Category: Fly Fishing

So I am all for river shenanigans and getting silly on the river.  I do it all the time to relax, detox from the guide week, or just to enjoy the river without the pressure of having to guide or fish seriously.   I especially engage in this type of behavior in the summer time as I am about 100 trips in and things start to get to you.  So you spend some time riverside with buddies getting silly, catching a few fish, but mostly just dinking around.

Then there are times where the fish are feeding, selectively, and require the utmost attention, focus, and stillness of the angler.  These situations can be very intense, with large trout actively feeding just within cast reach.  The kind of trout that if you cast too much you’ll never see them again.  So you wait…you watch…you listen….and you don’t make too much noise for fear that this trout will become aware that it is being stalked and is the quarry of the attentive angler.

Yesterday we found ourselves in such a situation.  In one of my favorite runs of the upper river.  A pod of fish 4 of which were very large began feeding in response to the March Brown and BWO hatch that was sporadically coming off.   A large trout in particular, was feeding on a 30-45 second interval.  Coming up and hoovering insects by opening its mouth just under the surface and letting the mayfly drop in with a faint gulping sound and a kick of a dorsal fin before lowering back into the depths.  It was intoxicating to watch, and the fellow angler I was with and I were enjoying just watching them eat before we made our approach.

They were spooky, we had to try 3 different flies, and several different approaches.  We hooked one but not the one we were after.  Finally I was able to get a good drift and I got refused…twice.  Gave me a look…tracked the fly…but wouldn’t commit.  So we waited.  To see if they would reset and give us another shot.  Unfortunately we did not get another shot.

The type of day I described at the beginning of the blog, well we had a group come through that were having that sort of day.  And they were being silly, loud, and fishing they way they wanted to…not the way the fish were demanding.  And that is all good.  I have no issue with it…but that kind of day….does not mesh well with the type of day we were having or with the current pod of fish we were working.  As the other boat came through the run of course…our sensitive fish decided they had enough and retreated back to their hidey holes for the afternoon.  Even with bugs over head…they were aware of us and would not come back out to play.  A huge bummer, especially when others can clearly see what you are trying to do.

It happens.  I get bummed, I might blog or talk about it, but it happens and it sucks.  We found a pod of fish that required technical skill, patience, and proper angling approaches and methods and we were in the thick of it.  To have moments like that become sullied just sucks.  And I am not super upset about it…just bummed is all.  I’ll have more moments like that and I will have clients and myself catch fish during them.  It all comes down to two things.

Some of us are out there to chase fish and become a part of that world that trout live in…others are just out here to relax, cut loose, and make themselves feel good.  And that’s okay…just don’t curse in church when the others are praying.

The Yakima is in good shape this week and the March Browns, BWO’s, and some drakes are starting to hatch in the afternoon and fish are starting to look up on a regular basis.

#flyfishing #flytying #chasintrout #yakimariver #ya #yakimariverheadwaters #tamaracksguideservice #rainbowtrout #westslopecutthroat #wildtrout #nothinbutnet #netshot #guidelife #troutlove #springfishing #dryfly #flyfishingguide #pnwflyfishing #pnw #flyanglerlife

I started a YouTube Channel.  I will be uploading all sorts of stuff over the course of the season and doing lots of live streaming there.  I am hoping to do a weekly live stream about fishing and recap the week and stuff like that as we get moving into the season.  Here is a live stream video from today of me tying the Chubby Chernobyl in Salmon Fly Flavor.

So, I am stuck in the house while the river goes through the annual spring time run off episode.  After a small taste of the river side life I hate being stuck inside for extended periods of time.  Things are waking up out there.  Spring brings about new life, and I love being out and about among it all.

A lot of the time I am out there alone enjoying it all.  But when I am guiding its almost always with a pair of people.  Some anglers have been fishing partners for decades, some are trying out different people to see if they mesh well riverside.  Some are long time friends, co-workers, family, you name it I have seen it when it comes to clients.  One thing I have seen change since I started back in this industry 10 years ago is the amount of women and young anglers getting involved.  I can tell you that I have a large portion of my client base in the women and anglers under 35 demographics.

