tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing

The Spring

I have been fishing for a while. Seen some springs here on the river. The spring ushers in the new year for most of us outdoorsy folk but especially the river peeps.

The new year is celebrated by most in January but for me its when the winter seems to finally break. Which is about now…early to mid February. The days start to get longer, the intensity of the sun starts to return, you can feel everything waking up around you if you let it.

I come out of hibernation. Faster this season compared to others. The spring fishing isn’t my favorite by all means but its like everything else in the spring…a slow rolling start to the season. I have learned to enjoy it for what it is. Warm up.

Spring fishing is a lot of nymphing. Now many know I think nymphing sucks. Ya I said it. As a former gear guy, nymphing is just to similiar to gear for me to fully enjoy personally anymore. Also nymphing negates a lot of the craft of fly casting and fly presentation. That being said…it rails troots people. Just rails them. I spent a handful of years nymphing like crazy…it works and makes putting numbers in the net a little easier.

These days in the spring we nymph 20-40% of the day. It works, and I like to use it during specfic sections and times of the day. The early AM as the fish move into feeding lanes. The 40 minutes prior to hatches, and in those key deep water runs in the cold water temps where fish are still stacked.

We have stonefly migrations, mayfly and caddis moving around, there is no shortage of crunchy munchies down there for trout to snack on subsurface. So yes I chuck an indicator rig. There is something to be said about a 2 foot indicator drop and a spicy AF troot on the receiving end of a size 6 pats stone. Eat it trout.

This season I am incorporating more soft hackle fishing. Getting specific rigs and lines for fishing it with clients. New things to do! But streamer fishing has become a huge part of my spring days. Teaching anglers to chuck and swing big rigs with sink tips has been a challenge. The past 2 seasons I have played around with my technique and tested it enough to know it works. Now its just improving and fine tuning. Part of guiding is working through that process with lots of different anglers. The past seasons I had lots of oportunity. We spend more time swinging over nymphing these days. It doesn’t produce as many fish…but the encounters are something to behold, and when we do land a meat eater…its always an amazing trout. And yes….always big…some really big…hence the 6 weight.

Finally there is the dry fly fishing. As we get into April we do it the majority of the day. But the spring can be finicky with dries. The fish take 10-15 minutes to respond to a hatch…and sometimes thats all it is in the spring. We rarely get good skwalla days…I will be honest. Every few seasons it gets silly. But not usually. Its a small bug game. Like this past autumn.

BWOs are the bug. 2 pm everyday once we start to see 50 degree air temp days and the water is up around 42 plus. The soft water, eddies, ends of seams, tailouts of riffles….mmmm slurpers. On the Yakima…after 15 years….these are the hardest fish to catch. If you’ve gone with me before…you know what dry fly fishing can be like on this river…fucken amazeballs…but it takes work. You have to put the time in and present the fly well every time, multiple times…hasn’t changed…probably never will.

Dry fly fishing can be tough here. But the spring will give you some of the biggest and baddest eats on a dry. The fish are bigger in the Spring. They are pre spawn and they get really fat. The water is also cold and these fish love that shit. Still to this day…our largest and most beautiful trout come to the net in the spring. Quality over quantity. The trout are all colored up for the spawn, and a lot of them move up towards the headwaters. Mmmmm.

The spring also affords anglers the highest chance at a large trophy westslope cutthroat trout. They congregate in the upper before spreading out for the summer. The opportunity to meet a large male cutthroat is what I am all about. They are the rarest fish in this river. Few and far between. When you find a 17 plus inch buck cutty its a special thing and a true gem and trophy of the Yakima River.

So the spring is almost here. The river is on a hard drop, should be floating it tomorrow and the next day before heading west for another shot at steel.

I invite you out to the Yakima this spring. Book a trip, or explore it on your own and hit me up for info. I have a Spring Clinic up on March 14th that is open as well. We have decent snow pack, the spring weather forecast looks good, and shit is about to get started! The stoke is high. Get after it anglers.

See ya riverside anglers.

