Okay, so here’s the deal.  Fishing is awesome in the LC right now.  The fish are acting like its hopper season.  They are smacking big bugs along the bank and its glorious.  I fished this morning in the rain with a client and there was no shortage of top water action.  Fish are tight to the bank as usual, get a nice dead free drift, let the fish eat the fly, wait for them to turn their head, and enjoy.  The fish this morning were very subtle and slow to the fly unlike they were last week.  We had the river to ourselves for most of the day.  I have been doing shorter floats and slowing the boat down and really working the water.  There are a lot of trout in there and the flows are perfect for it.  Lots of boats hit the river this weekend, which will be the case all through the summer to Labor Day Weekend.  So keep that in mind when picking days to fish.  Trout are slow to the fly after big weekends and they have sore lips.  We had a lot of subtle slow takes that make setting the hook tough, patience is key, but keeping a keen eye on how the fish takes the fly is also important.  Timing is everything when setting the hook on slow eaters.  This all brings me to my next thing.

I found a dying trout in the upper river over the weekend.  Fresh hook scarring from being caught on a recent day, but otherwise seemed perfectly healthy.  But I couldn’t get it to revive.  Could have been a lot of reasons why the trout went belly up, but it was a bummer. I also had a client hook a lovely 22 inch rainbow that needed help getting breaths after the fight we had.  These two instances made me think about how important handling fish is.  So just a reminder, make sure to handle fish with respect, keep em wet, be smart about photos, and make sure to play trout with proper gear, spend ample time when releasing large trout after big fights to make sure they are able to swim away on their own with gusto.

The upper river is a little wonky with the big rain we had and the increase in flows for irrigation but she will settle back down.  Water temps are wicked cold still, sub 58 across the whole Yakima River.  Not a whole lot hatching right now, we seem to be transitioning a bit.  But you can hear all the hoppers in the grass.  They aren’t out and about yet, but fish don’t seem to care.  I have a few days still open in July and August is filling up.

July Open Dates:

23rd 24th and 31st but not for long!
26th, 27th, 29th.  These dates are all weekdays and perfect for those who want less river traffic.  Highly recommend any of these dates.

Give me a call and lets go chase some trout.