In the advent of massive rains, the shadow of the Super Bowl Half Time Show, lack of WMD and the injection of a newborn into the life of a textbook terrible two year old...all compounded with the live-in mother-in-law- needless to say putting a severe dent in the sundry items in the household bar and contemplating pilfering painkillers from post-surgical mommy are all a given. That being said, (assuming it makes sense) there's no lack of fishing to discuss, and since that is as close to fishing as I can hope to get in the coming (years), it should serve some therapeutic purpose for all involved. (Excepting yours truly) Hopefully, you will be able to make better use of the following information than I. Also, in order to maintain the extremely high degree of accuracy and seriousness we associate with this publication, the talents of additional regular Creekside Fishing Report contributors have been enlisted.

The Yakima: This is the time to really start thinking about future plans for when you possibly might start talking about thinking about planning an early spring trip. Right now as we drown in local flooding the Skwala stone and Blue Winged Olive nymphs are climbing out of their winter slumber and getting ready think about starting to emerge. We never thought this day would come but good nymphing on the Yakima starts now and only will get better as the month progresses until early March when those first Skwala adults come off. Until then, bring your snow shoes to negotiate the cornices, and a two nymph rig with a heavy #8-10 stonefly and a #14-20 pheasant tail, copper john, (insert your favorite nymph here) trailed off the back will be the ticket. As those nymphs start to move and the stoneflies, especially, start to migrate toward shore, fish will notice, and they will notice your flies too. Just get your flies down deep. Hit the numerous boulder gardens in the Canyon particularly hard and hang on. Remember to bring some streamers along too for the bruisers swimming around in those deeper holes. The water is still cold so the fish are still a little stiff. To imagine what it's like for the fish just think about when you had your first (or second or third) baby. You got up fifteen times throughout the night and bent over the crib each time and then finally got to sleep five minutes before your alarm went off at six am and you got up and...That's the kind of stiff back the fish have now. Regardless, you should get out there and sock it to 'em because, now that caucus madness 2004 is over for us, do we really have anything more important to do?

Brett's Steehead paragraph:
Steelhead: Well now that the mega hatchery runs are waning it's time to think about big, mean, wild fish. Considering you may have been working on your ark a lot the past few weeks, put down the hammer and pick up the fly rod. We have been getting encouraging reports from the Peninsula, including a picture of a beautiful 20+ pound native. Just plan a trip and if the water is high hit the smaller streams like the Pysht or Hoko clear faster than the big rivers. If water conditions are favorable then have at it, the Hoh, Sol Duc, Bogey, Queets, take your pick they will all have fish. Just remember again, that the water is cold and you gotta get DOWN. Type 6 sink tips and big flies are the rule per usual. The local rivers have been up and down in both water level and success rate as of late. It's still, as always, worth your time to get out there before or after work or if anything to work on your Spey casting, and if you do need work on your Spey cast then I would highly advise you to book a day with our own Mike Kinney on the Skagit and learn from 'The Legend' himself.

Seth's steelhead paragraph:
Steelheading is good right now in the local Puget Sound area streams, and all but the Skagit river system will close at the end of this month; so no time like the present to get after it. Cold nights are making for relatively low and clear river conditions here on the west side, and this may mean that smaller flies (#4-#1/0) and longer finer leaders (6'-8lb. test) will be more effective than the giant marabou and bunny patterns that we're the ticket through all the high water periods.

Lakes: unlike the Yak, the early eastside opener has been preceded by chironomids a-popping, and before you know it Callebaetis and Damsels will be hatching. Rmember that the damsel and drygonfly nymphs are available to the fish throughout the year- so don't overlook them just because they're not gang-banging each other on the water. To tide you over, Beaver lake still has plenty of Brood Stockers left to double over your 5 weight. Word has it that the best action is still coming on small dry midge patterns in the middle of the day. Also, if you have a floating craft of any kind, be it a bass boat or a pink air mattress, Lakes Washington and Sammamish have healthy populations of wild Cutthroat and Rainbows, bass, catfish and anything else you can think of.

So please for all of our sake, go fishing; and make sure, if you haven't been in to the shop for a while, come and check out some of our pre-show specials-rods, reels, lines, clothes etc. Also stop by and check out our new addition to the Creekside family, baby Mason Pastoriza. He'll be posing for pictures and signing autographs all week. -Brett

Puget Sound: The resident Coho salmon are available in good numbers and the cutthroat are increasingly present as more poor out of the rivers and back onto the beach to dine, in style, again on the rich bounty of the great estuary. Fishing the beach right now is as viable as any angling option. The same rod, line and even leader that you'd employ for a good day of lobbing nymphs on a Snoqualmie river fork or on the Yakima would be fine for the cast and retrieve presentation needed to tempt the sporty silver or cutt. As usual, all purpose minnow patterns will serve as effective old stand by's. This time of year small and sparse baitfish imitations tend to out produce the large and gaudy ones. Dry flies including popper type patterns will get action, and so will small euphausid imitating bugs.
Fishing in the Sound isn't just for the hearty or for those that are just too foolish to stay inside this time of year; it's for any angler that wants to experience great fishing in a beautiful and crowd free setting. Sometimes the catching is not so good ... that's just fishing. And sometimes the occasional flashes of green and silver that coincide with solid, throbbing, pulls at the end of your line will overload your senses; while orca, sea lions, osprey and heron participate in the fishing with you. -Seth Taylor.

Don't forget the Fly Fishing Show next weekend, February 20-22, 2004 at the Meydenbauer center in Bellevue. Massive displays of flyfishing prowess, testosterone to spare at the casting pools, and lifetimes of information and experience to absorb. Worth the price of admission...Come find us at the Creekside Booth and take a free Creekside Sticker to placard the back of your spouse*, child, competetitors' booth* or public restroom*. *Creekside will disavow any knowledge of such activities.More info at http://www.flyfishingshow.com/seattle.html.

Have a nice day.

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Creekside Angling Company
1180 NW Gilman Blvd
Issaquah, WA 98027
425-392-3800 (voice)
425-557-8928 (fax)
info@creeksideangling.com