Tamarack

tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing

Get Ur Gear

So I don’t talk a lot about what gear I use or recommend. Because it really doesn’t matter in the end. I don’t use the fancy shit. Never really have. Sure I have a Winston or two and two Scott Fly Rods, have some Sages too, they mostly stay in the cases. In the past 3 seasons I haven’t cast one of my high end rods. They just don’t get used because my guide gear is always rigged up and ready to go.

So lets discuss the important things and where your money should go in terms of gear.

Fly Line. The shit just keeps getting more expensive. Try not to waste funds on the newest fanciest lines. If you are trout fishing a standard double taper will get you through just about everything. A good weight forward fly line if you have a faster rod or nymph a lot with the same set up. Since most anglers have 1 rod and reel. If you mostly dry fly fish try a double taper, if you do a lot of switching between nymph, streamer, and dry go with a weighted forward line to match your rod. Bottom line though….cast the line on your rod before you buy. Shops have demo lines, go throw one on your stick and try it out. Fly shops that don’t do that don’t deserve your business.

Rods are easy. Cast one, buy the one you like and that feels good. Even if your cast isn’t great…its about feel…not price. The average client or angler cannot tell the difference between a $150 rod and an $800 one, and half the time a different line will change things way more than a different rod.

I don’t care what rod you have….I just care if you can cast it. If you can’t, finding something that feels good first, makes teaching how to cast much easier. I cannot tell you how many people bring out rods nicer than I have ever owned…but can’t cast them. Its a tool…just like a hammer. The $60 hammer puts nails down just like the $15 one. Trout don’t care either way.

Sure the fancier rods will make things easier but they make a minuscule amount of difference in all reality. Fly fishing isn’t just for the wealthy.

Waders and boots. Literally anything that doesn’t leak and doesn’t slip. No one needs $500 waders. I don’t even buy them. They break down and end up leaking just like any waders and boots. I have used high end and low end…they last about 2 seasons the way I use them. Boots should be felt. Everything else is crap. Just get felt.

High end looks good…and I can tell you the few times I have been professionally photographed…I always end up having gear brought for me to wear. Which is why I don’t get my photo taken too much anymore for that. Its not real and not what I use. I am not here to sell gear, just take people fishing.

Nets. You should always have a net. I get irate when anglers leave for the river without one. Use a net anglers. Period. Use a fucken net. Get a rubber basket net. Other than that who cares as long as you use a net. The fish will appreciate it and I won’t yell at you riverside. I am partial to wood nets…they look good in photos and I dig the classic aesthetic. But a cheap $12 net from the hardware store with a black rubber basket and metal frame works just fine.

A good wading jacket, but again doesn’t have to be $400 bucks. Look outside the fishing industry for a waterproof windproof jacket as well. Plenty of outdoor companies that make awesome shells and jackets. Get one you like. I like colors and the fly fishing industry is really bland on its male color schemes.

Everything else is personal preference. Good tippet and leader but lots of options out there. Biggest thing with tippet…make sure its new. If its old get a new spool. I go through a few hundred yards of 4x alone. I hand tie a lot of leaders with standard mono because a lot of the tapered leaders are built for WF fast action fly line. So they don’t always turn over for the slower rods. But none are really better. All that shit is made in the same 3 factories overseas.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. I am a minamalist and am frugal with gear. If it gets the job done thats all I require. I carry 3 small fly boxes loaded for the time of season. I have a small boat bag. Less is more anglers. Like hairspray and cologne.

This industry has a lot of stuff and things to sell you that tote more fish to the net or looking good doing it. Fish don’t care and neither do I. I have found that it all comes back to the angler. I am reminded of a time when my mentor showed me this.

The new Winston BIIMX Fly Rods had just come out. This was 09 or 10 I think. We were all giddy in the shop playing with the new rod casting in the parking lot. My mentor came out and grabbed the rod. He spooled off the entire fly line to the backing. He proceeded to false cast 3 times getting the entire fly line in the air looping by the 2nd cast. He delivered all 140 feet of the fly line and some backing with the final stroke. We were all amazed. He walked back into the shop and returned with a mop handle and fly line tied to top of it. He false cast the mop handle and fly line and with three casts laid out the fly line. Now not 140 feet with a mop handle but an accurate loop and presentation. Our mouths dropped. He rolled up the fly line and said something to the effect of: ‘Its the angler not the rod’. I will never forget that. Made me realize that its all about the cast not the tools.

