Author: tamaracksguideservice

The Golden Stone is my favorite big bug hatch on western trout rivers. Unlike the Salmon Fly which is a dark and orange behemoth of a bug, the Golden is dainty for its large size. Just a little smaller than a Salmon Fly. It’s a bright yellow and gold bug with lace like wings.

A ferocious carnivore nymph that eats other micro invertebrates for up to 4 years in the river bottom and substrate before hatching in the early summer. They like it hot, typically over 75, here on the Yak that puts their hatch after the salmon flies around the first week or two of June and into July. It’s one of the longer upper river stone hatches. Its early this year due to drought conditions so taking advantage of it while it gets started is a good idea.

The fish start to key in on those big juicy crunchy golden bugs when they start to return to the river to oviposit. Usually later in the afternoon. Then you’ll see big yellow bugs coming out of the trees and falling onto the river to lay eggs. This is what gets the troots attention. After a few days of those big bugs hitting the river. Its game on for trout. Especially cutties. They love the big yellow bugs up here.

The golden stone hatch is one of the only hatches where it will turn 20-40 trout on dries when it’s good. They just eat em all day long. Ita glorious, amazeballs, hell sometimes dare I say….epic. What is better than hucking big dries at boulders, seams, overhangs, and undercuts all day and turning trout on them!? You know the answer.

I’ve got days open during the hatch. Which is just getting started. Come get some big bug action on the upper Yak this early summer.

Tamarack

This weekend is wide open! The weather is forecast to be awesome, we have golden stones, pmds, yellow sallies, and caddis on the troot menu. The Teanaway River is Open if you fancy a walk and wade. Kids outta school!? Bring em along one 4 hr walk and wade and I’ll teach the whole family to fly fish! Summer is just about here…take a guided fly fishing trip with Tamarack’s Guide Service.

I get to guide and it’s totally my thing. But this blog really isn’t about that. I’ve guided a good run the past 10 days and watched a lot of fish get caught and even more get away. After a while…the angler in me gets the better of the guide in me and I just have to catch a few troots.

I don’t mean to toot my own horn…but I’m pretty good at this fly fishing thing. I cast and present the fly very well…no matter the technique…nymph, streamer, or dry. I play fish pretty well…I land more than I miss let’s just say. Over the past few seasons of guiding I’ve become much better at playing fish.

Playing fish is a dance. Sometimes I get to lead…other time the trout leads and I follow. Deciphering what kind of dance partner the trout is happens in the first few seconds of setting the hook. A spicy trout that wants to salsa typically leads and changes direction quickly while also getting airborne and twirling. Keeping up and moving in sync with such a spicy salsa dancing trout takes quick reflexes, instinct, and a handful of similar dance partners in an anglers history.

Trout that want to waltz play the long slow game and make big swinging moves that make the rod turn in your hand. These fish want to be lead…waiting for the angler to take charge and lead the dance. These fish are usually larger, smarter, and cooperative partners that test an anglers skill…don’t step on these troots toes…they tend to shake off the lazy or inexperienced dance partner.

But my favorite dance with a trout…the tango. The tango trout comes in two forms…the experienced, suave, elegant trout…that let’s the angler lead this intimate dance. The direction changes are robust and fast…with purpose, and an angler must lead the trout to and from the currents and depths with a steady confident hand and precise reflexes that answer the trout…not tell the trout. These trout are typically larger cutthroat that have been spun around the dance floor by inadequate partners a few times but when they meet a partner that is at their experience level…the dance becomes something intense and beautiful.

The second form of the tango trout dance is when the trout leads. The debonair and dark mysteious trout that sweeps the angler into the dance floor vigorously and with ferver. The initial hit to the fly will be forceful as if when your dance partner grabs your hand firmly, places their hand in the small of your back and moves you into the first steps of the dance with purpose. As to say…we are going to dance you and I.