I fish with a myriad of people.  Its one of my favorite parts of the job, the social part.   Meeting all those different people you get to learn, see, hear, converse, with others that are typically far different from you in many ways, but also share common interests…hence the fishing.  This makes you cultured, it opens your eyes to others, it allows you to get a different perspective by being with other people that you may not necessarily spend time with otherwise.  That’s a big part of the job of guide…being able to be around all different types of people and facilitate an enjoyable experience for the clients.

There is a lot happening in the industry right now.  Women are finally prevalent in the sport, and not just to sell gear…everyday I am delighted to read articles from women in the industry talking about their struggle, how they came up in to the sport, the challenges they face.  I hear it from my clients regularly.  As a father of two daughters one of which wants to learn to row the boat and hold lines on the river this year,  and the other turning 4 this month continually asks when we are going to go fishing.  I want my daughters to grow up knowing that the fly fishing community and industry is inclusive and filled with strong outspoken women that are as passionate as the rest of the anglers and guides out there.  I know several women, mentors of mine, women I look up to as anglers and guides that have inspired me to become a better angler and guide myself.  I want my children, including my son, to grow up seeing fly fishing as a place for all to enjoy the outdoors, and the places that fish live.  I say it all the time…trout don’t care what job you have, what color your skin is, where you go to church, how old you are, how much skill you have, or what you have between your legs.  Trout and the river are an equalizer…I have witnessed a 10 year old girl with no prior experience, through listening and hard work, cast, trick, play and land more fish than her dad of 30 years experience and it being a stiff competition to say the least….she also did it in her pajamas as the trip started at 5 am last summer.  I watched a mentor of mine Molly Semenick, play a beast of a brown trout for 8 minutes…no one else could have landed that fish that day…I have spent the past 3 seasons teaching and fishing with women anglers that are just as skillful, passionate, and knowledgeable about fly fishing than any of the men in the industry I have met.

I hear the bad stories…and the good…more good than bad though.  It’s been a very positive thing in the fly fishing industry and the majority of the stories I hear relating to women and their encounters with the men in this industry are positive.  Which is why I encourage anglers of different backgrounds to fish together.  Its good for you.  Being around the same people all the time can drive you a bit crazy.  Getting out of the comfort zone, talking about issues that make your hair prick up, doing all that riverside keeps things pretty sane in my experience.  Its hard to have a huge argument when surrounded by a river and rising trout.  Besides…you can always just say…shut the hell up and hook that fish.  But fish together.  I think that if more men and women fished together we would have a lot more good things come about as a result.

I am all for women teaching women, and women specific or women only groups.  This is in no way against that kind of stuff happening in the industry.  There are plenty of professional women in this sport that have every right to teach, guide, and what have you when it comes to this industry.  I feel a little left out as a man sometimes as I too love to learn from others.  In my experience as a guide I learn just as much if not more from the women anglers that frequent my boat mostly because it is a newer and different perspective within the sport and I am a sponge.  I want to see more women in the rowers throne guiding clients down this river, I am training my eldest daughter in the hopes that she will be rowing riverside beside me before too long.  My daughter has already expressed interest in learning from other women in the industry.  Mostly because she doesn’t wanna be around Dad all the time, but as a young women herself, I know my daughter would be more inspired if she saw other women out there doing what her dad does.  Luckily for her there are lots and even in our own state we have guides and anglers that I can’t wait to introduce her to as she grows up and chases trout and fish on her own.  Then I get to do it all again with the second daughter!

So go fish with people.  Different people, from all walks of life.  Listen, talk, learn, fish, enjoy that human connection over some river and trout.  It will be good for you…and who knows…you might find a new fishing buddy that you never would have thought you’d enjoy spending riverside time with.

 

Tamarack

We are in the thick of spring now.  The weather changes constantly, today it snowed, last week it was almost 60 degrees, there is a bunch of wet in the forecast later this week.  It’s…variable to say the least.  With the recent salmon pulse we also had variable flows.  All these things plus the bugs and other wildlife have an impact on trout and their environment…and the trout react accordingly.

In the spring we don’t smash fish like we do in the summer or the fall especially.  Its not 30 plus fish days…its 6-10 if things are in our favor.  High caliber, big, healthy, spring time trout, that fight hard and take minutes to land when you get a juicy one.  That’s why you fish in the spring.  Most days are filled with nymphing, and a few hours of dry fly fishing if you can stick with it.  Streamers can work too, but again, fish are more inclined to chase food when warmer water temps push them to do so.  Spring time floats can be slow, the days can be fish-less, and there is always that smell of skunk that can waft around the boat in the spring.  I’ve learned to just roll with it.  If you break the water down, and do everything in your arsenal and it still doesn’t produce…that’s just the way she goes sometimes.  Lots of days fishing in the spring will teach you that.  It also will teach you why you come out here and suffer through the craptastic stuff…because there is always the chance….that you’ll get that 20 incher.

