Howdy anglers,

Fishing reports are good. We've been very encouraged by many of you who have dropped by for supplies and generously shared your fishing data with us. Observations are decidedly positive. Every angler getting after it is experiencing some success. And some of the fortunate ones have been very successful indeed. From Westside lowland lake tubers, to peninsula sea-run rainbow troopers the scoop has been inspiring.
What's making this happen? I reckon more of y'all are fishing - that's for free. It's nice to be gently roused by bright morning sun on the weekend sleep-in mornings, but as I become completely awake and my tying bench comes into view I remember. Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy, but we need rain. This is nice weather. I mean it's really a great time to be outside. Though some season-typical precipitation would just hit the spot. Despite less than ideal conditions the greater rod count on the waters is pushing the catch rate up.

Skykomish river steelhead: Getting the fly down is never quite as important as it is right now. Gear fishers and plug pullers are doing really well right now. Doing as well as they are with a fly requires getting your offering down in swifter, deeper water. Low water conditions and a fair amount of pressure causes the steelhead to find cover under the choppy heads of runs, and near to any structure in water of a good depth. Patterns are in between summer and spring/winter bugs. Flies such as the general practitioner inspired Howell's Prawn in pink and purple, numbers 2 to 1/0. The reign spey was designed for clear water and shy fish that still want to grit their many small anadromous teeth on a marabou pattern. Hairwings like the skunk and purple peril in big sizes hold their profile well and show good contrast even in turbulent runs. Most fish that are getting an opportunity at a fly are falling to a bar bell eyed egg sucking leech. You can't keep that fly off the bottom, and if it swims it wants to inhale a woolly bugger type fly presented well.
Peninsula Steelhead: It's worth the trip (being from Maine that's what we say after the first slurp from our Dunkin' Donuts jumbo drip coffee with lots of sugar and cream)! Nary a bad report is coming from the coastal rivers. I've had the great pleasure of sharing in the delight of once in a lifetime type steelhead stories with a few of you out there in chrome bright minty land. Sol Duc, Bogachiel and Hoh rivers all are producing. Nymphing lead headed flies through the slots and arcing steely bou's at a creeping pace across the broader drifts are methods that will always pay off on the west side.

Lone Lake: Locals have dialed in to a chironomid system for the often pea soup colored lake. This entails the use of an indicator, and an attractor type chironomid (chan's, anything flashy type chironomid pupa...) and a small red chironomid larva imitation. Number 16 to 20 blood midge patterns work well for this. Fish this two-fly rig close to the bottom in water that is not too deep. Ten or twelve feet deep is about right. If nothing happens right away reevaluate the system to make sure you're bugs are just off the bottom, or move a few boat lengths down the shore. This method is super productive but not the most exciting. Dragging around a medium sized olive bugger, six pack or small olive scud will keep you warmer, and get you a few fish.

Yakima River: Always your best bet for trout in a river this time of year. Skwala stone nymph patterns are essential for dredging up a Yak trout this time of year. Still big princes, golden stone nymphs and lightening bugs are needed to fish in conjunction with the smaller, not very dense skwala nymphs to get them on the bottom. Salmon babies are swimmin down river to greet their fate as Columbia River fish paste gull food if they get past the jumbo rainbows around Ellensburg, the bass around Yakima and the turbines in the main stem. We carry baby salmon patterns in both their smolt and parr stages to satisfy your stoutest Yak bow's need for nourishment.

What can we say about Rocky Ford? Cool name. What acronym can we create to make your Rocky Ford experience all the better? How about C.R.E.E.K.S.I.D.E.? Concurrent Reports Expressly Expedite Killin', Slayin', Innumerable Days of Excellence. Or maybe H.Y.P.O.T.H.E.R.M.I.A.- Hellacious Yelling People Offering Their Help Expressly Relating (to) Midges In Action. Or T.R.A.M.M.P.- This Report Always Makes Me Puke.
The real one is: S.L.O.W.- STOP: don't just trounce down to the bank and start flailing away. Take a minute...there may be fish hanging out right where you were planning on setting up camp. LOOK: carefully make your way to the bank and take a look at what's happening. Are there bugs hatching? Are fish eating them on the surface or subsurface? We could write a book on this one, but, fortunately many already have, so rather than going into too much detail and initiating the DELETE process prematurely, suffice it to say that we'd be more than happy to recommend a few titles that are absolutely guaranteed to make your next entomological exploit more rewarding, or just chat with you about how to identify different insects' life stages, or at least where to start with fly selection. Observe: even though 'look' and 'observe' are pretty much the same, SLW isn't a word, so the whole thing would be shot. Not only that, but the Looking/Observing is important enough to mention twice. The best anglers (meaning the best looking) not only wear creekside apparel, but make very few casts at a place like rocky ford, (or anywhere you're not just blind casting). They carefully consider each presentation. I prefer to just make mistakes repeatedly and say I've learned from them, then make them again. Wish: that a fish will come along and eat your fly. or Wimper because your fingers are numb, or Weave (ala Emer Fudd), and go somewhere warmer that serves alcoholic beverages and fries.

What, you were expecting serious information?

OK. The fishing at rocky ford has been excellent. Scuds, midges, streamers, buggers, attractors....all work. The most consistent results are achieved with scuds and midges, buggers in lower light. Mix up the pace on the streamer/bugger retrieve....It seems like some days you can't strip fast enough (which coincidently is a problem Seth has in the work place), and other days stripping and pulsing the fly at a medium or intermittent pace will take you to that euphoric place known as, among other things, 'fish-onsville'. Mmm'Kay?

The Middle and South Forks of the Snoqualmie River above the falls are open to catch and release fishing all year, so, now with our devastatingly low clear water foiling some of the steelhead enthusiasm take heart in the fact that low clear water is good for the Trouting. You may not see clouds of egg-laying mayflies being gobbled up by eager, bloated trout, but the nymph and streamer fishing has been good enough for a few of the Creekside family (that's you) to shed their suits and ties and voicemailboxes long enough to remember what it's like to actually fish instead of writing in circles about it. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Good luck to you all, and thanks to everyone who made this report possible - my producer Hugh, my muse Mike B. Kinney, my sound tech Peter, my uncle James, my fisheries consultant John, my mixmaster Jens and last but not least I couldn't have done this without the big steelhead in the sky.

Seth Taylor
Hugh Pastoriza
Creekside Angling Company
1180 N.W. Gilman Blvd.
Issaquah, WA 98027
www.creeksideangling.com
email- info@creeksideangling.com
ph. 425.392.3800
fax. 425.557.8928
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