I remember that moment making me want to focus on becoming a good caster. I spent the next year studying and the following year went through casting instruction. These days I know I am an excellent fly caster. It took time and still requires constant fine tuning. But no one rod or piece of gear ever made more fish come to the net. Its about skill which is developed through experience and practice. I earned that little bit of confidence I have and am always challenging myself with my cast.

So there ya go. Some thoughts on gear from a trout bummy guide. It just has to work for you. The trout don’t care what brand of waders you have on, what stick you are slinging, how much money is in your wallet, the car you drive, whats under the waders, what skin color, none of that matters. Just sling that fly and enjoy. The gear is secondary.

Still to this day, after 15 years of fishing and 5 guiding, I have landed more fish on a $90 St. Criox fly rod from Cabela’s, a $30 Okuma reel from the local Bi-Mart, and cheap $40 double taper fly line. Still have the rod and reel somewhere.

The season is 2-3 weeks out. Time to get your gear in order anglers. Book a trip, hit me up for spots to fish on your own, throw me your gear questions. Its starting anglers. Dust off the sticks….let’s chase some troot.

See ya riverside anglers.

Tamarack

tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing

Coffee and Flies

Fly tying. It seems its all I am doing lately. A half dozen in the morning. Yoga. Shower, coffee, another half dozen. By lunch its a 2 dozen. By 4pm its 4-5 dozen.

I drink a lot of coffee. Days like today its probably a little much. It doesn’t help with the anxiousness of wanting to fish. But something about a good strong cup of coffee or 3 just seems to do it for me.

I am at the point where I have to make myself tie. After a few thousand flies this offseason I start to get sick of tying. I just want to fish. Which sounds like whining…because it is. But when you spend all that time on the river you miss it.

I miss a lot of things lately. Having the comfort of the river is something I crave. My mind has been all over the place and the river gives it direction and focus. Keeps the noise of everything else away. Tying flies leaves the mind open for contemplation. Most of the patterns are second nature and I find myself 3 or 4 flies into a set before realizing I have tied that many. Getting lost at the vise, but not in thoughts of troot.

I need the river to calm my brain. I have this constant, almost buzzing sensation throughout my head and body. Its maddening and a side effect of cabin fever. I have been sitting still for to long. I hate sitting still. Things move too fast or too slow. Everything.

I miss that river pace to the day. The rambling of the current as it pulls me down river. The feel of the river against my arms and back with each oar stroke. The sound of the water under the boat, feeling the boat and I move and glide over the current. It is where I feel at home. In my comfort zone, a place that seems foriegn as of late.

I am ready for the offseason to be over. Like really fucken ready. This offseason has been a lot of coffee and flies. A lot of new, weird, and uncomfortable situations. Met some new people, connected with some, severed connections with others. Did a lot of self reflection and exploration…but I am exhausted with it all.

I just want to get back on the river. I want to get lost in the water and trout. Trying to lose myself in other things, people, or places has not been what I expected or really wanted. A place holder it seems. While the winter ends and the spring ushers in a new season, I just keep drinking coffee and tying flies…waiting for the river to invite me back out.

See ya riverside anglers…eventually.

Tamarack

tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing

Rage and Settle

The river is raging. A torrent, chaotic, current, tearing at the very earth that is trying to hold it. It cares for nothing, just rages. Trees, wildlife, people, and places are at the river’s mercy. It reminds us all of its presence, the power it truly wields. While it can bring life it can also wash it away. A cleanse. The river rages to cleanse that which it holds dominion over.

These events are becoming more frequent. Maybe we should listen.

I have a lot of respect for the Yakima River. It feeds an immense valley. It creates a bountiful economy that stretches beyond just farms and fish. It is beautiful, unique, and filled with intricate and intimate secrets for those who explore and listen.