Every season clients ask me how many big fish we catch a year.  I tell it straight and as many know, we measure a lot of the bigger trout we land when conditions allow.  I’ve got that ruler on the deck of the boat for a reason.  In the past 3 seasons I have seen 4-8 actual 20 inch fish landed in my boat out of this system.  Almost every single one has been caught between February and Memorial Day.  Not saying we get into more but we don’t land them all.  Most other guides I work and talk with agree on that number.  A handful of true 20 inch fish landed and another handful missed each season.  You know what days they typically show up on?  …the ones when you’ve got that skunky smell wafting around you.  And no…that’s not my boat you smell on my day off when you float by riverside…that is the smell of frustration, defeat, and utter disbelief …at how slow the fishing is.  The spring can break your patience, I’ve got guide and angling friends that get really down on themselves not being able to produce fish in the conditions.  Then get even more frustrated when there’s a good day out there and you miss it.  It happens…the spring has one thing that makes it very difficult to fish and break down…lack of consistency.

Trout respond to their environment, and when they respond in a way that is less than complementary for anglers…it makes for slow days.  Fish will hunker down in heavy flows, they won’t eat in colder water, they react to boats, birds, and lines going over their heads, shadows, sun, rain, wind, it all plays a role in how a fish goes about its day.  So if the flows are heavy, and cold, fish may be deep, and sleepy.  Harder to reach for anglers, harder to get drifts to, harder to locate, all these things make your probability of finding fish willing to eat low.  As a guide I try and keep that probability high by changing the game, trying different tactics, and breaking everything down until there just isn’t anything left to try and you just have to start the whole process over again.

In the spring when we nymph, we are constantly changing depths with the type of water we fish.  I add and subtract split shot and dropper flies as I read and interpret the water for anglers.  We work on mends and different drift lanes, I will have anglers run two different rigs, with different flies and depths and drift different lanes in order to search out and locate where the fish are in the water column.  Whether it be 3 feet or 9 feet deep…we will do everything we can to find those pesky troots in the spring.

When the dry fly game decides to pan out it typically takes two things for fish to start looking up in the spring.  Enough bugs to justify making the effort to eat in the top 3rd of the water column…and slow enough water.  The trout are in the slow walking speed stuff when the water is 45 or less.  On days when we get closer to 50 the trout start moving into faster water and move closer to food sources.  But when its still cold, especially every morning until mid May, trout are hanging in the slower stuff.  So the food that goes over the top of those areas has to be abundant enough for trout to come up.  If the hatch is light you will get a few light feeders, if its heavy, you get pods gorging.  Pretty straight forward.  And always fish the water not the fish,  you may not see them eat on this river…but they are there…they just like it right the first time out here.

As we get further into spring and water temps start staying close or above 50 fish have more options for where they can hang out, and food.  Every few weeks the trout get more options for food and fish start to move around in relation to that food.  Some fish will key in on certain areas and food sources as they are more prevalent in that particular sections of river, while fish in another section may have different holding water, feeding water, and food options in general, and will react differently.  When I get bored with one section, I try another.  That’s what is great about the Yakima, every 20 miles of river it changes.

So if you have that skunky smell hanging around you on spring days…just remember…everyone has them.  There are a lot of things working against the angler in the spring.  But…every once and a while…you have a bitchin’ day and even if it’s just one fish…it might be that true 20 inch trout we are all after.

Hope to see ya riverside.

Tamarack

The season is here.  But the spring is cold hearted and the weather does not always favor the angler.  The spring can be a crapshoot when it comes to conditions.  That’s why I spend most of my time off river staring at graphs for weather predictions, flows, snowpack, and runnoff levels constantly.  The forecasts here in the mountains changes daily and one minute it could be 3 days of sunshine the next its 3 days of snow and rain.  The weather can be unpredictable and volatile but most of all…freaking windy here in the spring.  We have great wind forecasting tools at our disposal because of NOAA and Science so trying to find those less windy days are only a few clicks away.

