Well anglers, we got some snow. A good chunk. Roughly 40 inches or so in the mountains. Here in Easton near the headwaters about that much fell over three days. The pass was closed overnight one night, we got stuck up here for 2 days with intermittent power. A regular mountain snowstorm. Kristen and I had to jump on the camper roof and clean 12 plus inches of snow off…twice. Had to dig out the rigs, boats are still pretty snowed in after getting the big chunks out of both. The weather shifts tomorrow and we see above 50 degrees and rain in the forecast which means snow melt and runoff.
Reluctantly Kristen and I moved our trips around this next week. The river is still in shape this afternoon with a foot of vis or so, its on its way up starting Monday-ish. Predictions are calling for a big rise in CFS from Easton, as well as the Teanaway, by the 20th the flows should crest around 5800-6200 CFS, just about minor action stage for flooding in areas. The river should be fishable by the 23rd maybe the 22nd. Again, pretty normal for this time of year. Last season from the 20th to the 28th it did a similar thing, it was my eldest child’s spring break and the river blew the whole time she was here.
It sucks, that winter storm and now the warmer weather was a bit unexpected. It changed rapidly as it moved in. Even the locals were like…damn, been a minute since that happened. And it has. The past few Marches we haven’t seen that kind of snow. Maybe like 8 inches, not 2 to 4 feet. Normal again for this area but hasn’t happened for a bit. Spring runnoff is a regular thing even with this being a tailwater. We run into highwater events every spring. Some from the weather, others from controlled salmon pulses and purges for irrigation water.
Irrigation water is the big thing this snow helps. Before this storm we were around 38 percent snowpack in the upper areas of our river basin. Today we are chiming in at approx. 54 percent snowpack. Which is a big help. We are still in a drought and water users this summer are still hoping for more snow. I mean we all should be. Snow helps the summers for fish, farms, wildfires, and just general tension for people in the summers living in this area. Seeing snowy mountains in mid March is a welcome breath of relief looking into the rest of the season.
I have seen it snow big into April, and prior to 2015 we sometimes had decent snows into May, and June places were still consistently snow locked from access in the high country. We will get more snowpack this coming week. The rain at the lower elevations means snow up high, above 5000 ft we should see more of our snow pack develop as we enter April. I am not a meteorologist or anything, just a troutbum who has been watching weather in the watershed for 2 decades now. Always been a bit nerdy about that stuff.
The river is gonna do her thing. She will get cranky this week. Today is the calm before the rise. Fish will probably smash a little during the peak of the day. Its cold and cloudy today. Kristen already pulled one out of the Cle this afternoon, which is unaffected by the runoff right now. Then the fish will hunker down as the flows start to tick up as the temps rise, the lowland snow melts, which it already has, and the rain comes in. I am interested to see how high the river gets. It is always a crapshoot with the predictions this time of year, it is definitely going to go up, but sometimes that 6000cfs turns to 10000 really quick. Early this winter we saw the river jump up above 10000cfs, and my guess is we will see another big push of water in the next few weeks as well.
Reservoirs at the top have plenty of room for some more. Only Keechelus is at 90 percent. The others, Kachess is at 64% and Cle Elum is at 82%, which is great. Cle Elum needs to fill up. Usually the reservoirs will fill up, have to be purged, and fill up again. We hopefully and it seems likely they will fill up. 54% isn’t great but its better then where we were and gets us closer to where we would like to be. This is good news. No doom and gloom here. The system here is well managed and these fish are very hearty and healthy this spring. Some have already spawned and are just waiting for things to settle into spring rhythm so they can do their thing.
Its a later start this year. I knew we came over from Gig Harbor a bit early, ahh well, at least we got over the pass before it got all yucky. I do hate the snow.
The rescheduling this week is a bummer, for us all. We all kind of know that these things happen when it snows that much all at once here. Its just been a minute. Makes me look forward to June, with Yellow Sallies, Golden Stones, and Drakes. June and July should be really fun months this season. The reason being the snow pack will mean flows will run light through the early summer instead of mach fuck for irrigation water.
When irrigation is conservative the river is a bit more consistent during June and July. Flows are stable, then temps are able to be stable, which means fish just smash all day. June-July river temps hover around 50 to 55 which is prime time. Couple that with the wetter and cooler lead up into June and July and way more potential for June rains which means Flying Ants and Drakes, shit will be lit! Just starting to think about it gets me all hot and bothered. When there is runoff in March that usually means the June July months are gonna be a bit more fire. That’s just trout bum science.
So yes this week is gonna be a little funky. I am watching it, but its coming. So we hunker down, get the summer schedule filled, film content for socials, tie flies, try not to get cabin fever, maybe go fish the Sound, generally wallow in despair until the flows come down. No really.
So there you go anglers. That’s what is happening right now. Try not to get bogged down by the news, we will all get to fish more soon, the snow is good, we are in this together…I know…its fucken strange right now….we all get it.
See ya riverside anglers,
Tamarack
Tamarack's Guide Service 