Inexperienced dance partners will falter within the first few steps of this dance. The trout will lead with quick aggressive direction changes and large boisterous jumps with head shakes and tail kicks…like a flamenco dancer flourishing in a turn, or when the dance partner spins you into their body hard…and pulls you close intensely. These trout want to see if you can dance with them the way they want…if the angler can keep up they are rewarded with some of the most amazing trout in the river. Typically a large aged rainbow but other times a well learned cutthroat, who’ve seen more dance partners falter than not…this anglers…is the epitome of the dance between angler and trout.

I search out these tango trout…it is by far my favorite dance. The older I get and more dances I have with trout…the better I become at each step of all the different trout that care to dance with me.

But every once and a while…I meet a trout that leaves me breathless after the dance. One that makes my heart flutter more than any other…the kind of dance that’s three steps away from sex. The kind of trout that leads at first but then follows…but when a misstep is made they take charge and see if you can recover…the kind of trout that changes direction so rapidly it pulls the rod and turns the anglers body into the river…as if to pull you closer to make the entire encounter more intimate…so you can feel the intricate details of the current, how the fish moves through it, gliding effortlessly in places, then turning and beating its tail into the current bending and pulling the angler into its world…its embrace…until there truly is nothing but you and the trout…countering one another, feeling the river, succumbing to one another…all that is left is the river…angler…and trout…the dancefloor…and two partners in the spotlight…twisting, turning, stepping together…until the dance is done…there is a final embrace…the song ends…and the partners…part ways until another tune plays.

Have fun out there anglers…go dance with some trout.

Tamarack

The days blur together. It’s just clients and fish and more fish. The rest of the world has faded away. My life right now, is completely enveloped by fly fishing.I wake late and fish late, when the trout are active.I fish almost everyday. Maybe 1 day in 10 do I not find myself riverside with a fly rod in my hand or my oars fanning the river current. I’m rather anti social when I’m not working. Just being out with the tiger and trout is enough company for me. The days I’m with clients I get my fill of people interaction. I find myself wanting to fish solo more this season than others. Not sure why…maybe just a phase I’m in.The riverside fires are nice. Here on the North Fork of the Teanaway near Beverly Creek it is peaceful. The tiger drowning out the silence of the forest, birds calling to one another, the crackle of wet pitched filled logs on the hot fire…its really all the stimuli I need after a good run of trips.This life opens up so much of that time everyone is chasing for themselves I feel privileged to be able to live it. To have a life filled with trout, river, river peeps, crackling fires, nights spent tying by headlamp, waking to the river every morning, listening, watching…always learning. Plugged in, and out of touch with anything and everything but that seam, with the boulder and the overhanging limb…right there, tucked up underneath…good drift…sluuuurp….What more do you need I ask…what more do you need?Tamarack

I have May 20th-24th and the 26th coming up. The fishing has been amazing. Salmon Flies, March Browns, and Caddis, with Golden Stones, Yellow Sallies, PMD’s, and more are coming up this summer. Reserve a guided trip on the Yakima River and chase some wild trout. Call, email, visit the website, or message to book a guided fly fishing trip.

I’ve gotten lost in rivers…but none so much as the Yakima. I’ve fished it regularly my whole career, it holds my first trout, it holds my largest of both species still to this day.

It’s my homewater, I’ve learned it intimately. Every guide day on it and every angler I meet along it that wants a chat…reminds me that I know her well…better than some.

The days blur, I told my client today, the summer is a consistent chaos of things happening in the trout world. Consistent…but chaotic. Multiple bugs hatching, water temps in prime zones for peak trout activity. The fish are moving about, feeding, resting, podding up, reacting to their environment and an adept angler…can find themselves lost in trout.

I find myself there. Fishing, watching, learning, deciphering, plugging in and enjoying the ride. The rest of the world has faded away, even my wife reminded me that there is more than trout and rivers and that I can talk to people and be social. The calendar fills, and I’ve settled into my rhythm, and each day of angling runs into the next.