But that shouldn’t make the angler wary.  Sure avoid the really windy days, but damp or sopping wet days can produce some memorable fishing experiences here on the Yakima.  The spring produces high quality fish here as they wake up first and get eating right away prepping for spawning and heavy spring flows.  We trick a lot of really big ass trout here in the spring, and we get the best colors of the season in our fish in March and April as they are all dressed up for the big date.  Don’t forget your rain jacket and wear an extra layer, because even when the weather is kinda nasty…the fishing can be wicked sweet.

The spring water temps rise and stabilize quickly.  Now that we don’t have super chill evenings where the air temps drop below 32 Degrees the water temp will start to hover around 40-42 and start its slowrise to 45-50 every day.  As we get through April the water temps will stay closer to 50 and rise into the mid 50’s…pre summer.  Trout will start spawning, and some in the lower river may already be podded up and getting ready.  Remember to watch your anchor drops and your foot stomps.  Try not to pressure actively spawning fish.

We are starting to get a rhythm to the river now.  With mornings earlier and warmer, days longer, and evenings taking their time to setting in.  We have bugs starting to wake up.  Skwallas are on the move and fish are eating them.  We have midges galore this season, and I’ve spotted multiple trout sipping.  We even saw a few caddis the other day, and the BWO’s are starting to come off in the late afternoon already!  Spring has sprung and an angler can finally start syncing up with the rhythm and tricking some trout.

The spring season is open and I have lots of availability but it doesn’t last long.  Reserve a trip today and get in the Skwalla Special Price with a 6 hour float and a lunch for $275 for 2 anglers.  Or go for a walk and wade trip for $190 and get to know some of the more intimate walk and wade areas of the upper Yakima River.

 

Hope to see ya Riverside,

Tamarack

The spring season is here on the Yakima.  I went out for a few hours today and landed 8 on skwalla dries and missed another 4.  Saw skwalla adults on the water and along the bank, had a decent midge hatch with trout feeding on them, and BWO’s showed up lightly after 1:30 pm.

There were several fish actively feeding on the surface.  I also saw several fish feeding subsurface and landed two rainbows on nymphs before seeing risers and switching over.  Every day it gets warmer, the fish get hungrier, and the river wakes up more and more.

I have Skwalla Spring Special 6 hour floats that include a lunch for $285.00 for 2 anglers.  Those trips run to April 15th.  I’ve got openings in March and April and the weather is looking good.

Call, email, or message me on social media to reserve a day of fly fishing on the Yakima River with Tamrack’s Guide Service and lets go chase some trout.

Like every February, Mother Nature cannot make up her mind as she slowly transitions from winter to spring.  It’s a volatile time for the mind of the fly angler.  One day the conditions are perfect and the fishing is pretty good all things considered, and the next its 5 degrees out and you might as well be ice fishing.  That is how February typically goes and this year is no different.  On average this early season has been pretty normal despite the lack of snow on the ground below 4000 ft.  We are above 90% of average for the snowpack this season, we have a cooling trend keeping the temps well below freezing, and the trout are in no hurry to get going.

Water temps are still sub 40 for the most part with the lower river giving a few better days here and there.  It’s still early anglers, but many of us, if not all of us, are ready to get after it.  I for one, am tired of the cold.  I am ready for 50 degree days, rain, sun, and the smell of trees coming back to life.  I miss the sounds of the river in spring time and am patiently waiting for the conditions to be right…because lets face it…its still not fishing weather yet.  You can force it all you want…it is not gonna be spring before it is damn well ready.

With no fish to occupy my mind, and the current state of the country, the stresses of everyday life, and all the other stuff, its hard to get away from the noise, the feeling of to much connecion, the echo chamber of stupidity.  I find I am having to force myself to put down the phone, get off line, and try and occupy my mind with other things.  It’s hard when the only other thing you really think about is trout.

I crave the solitude. One thing I love about the spring is its slow pace.  Everything takes its time in the spring.  For someone like me who is a very visually stimulated person…I love to observe the river as she comes to life in the early season.  It is also why I am a sucker for a dry fly eat.  It is incredibly visually satisfying to watch trout eat flies on the surface of the river.  It gets my shit going.

