Headed over first thing Friday morning as the Fly club was having an outing there this weekend. Got to Ellensburgh around noon and all the boys were out on the river so headed to my ahhmmm (hotel) to check in...( yup, I wimped, wasn't gonna freeze in my truck at 28* nights)...and get my gear ready. Stopped in at the Worley bugger fly shop for a chat and some flies and information...
The river is down quite a bit from what it has been and fishing is starting to pick up along with it...The afternoons are giving a good March Brown and BWO hatch on certain sections of the river...
Here's a shot from the KOA where the hardy souls were camped for the weekend.
I was out nymph fishing this section with a funky stonefly nymph and a PT dropper....I landed a few whitefish and managed to loss a couple big bows...Here's a hint on the Yak. don't use 3.5 pound tippet for your dropper!!! had a nice one on and it took me out to mid river and blew off...Also, worth noting...Don't use the indicators that pop off and slide down your line when river fishing...I had a nice 17" or more just about to my feet and it slide down and over the fly and quick released him for me...
So, lessons learned and the guys and gals got back so packed it in for the evening for some bar b q'd steaks...Got up the next morning and we decided to do the float from Ringer to a pullout about 8 miles down river...This is called the canyon run and is considered a nice easy float so was recommended by all.
Well let me tell you something, this river , even at these levels, still can kick your butt!!! I almost managed to drown myself right out of the boat launch...A long story but involved getting my rod stuck in a tree as I launched in my watermaster float boat...and getting pulled into the trees all down the inside channel at about 8 mph as the line riped out for over 100 yards and me not able to get control of my craft...nice cuts from the backing on my fingers and a LONG job of winding and I got all my line and backing back...almost flipped twice in the current trying to get the rod out while running up on roots is not cool....
I really think a drift boat is the only way to go in this type of water...The water was too fast to hold anywhere by kickfins or trying to row...you had to really work to get across to any spots to pull yourself out and fish...and I missed a few as I couldn't stop!!! My buddy in a pontoon boat had even a harder time and we only saw him for the first hour and then he was gone...couldn't get stopped and we didn't see him till 5 hours later down river...Here's a couple shots of the river!!!
Only three of us from the club had inflatable crafts so myself and another bud with a watermaster as well managed to stay with the guys in a drift boat...
After a mile or so I finally got a bit of the hang of it and managed to unpucker enough to actually enjoy the float and river...Pulled out a nice side eddy and tossed the indicator over...after a few casts managed to catch my biggest fish of the trip...4 pounds...
Couldn't believe it...thought I'd hook a big bow the Yak. is famous for...didn't know these guys even lived in there...but damn did he like peeling out the line on my 6wt...Oh well, a fish is a fish...
Went down a couple more miles and found a nice spot...It started to drizzle a little which was what we were hoping for...a March Brown hatch started and it was like someone removed the cover from the lake and fish showed up...I quickly switch over to a size 10 March Brown dry the boys at Worley Bugger gave me and first cast, fish on....This went on and off for the next hour and a half...I lost count of how many fish I caught but managed to catch Bows, small salmon fry... ( little buggers, had to be careful or you'd back cast um on the bank..)....and found out Whitefish hit drys as well...
Here's a shot of a nice Yakima bow!!!
About the end of the March Brown hatch a BWO one started but my 4wt was in the drift boat and I didn't want to tie on any little drys to my 6 pound leader so went back to indicator fishing...The lower part...2-3 miles the river tends to be straight runs and not really great fishing...So I stuck a stogies in my mouth and just enjoyed the drift down...
The Yakima is a mighty river...would love to have more time and a drift boat to do some of the other floats...For us doing the easy section..man, it was not as easy as I thought, fish wise..but very nice if you didn't mind just doing the float and managing to not get hung up on any sweepers...
Next trip is going to be the Methow river....can't wait for the summer/fall for that one....
This post has been edited by xgolfman: Yesterday, 02:21 PM
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Topic: Yakima river trip April 20th, 2007 (Read 4995 times)