The Yakima has a special place in my heart. It has been there for me through my adult life. I have sought out its waters to cleanse my mind and body, to find joy and hapiness, to work through loss and hardship, to reflect on life’s big moments both positive and negative. I have shared countless hours and days with the Yakima and people who feel similarly about it and other rivers.

The Yakima has tried to kill me on occasion. It has brought me into a world I never knew existed. It still excites me, stimulates me, and makes my heart flutter when I see it. When I see the river during the runoff and major flow events I am reminded of what slumbers behind the dams, the people, the fields, the drift boats. A wild river. I think the Yakima feels that sense of freedom, if it could feel something, when it rages high. It is reminded of its true self. It remembers its power and purpose.

It makes me strangely happy when the river blows out. To me its like the Yakima is waking up. Saying hello with a rage I guess. But like a bear that hibernates sleeping softly, or a trout after the long cold winter water, they wake…ravenous and primal.

I find I feel similar after the offseason. The winter’s are never easy when you spend most days outside riverside from spring through autumn. I yearn for the river. I pace alongside my boat telling myself I am calming my boat…but its really just me talking myself through cabin fever.

My patience is thin as I come out of the offseason, especially this one, and I just want to get back on the river. Like the nicotine I am trying to kick, I feel the need to be riverside. The river causes that kind of gnawing or anxious feeling constantly now.

While the river rages, I have to simmer. Get ready. Like waiting for a lover to return after a long time away. The wait makes it more intense and I am all about more intense. On and off river. Life is short, just like there are only so many days in the season. How do you want to spend them? The river asks me that question a lot. Sharing intense, amazing, adventurous, joyous, moments and experiences with rivers, people, and by myself is the answer I give. Finding and navigating a way to have a lifestyle with that at its base seems like a good way to go through life these days.

The Yakima, and rivers bring me true happiness. Something we are all trying to find and share with others. I have found a portion of that happiness through the water and want to go through life sharing that with others. I see what the river brings so many people. Take away the instagram, the facebook, the blogs, the hooting and hollering, take the boat, fly rods, flies, take all the stuff and the things away…when you whittle it all down to just you…the river…the people with you…and the secrets that lie in the waters before you…you get a glimpse of that thing we are all looking for. That connection. That’s why I guide. That right there. That connection…its like a glue. Puts all the pieces together.

While the river rages that is where I settle. On that specific reason about why I guide. Its not about the most days, the biggest fish, the most in the net, the money, being the best…its about that connection. After 5 years of guiding and all the clients and days, that is what people are really paying for. Whether they truly know it or not.

The river will crest and settle back into a rythym that invites me to join in the dance. The rage will subside. That long awaited embrace. That connection returns and the river life starts again.

See ya riverside anglers.

Tamarack

tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing

Slow Mornings

My body is waking me up at 6:30 and 7 am to my detriment. Bed at 9 pm or 2a. Doesn’t seem to matter. The mornings are slow to wake and warm. Moving down into the valley of the Yak I feel the early season starting to creep on a little quicker.

This usually happens to me this time of year. I dream and daydream of water. I wake up with the sound of the river still lingering in my ears. I drink coffee and look longingly at my boat. She’s just as anxious. I brought her back to the homewater over a week ago now and she still hasn’t been out on the Yak. She’s not happy about it.

Its early. And I am especially anxious to get started this season. Last year was a busy year. It set the bar higher for this season and only makes the excitement that much more. I miss the work. I miss the routine, the challenge.

I miss listening to the river. I am little lost without that song the Yak sings each day. The spring has a slow almost percussive start to the day. Like a slow rolling warm up to the big crescendo around 2 pm when the mayflies start. As things warm up the tune of the river changes. As we move into the warmer days that river song speeds up and builds. By caddis those evenings turn into groovy jam sessions in the evening lasting into the twilight.

By summer the days are filled with big explosive moments in the song…like a horn line in a wicked groovy funk tune blowing it up. The days become medleys of stoneflies, terrestrials, streamers, caddis, and dainty little mayflies as trout add to the music of the river.