The sound of the river all around you, the fly drifting along the seam, the shadow from the depths, the mouth opening and breaking the surface, the eat, the set, the fight…awwww ya.  That is my jam right there.  When something as simple and trivial as a fish eating a fake bug can literally take you out of one world and place you in another…that’s what I am in need of.  That is the only thing that will satiate this boredom and anxious patience.  I need trout in my life.

I love being solo in the woods, on mountains, and knee deep in rivers.  I got healthy through it, it helps with depression, I lost 90lbs by way of it, and I live a richer fuller life because of my time outside chasing trout and mountains.  Being by myself, away from civilization, unplugged from the world, and connected to the natural one around me.  It became addicting. Though it all I became what you would call an adrenaline junky, chasing ski lines, mountain tops, raging river rapids; I didn’t feel alive if I wasn’t flirting in the Danger Zone.  Did some stupid shit in my day.  I’ve fallen off enough mountains, almost drowned enough times, and been buried by enough snow to realize that dying doing what you love isn’t so great.  Being addicted to that kind of adrenaline rush is bad for your health.  Fly Fishing is much better for you in so many ways.  It gives me just enough of that adrenaline from my previous activities to keep me interested while giving me a trophy for my efforts that is more meaningful, fulfilling, and beautiful.  A gorgeous wild trout is way better than a mountaintop for my beardy face these days.  Fly fishing also has all the solitude I could want…but also has a large community of anglers to join and share in the fun with if you feel like company riverside.

I don’t always fish with others on my days off from guiding.  As the season progresses the less I want to fish with people in general anyway.  Burn out on people is very real and if you let it get to you it can fuck up your guide game.  So I enjoy my days off fishing alone as much as I can.  I have a few individuals I fish with, I can count them on one hand and not use all my fingers.  I also get a lot of requests or asks to go fishing throughout the year.  As the fishing picks up it becomes a weekly ritual of telling people I am too busy to fish for fun.  It’s not that I don’t want to…unless I don’t like you…but I gotta fill my days with paid fishing to make a living.  I don’t fish for free during guide season.  Gotta pay the bills and feed the kids.  And when you’re a guide…you never not a guide when you are fishing with others.

I get asked that same question every guide gets asked hundreds of times a season, “Do you fish on your days off?  What do you do for fun?”  To which I reply…”I fish.”  And I do.  By the middle of the season I typically take a day off a week to fish myself.  To keep my sanity, to keep my skills fresh, and just to remind myself of why I do what I do for a living.  If you can’t enjoy your work…you should find a new gig.  I love my job, and I love fishing.  I fish on my days off, typically solo, because I need that disconnect from the guiding, the job, the pressure to perform…so that I can enjoy fishing for what it is and what it does for me on a personal level…not a professional one.  I love the spring because its a slow start for guiding and I get a lot of days to fish myself.  If it ever gets here.  It’s also the time of the year where things wake up, and when you live here in Cle Elum…which is pretty boring in the winter….its nice to be out and about as the whole place comes to life.  Twitterpaited critters and birds, spawny trout, bugs finally flying around again, trees turning green and things budding up…after a long cold and fairly snow-less winter…the spring is a welcome to the senses.  Being able to be solo and surrounded by it for a bit before the work starts rolling in is the best part of spring.

I crave that Solitude.  If winter ever leaves these mountains…I am sure to find it.

 

Tamarack

The start of the season.  The river waking up…slowly.  The sun rises earlier each day.  Enticing me out of bed and towards the river.  It’s a time of the season I take my time with and enjoy now.  I’m a little more seasoned, a little more developed.  My younger self would have been fishing everyday, hard.  Trying to stick every single trout I could.  Cursing the river for being unproductive…blaming fish for not eating.  I still do it…but not as much.

These days…I wait…I observe….and I have learned some things about fly fishing over the years.  Especially after years of picky AF Yakima River trout.

Don’t cast to the fish…unless it’s gonna eat the fly.  Sounds stupid, but how many times have you beat the water with your rig trying to force feed that fish you know is in there?  Ya..I still catch myself doing it…”EAT YOUR FOOD FISH!!!”  But if you know the trout is in there…why not wait until you know its eating…before you cast at it.  Sure it may come out of its hidey hole and eat your fly just by throwing flies at it…it may not…but being able to damn near guarantee it…that’s angling for me.  Figuring out the best most opportune time to cast to the trout.  It’s one the key factors for guide season, when I can do my job effectively…put people on trout.  I don’t want to guide anglers unless I can give them the best opportunity at tricking a trout with a fly.

