The season is almost here. My focus has shifted and I am so stoked to be back at what I feel good doing. It feels like this offseason dragged on. I tried to fill it with steelhead and getting out of my comfort zone. Both fishing and personally. But that is over now. And I have shit to do.

I have a goal of being on water 260 days this year. I am well above where I was at last year with all the steelheading and winter fishing. The spring guide season is already scheduled to be twice as busy as last year, and we have decent snow pack for the summer.

I am adding more bass trips and lake fishing. Exploring more guide options in other states, and of course running trips on the Yakima. Still my favorite river.

The spring is fast approaching. It won’t be long and BWOs and Skwallas will start to percolate. Water temps will rise, and fish will move out of hibernation for the year. It’s coming.

We had a high water event and that has changed a lot of the riverbed and has moved lots of trees and debris in the water. We still haven’t found all the new sweepers and hazardous stuff so be careful and share what you find. The mainstem below state access outside of Cle Elum is open but tricky and would be really bad to wreck in. I suspect it won’t be clear this summer as we will get another high water event or three that will probably block it. So be careful.

I have been looking forward to getting back to guiding. Its been a weird, long, strange, offseason… I have been patiently waiting to get back into my element and that river rythym. All the energy that has had little outlet all winter has been anxiously waiting to let loose. And that taste of steel on the OP did not help matters.

The Yakima is also in a really awesome spot right now. Our fish population has rebounded from the 2015 drought and a lot of those juvenile fish that survived that crap storm are now big hearty, healthy adults. Some of them are really big anglers. Like really big. We got a taste of them last summer and autumn. They only grew over the winter.

This season we are incorporating more streamer fishing and more softhackle stuff. I feel like I have locked down dry fly fishing the past few seasons and its time to start changing things up and learning and trying new shit. Besides its fun and we can always throw dries.

We have really smart fish, meaning they are pretty susceptible to pressure. So changing how you approach them is the name of the game. It also gives my clients that have been going with me the past 5 years something different out here on our only blue ribbon trout river.

So there ya go. I invite you to book a trip this season and see what its all about. And if you’re a returning client…super stoked…you know the drill. Its gonna be sweet and I can’t freaking wait. I have a weekend left open in March and weekdays still available for the spring skwalla special. And I am taking reservations for the rest of the season. It fills up faster every season.

See ya riverside anglers.

Awww ya

Tamarack