It can be overwhelming to those who aren’t used to listening. For me…I am addicted to it. I want to be a voice in the song. Join in the chorus and bring clients and anglers along for the show. Its like tour season for a musician. The time is almost here and those pre show jitters are rampant. I feel and see that anxiousness in other anglers, guides, and fellow outdoorsy folks. Spend a little time in one of the fly shops anywhere in the state and you will get a sense of what everyone who chases fish with fly and rod is feeling.

The band is warming up anglers. The set list is ready, the crowd is ready…just waiting for those troots to get ready for the show.

The snowpack just hit 87% and we should break 90% over the weekend. The spring fishing in the LC looks to be about 3 weeks out from starting with those mayfly and midgey medleys. The river will simmer and swell with the warm and cold days. The river will start to sing louder. And soon enough I will be out there adding to the chorus. Its close anglers…are you ready for it?

See ya riverside anglers.

Tamarack.

tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing

My boat

I drive a lot. If you don’t like driving than guiding isn’t for you. It has taken me a few seasons to learn to enjoy the driving. We live in a beautiful place. I just drove to Port Angeles to grab the Hog and its a gorgeous drive…except that whole Tacoma part. Ugh. But I also spent a good chunk of last season driving to the east and south into Idaho and Montana. It’s amazing to see at 55 60 miles an hour towing a boat. I drive slow…I love how speed limits are jist starting off points for everyone to see how fast is too fast. Slow down people…enjoy the drive. You won’t really get there any faster deiving 8 miles an hour faster. Chill.

The upside of all the driving…all the floating. Which is my personal favorite thing about guiding. I love to row. The past few years I have improved those skills quite a bit. I take a lot of pride and work really hard to use the boat as a tool the way I do. I look forward to being in my boat. Over the years I have grown realky attached to my boat. We have seen some shit.

The boat was a big deal. 10 years ago or so…damn I am getting old, I was able to get my Hog. It opened up a whole new world of fishing to me. It wasnt until I finally started guiding full time 6 years ago that I really started to get really into rowing. The past few years I have been in the boat more than not.

My boat gave me a means to funnel my passion into more than just chasing trout for myself. It gave me freedom that I had never really had. With my boat I could fish just about anywhere that had moving water and trout. With my boat I found something I was naturally good at but with practice and time have become pretty darn good at it.

The measure isn’t the kind of class water you have made it through or how many miles or rivers you have rambled; the measure is time and consistency. Lots of time on lots of different flows and levels and you will naturally and intuitively become better at rowing. It becomes a feel thing just like the fly cast. After the basics are learned, experience and practice will continually improve your rowing abilities.

Sure hit some gnarly water, make your butthole pucker up from time to time…its good for you. Flirting with control can be an adrenaline rush and freeing. I have got most of that out of my system these days. Although I do drop into things that take me out of my comfort zone from time to time. Confidence helps but also gets tested constantly. Knowing where that line is comes with experience and troubleshooting, failing and succeeding while learning from it. It can make me come across cocky and head strong at times. But it is earned and it’s not like I don’t get humbled constantly. The trick is to own that shit. Own your successes as much as your failures. They are both required to become good at anything.

No one is magically awesome at this…at least I haven’t met anyone. We all start somewhere, with the cast, the flies, the rowing, and work our way up. The more you practice, the more you fish, the more successes and failings that occur the better you get.

A person who is good on the sticks has a major effect on the day. I have taken trips and floated with others who’s rowing made the trip or day less enjoyable. It makes a difference. On the Yakima for example, slowing down and giving anglers and trout more opportunities to see the fly immediately produced more opportunity for anglers. Those 3 to 6 additonal shots at the drift made a lot of difference. Once I slowed down I realized there were a lot more places and areas to fish. Trout move around a lot, and being able to slow down and pick the water apart from the boat ups your chances at troot swiping your fly. Changing angles with the boat and approaching trout and lies differently, or using the boat to play fish, all these things started to present themselves when I started fishing and rowing the way I do. It continues to evolve and show me new things and ways of moving anglers and boat down the river.