The rest of the world has little interest to me, the world here in front of me is so much more interesting and I can’t help but feel this is where I belong. It’s where I know I want to be, maybe even need to be at times…but there are times…when that fish eats, that client smiles, that otter eating that huge fing troot the other day…those times and so many others…they make me feel like I belong here. Was made to be there in those moments…sharing them with others…baring witness, a part of the experience…one that many in my position can take for granted…those moments…always humble me, remind me of the true importance of them…reminds me of what I really do for a living…all of it.

The campfire weakens, a pine cone falls from the tree top and spooks my attention. The soft hiss and rumble of the Cle Elum River just over the bank a stones throw from where I sleep. I woke up to elk this morning, the sounds of kingfisher fluttering and calling along the river edge, a raven cawls deeply to his brethren, the smell of cotton wood and sweet ponderosa pine wafts in the warm air. My cloths and beard smell of campfire, my hands are tan, as well as my knee caps, feet tops, and face, I’ve spent more time outside now than I did at home for this past break. I’m on river time, which doesn’t line up well with the ‘normal’ day to day of most. It is a great joy of this gig to be able to help people fit into that consistent chaos for a few fours with a few casts of the fly rod and a boat ride…

See ya riverside anglers.

Tamarack

I will be hosting a Summer Fishing Clinic on Friday May 10th. I have 6 Spots Open for a 4-5 hr instructional course on summer fishing tactics on the Yakima River.

$90 per person. Anglers need to bring thier own gear. You can sign up here, on instagram, message me, or email me on the website.

Hey Anglers!

Only weekend days I have open in May.

May 5th
May 19th
May 26th

I have plenty of weekdays open but for anglers who can only take a trip on the weekends this is what I got.

We have Caddis and Salmon Flies in May, warm weather, wet wading, riverside lunches and troots on flies.

See ya out there.

I’m back riverside Friday. I’ve enjoyed being at home but I’m anxious to get back to the river. I hear of March Browns and Salmon Flies and all other thoughts kind of leave me. It has been great seeing my family. I’m kind of the outsider to my families routine during the season. My internal clock is not aligned with the hustle and bustle of kids to school, lady to work, lunch for the little one, kids home, homework, soccer practice, dinner, rinse repeat. My wife knows I’m just not built for that life, neither of us are. My lady and I have always had a ‘non traditional’ way of parenting and general lifestyle. It doesn’t always mesh well with others and to this day people in our orbit still don’t grasp what I do for a liv no and the kind of life both Hannah and I are trying to create for ourselves and our children. The life you want takes work, patience, and time…Hannah and I hav never settled for the life we get…we chase the one we want.

That life involves a lot of fishing. For us it’s our way of life, how we pay the bills, feed the kids, fix the car, all that shit..paid for by running trips down the river. It’s a sweet rewarding, fulfilling life, with its hardships but hat life is worth a damn if it doesn’t have struggle. Struggle is what makes life interesting. After a while, you realize anything can be faced with your loved ones supporting you and standing by you no matter the doubters, haters, and naysayers.

I fish a lot. Some 150-250 days a year. I hope most of those are guide days but you get what the river gives you. You change as a person when you spend that much time outside. To the point where others around you notice things. Like how I hate being inside…I’d rather sit outside and listen to the world. I’m not antisocial, well that that much, I just don’t like 4 walls. Inside is noisy, tv, phones, kitchen, people, just lots of things making background noise that drown out the world around you. People notice how all I talk about is fishing, but it’s also all I think about during the season. While most people leave work at work, owning a business and all that comes with it means it’s a constant thing. I’m always buried in my phone or device. I’m usually working, looking at insights, checking feeds, river reports, answering emails, blogging, editing, planning, all that shit.

People notice how I just check out. I’m pretty aloof when I’m not riverside, I just don’t have a lot of interest in things other than fishing. But I like it that way and I also get paid to be that way. Part of being that ‘professional’ angler I guess. Not many professions allow you to completely get lost in your work and come out the other side better at said work without all that stress and bs that comes with it. There’s a reason people are envious of the guide life. I always was. And getting back to it is all I’ve had on my mind since taking this little break. It’s nice out, the snow is melted, the weather warms, the bugs hatch, troots eat, what else is there I ask!?