Because guiding is two parts for me.  Its about people…being able to enjoy a day riverside with individuals and share and experience fly fishing and all that it entails.  But its also angling.  You can’t consider yourself a professional if you don’t take the time to learn and hone the craft.  Like an athlete or musician, practice, study, rehearse, perform.  Or something along those lines.  Each guide day is a performance for me…I treat it like a gig, being a former musician.  I practice, I rehearse, I experiment and try new techniques and tactics I have learned and studied over the off season.  I also work on how to teach and demonstrate those things to various angler skill levels, learning styles, and people in general.  So that when it comes time for me to do my job…I am covered on the fishing end.  I don’t have to think about it…I just do it.  Casting…reading the water, rowing a line, playing and landing fish.  It all gets practiced and rehearsed as the river wakes up in the early season.  I have come to a point in my angling development and my guiding business where I understand the importance of that process, and what it does for my abilities and my business.  Gotta get my body, and my mind into shape.  Because guiding is a lot different than just fishing.  Especially when you strive for professionalism and excellence while also having a wicked awesome time.

In the early season this process has become what I like to call…The Chase.  I love to chase these wild animals up and down this river.  In my early angling I just wanted to catch fish.  Proving to myself, the trout, the river, my mentors, the people who gave me a hard time as I came up through fly fishing, all that…a young angler thinking he had something to prove.  If you stick with this activity you grow out of that.  These days its about being effective, efficient, in that interaction between the trout and me.  As the guide season starts it becomes about the interaction between trout, clients, and me.  A constant test of my abilities to break down and fly fish rivers for trout and relaying that world to anglers.  Its freaking sweet and can definitely be frustrating…but that’s fishing baby.  The was she goes.

The Chase for me is about finding that sweet spot where you are in tune with the river.  Like matching pitch I am the tuning fork for the anglers in my boat.  I have to be able to keep my anglers on pitch and on rhythm.  The river sings a song, and we play along.  Finding that juicy level of insight is half the fun for me.  Where are the fish, what are they doing, why, when will bugs move, what bugs, why, flows, weather, reading, searching, hunting…Chasing.  Mmmm…the stuff I live for and what I have come to learn, is what clients want.  They want to be in tune…it helps them understand the river and angling better, which makes them more successful when I am not around.  It’s not just about being able to put people on fish, its about sharing all the aspects of fly fishing.  I want a successful day for clients with me and when they go out on their own. So it has to be more than just putting people on fish.  Besides it makes the job more fun.

I spent the past two weeks fishing a handful of days trying to figure out where the river is at.  Its still early.  Water temps are slow, bugs aren’t moving, and fish are still sleepy.  But a year like this it comes on quick.  All of the sudden it will be on.  But it takes its time and after waiting all winter…another 10-20 days feels like a lifetime.  The patience pays off though.  What guide doesn’t like to call fish to the fly…taking my time and chasing these trout makes that a whole lot easier.

Plus…I need to fish.  I haven’t spent any real time fishing since October.  Coming off the bench with no warm up isn’t how I roll.  So I fish.  Yes it is slow right now, but its a perfect time to practice, put some miles on the wading boots by hiking around the woods and rivers.  Only fishing when the window is prime.  Mid and late afternoon still.  Working on my casts, presentations, sometimes with dries even though they won’t eat.   Practice tracking the fly, reading how it will ride, anticipating where fish might eat later on.  Estimating flow changes and how it will effect things.  Angles and casting lines for clients from the boat and on foot.  Approach methods, types of casts to use, types of drifts to look for.  It’s all gotta be practiced.  And frankly its a really enjoyable part of this guiding business that I don’t take for granted.

So if you see me riverside over the next 3 weeks…that’s what I am doing.  Getting my shit ready.  I will keep everyone posted on what the river is up to along the way.  Gonna hit the river again tomorrow and do a report.  Hope to see ya riverside.

Tamarack

   

New Logo Update

That’s all…going fishing tomorrow through Wednesday.   I’ll let ya know how it goes.

(Color isn’t that green…wordpress doesn’t like it.  But I can did the lime green over hunter orange.)