Its a constantly changing and improving process but you reach a level just like with the cast, where things are natural for you. It looks easy to others. That the thing I tell everyone who mentions how easy I make it look…with enough time and practice…thats what happens. You master the skills and it just turns into fishing…or rowing. Not easy by all means…but you reach a point where its like you stepped into the river through a different door. A door that only some have the key for.

Driving along the Yakima yesterday after schlepping back from the OP, I was floating the river in my head. I know the section from Easton to Thorp from memory. Updated every season for new stuff like trees and gravel bars. Like a daydream. It happens a lot until I am just on the river most days. You get attached to things with this life. Attached to the fish, the rivers, the places, people, and the boat. This season I am anxiously waiting for it to start. It’s been a weird and slow off season after a crazy year. It just feels like its time to get back to it and go for a better one this year.

Tamarack

tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing

Ugh…meh…almost but not quite

The boredom has set in. After a few dozen flies each day it starts to get to you. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Its that time of year where I would rather be fishing. Every day I go out makes me want it that much more. The river is calling and I must go.

The drive and desire to be outside, in sync with the river, that sense of adventure is setting in. The flow of the river under me and around me. Its a part of me that has been a struggle in my personal life. But I have embraced it in myself. That connection and dare I say addiction to it, can be hard to explain, hard for others around me to comprehend; but it is a part of me that I am very comfortable with. I check out of the off river life and check in to the riverside. I focus and put my passion into what I love to do. Yes to make me my living but it has become an integral part of what makes me…me.

As I inch closer to the season I get anxious. I am not good at much else besides fly fishing these days. Failed at a lot of things, tried a lot of things, and fly fishing and guiding is the one thing that has stuck for me. I hold onto it very tightly. I was reminded of what I have done and how I do it by the closest of friends today. It made me realize that my hard work has paid off in a lot of ways. And while I may be a shenanigan magnet, I also have become successful enough and failed enough to bounce back and pick myself up quickly, learned a few lessons over the years. Adapt quickly just like the troot I chase.

Things off river have gone through some big changes. So the anticipation of being riverside again is unbearable at times. I miss it. And its been a weird, kinda lonely off season with zero settle in it. So getting back to a rythym I am familiar with, making some money, and doing what I love and what I do best is constantly on my mind. Patience…a skill that is constantly being tested and improved. When all you do is fish, and you don’t do it for a while, you end up not having a whole lot going on until you’re fishing every day. It can make long down times really uncomfortable. I am fortunate that fly tying and generating early season business typically keep things a little busy and everything good. This off season just wasn’t normal so its been wonky. So the anticipation is higher and earlier than usual. I am also just generally stoked. I was really busy last year and every year things get busier and more crazy shit happens so what’s not to look forward to.

Its close. A few weeks and all of the sudden things start to change. 4 to 6 days a week on the river. Getting the body really ready for the season. Getting that feel for the river rythym again. Feeling the weather roll in and shift, how the days warm, that sun charges you. After years of being outside more days than not there is no substitute for some vitamin D via good ‘ol sunshine. But to just feel everything come back to life and wake up each day. It is sorely needed. It helps get me ready for the fun part. The work.

The work starts when the river says so but typically first week or 2 or March. Dialing things in, finding the lines, how the fish are moving, prediction charts, flows, forecasts, water temps, it all starts. Clients show up and things really start rolling. The challenge of it all, the stuff and the things, figuring it out and settling into it for another season. This is the time when I really start looking forward to it all. Sharing the experiences with anglers and going back to that high energy, mind and body working kind of person I love to be.

Every day its closer. Now its just curbing the boredom after the dozens of flies are tied each day until the days are filled with being knee deep in a run, or the feel of the flex on my sticks in the boat against the spring flows, that rod bent on a waking up fish, the flutter of insects along the rivers surface. Closer every day.

See ya riverside on the warm days anglers.

Tamarack

tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing

Spring Clinic March 14th

I will be hosting a Spring Fishing Clinic on Sat. March 14th. I have 6 spots open. $90 per person. Bring your own gear and maybe something to take notes with.