So now it’s time to prep the rig and gear, say my goodbyes again, and head back to the river to chase fish and introduce clients to the riverside way of life. This season is gonna be good. Hope too see ya out there.

Tamarack

Its looming. Which makes it out to be a negative thing but it is far from it. The Peak of the season that is. It typically hits sometime in mid June to mid July. When I hit about 70-85 trips. It’s that point where you’re in the grind. When a lot of guides will take a break and I want the work piled on heavy.

The past 4 seasons I’ve had the pleasure of guiding the Yakima exclusively. And when the peak hits is also when the summer fishing is at its finest. Golden stones, yellow sallies, pmds, caddis, terrestrial, streamers, nymphing…if you’re into it, but the Yakima in the summer is some wicked awesome dry fly fishing in the upper.

Unlike my new water on the St. Joe which is a freestone and gets smaller throughout the summer. The Yakima gets big, even on a drought year like this year, the Yakima River will be 3-4 times her normal size. Swollen with irrigstion water growing all manner of things in the valleys below. I am still in awe of the power the small Yakima river has when it wears its tailwater outfit for the summer.

It makes for a unique fishery. Tough but unique and rewarding to the patient and determine angler. The water in the summer is high, typically 3-4000 cfs. I like it when it settles around 3200-3600 cfs in the upper. The fish get forced into the banks of the river. They search out food, cover, and oxygen, in the 6-12 feet of river along each bank. Under overhangs, in cutbanks, around and amongst boulders, eddies, and as tight as possible to the edge of the river a lot of time.

The angler needs a boat to fish it properly. Set up around 20-25 feet off the bank. Shooting at 90 and 45 degrees towards the bank picking apart the micro currents and structure with a dry or dry dropper set up. The upper river in the summer, will produce 30-60 fish 8hr plus days. Mostly dries. It’s about the only time of year it happens for me. We get close in the fall but we rarely break 30, but the fish are larger in the fall. Less of them but larger.

The trout in the summer are all sizes. We get the big ones, but they are at select times of day unless you get that one eager, slightly dumb, big boy to eat randomly. But the majority of the trout caught are your juvenile trout. The cookie cutters as we like to call them. The 8-14 inchers. They ain’t big, but they are wicked fun when they eat dries. Some get really colorful and bright in the summer. When you fight them in heavy flows, with 3-4X tippet, on lighter action or softer action dry fly rods it makes for a lot of fun without overly stressing the fish.

The big fish, they usually eat for about 15-30 minutes early in the morning typically just before and through dawn, and again at the end of the day for 15-30 minutes as dusk settles in. Caddis…or stones typically. As the summer gets into August the fishing is best early am and things tend to get a little too hot, water temp wise in the afternoon. Plus the biggest trout in the river eat summer stones from 4-6:30am in August. They get on a nocturnal feeding cycle with the summer stone hatch happening in the evening early morning. So if you hit the river early you get those big trout filling thier bellies before going down for the day.

The Peak of the season is where I love being as a guide. When you’re just grinding. Wake up, coffee, clients, boat launch, shuttle, teach, guide, lunch, teach guide, land fish, boat on trailer, drop off clients, eat, sleep, repeat…for as many days as the river will give me. I’ll take ’em all. I’ll run two trips a day when I can. And now with two rivers its twice as much fun.

That Peak is something I crave, working 10-15-25 days in a row. Sharing it with all those clients, the adrenaline high constant, no down time, just guiding…mmmm…that shit is my jam and when I feel most groovy. Just in tune, synced up, and dialing anglers in two at a time for days.

That’s what’s coming my way…being on a 10 day rest and visit before getting into it is much needed and appreciated. My focus tends to get lost in the river when things ramp up.

I’ll be back at it soon. Can’t fing wait.

See ya riverside,

Tamarack