cycle;  Should see some great fishing!

Reasonable fishing over the past few days for hatchery winter steelhead. Hooked a handful of some BRIGHT ones that we weren’t able to land. Certainly are a decent number of upstreamers and downstreamers around…..

The fish pictured below had sea lice on it but was not  bright….kinda interesting.

The top photo is one of our favorite boat launches;  yeah right!

…..has started for us:)  Definitely some hot, bright hatchery fish in the South OP.   More of a report, soon.

Swingtime on the Yakima River…..Plain and simple. Other techniques will work, but fishing a bait fish retrieved or swung is a great technique at this time of year! Staff member Garth Luke picked up this beautiful trout today on a swung Sparkle Bugger!

The last month on the Yakima was pretty darn good nymph fishing especially with the Whitefish spawn. That is slowing down dramatically and the key food sources right now would include midges, stonefly nymphs and sculpins.

Fishing today was worthy; not great, not bad….but average, anyways. Pictured below is Jeremy holding a nice Yakima bow for Cory.

Water is low and clear and water temps are ranging between 40-44 degrees.

Flies used today included #16-20 Brassies and #8-12 Pat’s Stones.

Apologize for the delay in getting this report page back up and current….Should not be an issue from this day forward.

Thanks