This is a 4 hr instructional clinic on spring fishing tactics and methods, wading techniques, and general spring trout fishing knowledge. great way to knock the dust off, learn the spring season, and how to dry fly, nymph, and streamer fish in the early season on the Yakima River.

Message or call to sign up.

tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing

Transition

During the past two seasons I camped most nights along the river. You start to get on the river rythym. Your internal body clock starts to sync up with a more natural I guess primal timing.

I mix that type of schedule into my guiding it ends up producing some really amazing moments. I fish and guide when trout eat. No 9 to 5 here. In the spring we start late and are chasing that afternoon hoover fest as water temps start to perk up as we move into March and April.

Its still pretty wintery out there anglers. It just snowed a chunk up in the mountains again and more is headed to the higher elevations. But the days are longer and I can already feel the change in the suns position every morning.

The body is already starting to shift. It starts with naturally waking up earlier each day. By mid February I am naturally waking at 7 am, ready to start the fishing by 10. By May its 5:30 am and the late evenings also start where I am off river around dark or 9:30 some nights. By the summer its 4 am and on river by 6 and off by 2. Take a nap, snorkel, fish bass, fish the river in the evenings if water temps are good, but its all about that early morning to 11 am time frame until September. Then it settles back to that 7 am start by 10 off at dusk, until October closes out and hibernation sets in.

I have learned to just let myself flow through the rythym and not fight it. 5 years of working that kind of way becomes habit. But it also triggers the cabin fever really bad. It hasn’t hit feverish levels, that sun pokes out and it gets worse. Even driving by the river makes my body want to be in the boat with the current under me. I saw a boat yesterday while running errands and was super envious.

I have learned how to cope and curb that feeling over the seasons but it lingers heavy in the few weeks leading to things perking up. By mid February its too heavy and I typically find myself yanking my boat over ice berms at take outs because I just can’t help myself. Or launching boats down snow covered hillsides on the Joe in April in ridiculously high flows. That cabin fever makes you get silly if you let it. Its the kind of thing that got me stranded on the wrong side of the river on the Cle Elum one spring, stuff like that and others will learn ya up real quick. Patience. It pays off.

I like to fish when the fish are ready. Its why I will head west for steelhead next week if the rivers simmer down a bit. Its not ready here for trooting. The first two weeks of February have to get here before things percolate in the LC. We still need a good storm or three to fill out our snow pack for the summer. We don’t need a drought this year.

It leaves time to tie. Something I have a lot of time for. I have started tying flies for the guide box. Over the seasons I have the amount and patterns I need down. Its less than you might think. Except pats stones….literally hundreds a season. Its ridiculous. But tying for the hatches and spending more time targeting dry fly and steamer eaters you end up needed a few dozen per hatch. Tying them myself they tend to last longer too. I am also picky with flies these days. I like to use certain things, and not always my own. Like gypsy kings, I will get a lot of those in orange typically when things get busy. I end up adding patterns and taking some out of rotation a lot. But you do settle on some. One of my favorite is the PMX in Royal. Great fly, works for lots of things…a bitch to tie. I like to buy those ones. But starting to fill up my boxes with my flies is always a grest feeling. Its a part of the pre season lead up that I really have come to enjoy.

The few weeks leading up to the early spring fishing gets the brain moving too. You start thinking troot. How the river will change in the high water, new trees down, new gravel bars in the upper, the spring brings all kinds of new things. The wait makes it that much sweeter.

I am especially looking forward to this spring. The fall and late season brought in a lot of really big trout…and they didn’t go anywhere…and they only get bigger over the winter. We have a large population of adult fish that were juvenile during the 2015 drought and made it through hearty. They are going to wake up and be really hangry in a few weeks and it should be absolutely glorious. Streamers anglers….mmm.

So filling up the next few weeks with flies, maybe some steelhead, chasin troot on the warm days, getting the boat out soon, all the stuff and the things that come with the final countdown. Its roughly 60 days until the official first day of spring. But troot wake up a little earlier. 45 days or so. I hate to say it but it has started for me. Just patiently and anxiously waiting.

Tamarack