A blog post! Ya, I have been out of it lately. This covid makes everything weird. The lack of work is excruciating and I know I am in the same boat as many so lets not dwell on it. Lets just acknowledge that covid on top of everything else crazy going on right now if fucken shit up and we gotta get through it.

Lets talk about fishing. Its summer, the flows are wicked high, and its busy….really busy. I have been doing this a bit…its busy. Now I haven’t been out as much as usual. Days I don’t guide which are a lot currently, I would normally just snorkel or fish. But with how busy amd crowded just about everywhere is…I end up staying in the house. Thats the covid there. Keeping things tight financially seems to be best right now and fishing and snorkeling everyday costs money.

The hoppers are here. As are the short wing or summer stoneflies. We have caddis in the evening and I suspect thr early AM fishing is decent but I haven’t ventured riverside at 5 am since the OP. Might need to remedy that. The big thing with the river is the big ass flows. Its rippin’ 3 to 4 times its normal size, so thats makes fishing….interesting and quirky. Water temps are stable and fish are on the bank, but I can’t help but think these fish have just grown accustomed to staying deep during heavy flows like this. The Yakima has always been kinda weird in the summer. And 2020 is no different. Could be the pressure too. The amount of traffic on the river is considerably higher than any other time of the season, even during the pandemic. But troots are smart and in my snorkeling I find the majority of the fish deep on thr bottom. Save for the ones that get forced onto the bank. We dont see thr big pods as much in the summer up high in the water column. The pods are deep along the bottom of the river. Nymphing is a challenge even with sll the new fancy stuff because the rivet is so heavy and fast. Presentations become a problem due to current speed both with its effect on the boat as well as the nymph rig.

That’s why I focus on mostly dry fly fishing. Opportunistic feeds are typically easier to come by in the summer and the added flows make takes explosive or super sneaky…both of which are intoxicating. Which is exactly what people need right now. Something that envelops the mind for a few hours.

I know its weird out there anglers. I am typically turing trips away but not this season. Can’t get things repaired quickly with rods, supplies are down across the industry, and we only have 3 months of trout season left. Even with everything I still want to chase troot albeit the drive is subdued. Sitting in my house hasn’t been as helpful or fun as I thought. And instead of chasin work I think I will just go back to chasin troot and being a bum about it more.

The river will provide. She always does in one way or the other. I may struggle financially this season, but those moments with wild places, and the trout that reside there will not experience themselves. And if everything is gonna go to shit I would rather spend it with trout and rivers opposed to sitting in my house sucked into the twittersphere and social media news cacophony. And call of duty only holds my attention for so long. Fishing is so much better…so lets go fishing.

Tamarack