Welcome to the official Creekside Angling Company Extremely Riveting Controversial Fishing Report. Take a deep breath. Hold it...now exhale. Relax. Don't be so serious. Life is too short. Go Fishing.
Here's hoping y'all are having a marvelous day/week/life and that you're taking advantage of the sporadic windows of angling opportunity that are presented to each and every one of us daily. If not, you should at least go down to the International Politically Incorrect Sportsperson's Exposition and fish vicariously through the hundreds of exotic lodges represented there (Fishing Pursuits is our favorite). The show, in case you didn't know, runs through Sunday and is being held at the Stadium Convention Center located in between the soon to fall Kingdome and The House that Griffey's Leaving, Safeco. It's a nice facility (compared to the dangerously unstable Dome) and there's tons of great stuff to check out down there, not that we don't have a lot of it here, but we don't have Lefty Kreh telling dirty jokes, either.

Steelhead are showing up in increasing numbers throughout Western WA, and the die-hardish fly anglers have reported a few natives hooked and landed here and there. The Stilly is crowded. The Sky and Snoqualmie have been in and out of shape alot, and we haven't heard too many rave reviews...again, a few fish here and there, but still pretty slow overall. Right now most of the rivers are in superb shape, but that'll surely change before too long, so go test the waters and prove me wrong. Tactics are slow and low. Dredge with a sink-tip and a bulky pattern. If you're not hooking the bottom once in a while not only are you missing out on alot of false hope that you've hooked a fish, but you're probably not down deep enough.

Puget Sound has been great for resident silvers. The Coho are feeding on tiny amphipods (tiny shrimp), around size 18 or 20, and are well imitated with a rust colored scud sizes #12-20...anything tiny and brown...a little partridge and orange (which we sell) should work. Sunny weather seems to yield the best results, lately, as it hasn't been as scarce as usual...in fact the weather overall has been kind of tame in case you weren't paying attention. Cast 'n Strip. Sinking line is ideal.

Lake fishing has been ok, Lone Lake has been quite good, medium sized olive wet flies (damsel imitation or woolly bugger #8) seem to be the trick there, and would probably serve quite well elsewhere, such as Pass Lake, Alice, Sammamish, etc...With the cold snap, but activity will remain low, but sun will warm the surface toward mid day, and may help the little chironamids get moving. I'd tend to stick to bigger streamers deep, myself. I went down to the south boat launch on Lk. Sammamish this morning, hoping to see fish slurping in the distance and enthusiastically report it to you, but there wasn't a ripple to be seen. I'd bet that a little later in the day the midges got going and the fish tuned in, but I was here at the shop trying to think of something else to say in the fishing report and didn't have time to go back over, much less actually go fishing. God forbid.

The Yakima has been hot and cold (in terms of fishiness) and cold (temp). Icy guides have been pretty much the first thing people who have talked to us about the fishing there have mentioned. A few folks have fared pretty well over there in the last couple of weeks, down in the canyon dredging bigger stonefly nymphs, #10 Bead head Princes, PT's, bitch creeks and hare's ears. My tendency would, again, probably lean toward the down and across woolly bugger, as the stripping motion will prevent onset numbness of limbs and organs. Any hatches one might witness over there will undoubtedly consist mainly of chironamids, but may also include little Blue Winged Olives. Heard that before?

Rocky Ford the ol' standby, is also hot and cold...but hot in that the fishing has been quite good and cold in that it's freaking cold over there. Wear a wet suit and pour boiling water over your head to keep warm, or just burn the ground cover as it's pretty dry right now...running from unearthed rattlers will also serve to get the blood circulating as well.* Fish small scuds, chironamids and nymphs with long 6X leaders. Other flies to try include: Brassie, Griffith's Gnat, Borger Midge, Lasha's Raccoon, TDC, Woolly Bugger black or olive or both, pheasant tail nymph (flashy helps), Suspender Midge, any of Gene Gudger's chironamid imitations, Super Fly, v-rib Chironamid...I'll stop in the interest of sanity, but there are numerous additional patterns which are effective over there, so please feel free to stop by the shop for more ideas. Since Rocky Ford is so popular, it will often be important to show the fish flies they don't see every day...so mix it up. You might surprise yourself. Make mom proud.

As you may have noticed, this report has been issued only every other week for the last month or so. Mercifully, I felt that I couldn't, in good conscience, subject you to that much repetition, given the slow change of fishing conditions this time of year. If, however, you would like to know what we've heard on a particular fishery in between reports, please feel free to drop me an email or give us a call and we'll be more than happy to tell you what we know. We'll resume weekly reports as spring happens and conditions warrant more frequent updates. Maybe.
In the meantime, thank you very much for reading and for your support. Have an excellent weekend, and good luck finding a parking spot at the Convention Center.

Respectfully,
Hugh Pastoriza
Creekside Angling Company
1180 N.W. Gilman Blvd.
Issaquah, WA 98027
www.creeksideangling.com
email- crkside@nwlink.com
ph. 425.392.3800
fax. 425.557.8928
*Creekside Angling Company and its affiliates do not recommend the pouring of scalding water on yourself or on any person, nor the random starting of wildfires in Eastern Washington or Kent.**.