North Washington guide service

Great year on the UC – The below picture says it all.  While the fishing still remains worthy, we have tightened up the hatches on Black Bear lodge.  For those interested in the 2015 season….We are now scheduling for prime times;

The first being March 24-April 7!

The river is lower than normal for this time of year. Currently the flows at Pitt are 668 – usually at 725. While that doesn’t seem like a big difference, it is noticeable on a high gradient river.  It appears that there are not near the amount of salmon as predicted.  The pressure, although heavy, has lightened a bit recently.  The overall weather has been awesome with warmer than normal air temps. 

Continuing to fish good with both the swung fly and nymph.  To catch fish on the swing you must put your time in.  Just because you swing one run without a fish doesn’t mean that the swinging is not good.  Regardless, both dry line and tips have been worthy when fished.  The entire river is fishing….From top to bottom. Lots of pressure on the watershed – The most I have ever seen.

Of course, the egg pattern has been effective for the nymph.

Unseasonably warm temperatures recently have added to all bug activity….Fishing has been good from Easton to Roza.  Every day is different but the dry fly fishing  has been reasonable at certain times of the day and the adult Crane fly has been this late summer and early fall honorable mention.

Watch for small bugs to be of more importance over the next 3o days as air-temps should drop and fall mayflies become more prevalent.

Fishing remains solid.  The dry fly remains the winning tactic.  The photos below are of Bill Smith – 85 years young and a lifelong fisherman.  He landed the biggest rainbow of his life yesterday on a dry – 25 inches!

Lifelong angler – Bill Smith

Awesome buck on a dry fly

1) #10-12 Craneflies
2) #16-18 Little Yellow Mays
3) #10 October Caddis
4) #18-22 Baetis
5) #16 tan Caddis
6) Salmon Eggs/Spawn

The Upper Proper and The Upper Flatlands are sporting the majority of the Salmon spawn.  The Farmlands would most likely win the cake when it comes to the Cranefly activity, yet there are Cranefly throughout the system.

Lot’s of Little Yellow May’s  in the 16-18 size…..

Nymphing, Wet fly swing, Streamers and Dry fly tactics have all been worthy. Get out and fish!

Little Yellow May

Lower Canyon Sunset

Upper Flatlands Fishing

As good as the fishing was before this past week of a dirty and rising river… We needed the change up.  The river is close to normal flows for this time of year and back in shape!  Some incredible steel in the river with ‘lotsa’ Chinook as well.

Multiple tactics are worthy for duping the steelhead.

Favorite sink tip this year has been 10 feet of T-8.  Favorite swung fly recently has  been the Black and Blue Searcher by Jeff Cottrell.

Favority Nymph – The Bead

The Searcher

Healthy fall trout

The Yakima is fishing GOOD to GREAT from Roza to Easton…End of Story.

More later on the Yakima ….

Clarity on Sept 23 – MM 4 @ 6PM

This picture shows the clarity of the river within the last 36 hours.  The clarity is actually worse today.  However, we are most likely on the upswing ….

Hopefully by Saturday we will be good to go!

The Klickitat took a turn for the worse yesterday regarding clarity….Two 90 degree days in a row, warm winds on the mountain with warm night time temps were the culprit.  1-2 feet of clarity.

Definitely plenty of fish in the system….as the Nymph and the Swing have been good to great lately.

Will keep you updated.