Whew. We were beginning to think that it would never start raining. Thank goodness. All that excessive great weather was starting to get me down.
Here's the latest local fishing news....

The Yakima River continues to fish well. There are still October Caddisflies coming off the water...that's probably the most consistant hatch. There are also some Baetis and some Pale Evening Duns hatching, but it is a more sporatic occurrance lately. The hatch, according to the Creekside in-house guide, Mike Kinney, has been pretty much limited to about an hour out of the day, generally earlier in the afternoon. The timing is pretty weather dependant...the baetis (BWO #18-20) don't really like to hatch in the bright sun, and when it's windy, we can't really see them come off at all (not that anyone can really see them in the first place). The most effective way to fish the river in these conditions is probably to fish the nymph under an indicator. Depending on the water depth, string a big old prince nymph (say #8-12) about 5 to 7 feet below a strike indicator and fish it through the deeper runs, in tailouts and along the undercut banks. There's nothing to stop you from fishing the nymph below a big orange (or tan) stimulator, either, as the October Caddis and the travelling stones are still a factor and the orange (and tan) stimmy in a #6-10 effectively imitates those bugs. With me??
Other good nymphing patterns are: mostly beadheads as they get down quickly- prince nymph, hares ear (flashback even better), peacock crawler, the copper ribbed pheasant tails work, and I'm sure just about any buggy nymph configuration will do the job. Larry's Lightningbug seems to be the most popular among both the mortals (you and me) and the guides. Bear in mind that the Fall injects a little volatility into the weather situation over there, so be ready for anything. Casting a big weighted nymph against the wind with a huge indicator on the leader builds character, anyway. Wear eye protection!!!

The forks of the Snoqualmie for resident cutthroat have been basically poor...this past weekend dumped a bunch of rain all over the place and blew out everything, and even though they all dropped back into shape pretty well and quickly, I'm not sure the fishing will be to outstanding. Now I'm sure that if you went up and really gave it a good effort you could drum up some fish, and there are undoubtedly several or many of you who live on or near the river and have been slaying 'em, but I have not had the good fortune to try the river above the falls myself of late, nor have I or anyone in the shop spoken to anyone who has related any sort of favorable report. Stick to the Yak or the lakes, which are fishing pretty well.

And on to the local Lakes: There's no reason to believe that all the lakes aren't fishing well right now. Specifically, we've been hearing a little bit about Alice, Dry Falls, Isaak's, and Pass. All have been pretty good when the weather has been tolerable. The late season lake fishery can be hot, particularly with bigger leech imitations (ie. Woolly buggers, etc.). Higher lakes will be getting pretty cold, so don't expect miracles up high. Other than that I don't have alot to say...for a change.

Puget Sound continues to be pretty happening. cutthroat are still available, but fly selection should probably start leaning more towards the attractor patterns than the baitfish imitations. Knudsen Spiders in yellow or charteruse (#8, 10), Sea run Specials, Crazy Charlie's in bright colors, Polar shrimp, etc.. bright, sparce streamers will work. The better locality seems to still be the South Sound. Chums are in the Hood Canal and its tributaries, and are most easily caught, generally speaking, with charteruse anything. More sparcely tied patterns are easier to cast and will last longer than marabou flies, but anything will do. You can't keep 'em yet, but they're in there....

Steelhead suffered some high water over the weekend, and while the Snoqualmie looks pretty fishable (only slightly off color), the Stilly isn't really fishable below Deer Creek, but up around Fortson Mill the water should be O.K.. It's not high, just dirty down low. The Skykomish never really got going, steelhead wise, from what we could gather around here...I've heard of a few fish here and there, but nothing outstanding. There are some silvers coming into the system now, and the Skykomish and the Green River are probably your best bets at present. They're catchable on the Snoqualmie, but some of the best water is accessable only by boat. There is no doubt, however, that the rains and higher water brought fresh anadramous fish into all of the river systems, and as things settle down (or, if they settle down) the fishing should be superb. That includes the sea-run cutthroat. Don't forget about the Sea-Runs!!! They're relatively easy pickins in the slow water. The same attractor patterns mentioned in the Puget Sound paragraph are applicable to the sea-run fishery, as well as the occasional dry fly skated on the surface among the root wads. Be the ball.

That's pretty much it for the local deal...so here's the Off-Campus Report from Yellowstone Park.
In our continuing efforts to fish the planet, Peter & I felt that it was very important to go to Montana last week to celebrate the big brown trout's arrival into the tributaries from the lakes there. As we quickly learned, the Big Rainbows followed them into the rivers, assumably to feast on their preconceived offspring. So, we fished the Madison River, primarily in the park for a few very sunny and windy days. It was windy. We were fishing Big Nymphs dangled off of Big indicators, which is not my favorite methodology by a long shot. It works, though, and ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Did I mention that the freaking wind was blowing?? So to make a largely useless and long story relatively short, we fished pretty hard each day, battling the indicators in the wind, and caught a bunch of rainbows and browns ranging from about 17 to 20"...also, many large whitefish. We tried fishing the Firehole but the baetis weren't out in the predicted strong numbers because (we assume) of the bright sun and wind, but there were a few rising fish here and there, but nothing outstanding. We were pretty suprised by the warm weather too, having geared up for morning frost/snow and bitter cold, it was very mild...around 50-60 each day. We've got some photos here at the shop if anyone's interested.
Thats all from here. If y'all have any specific questions, feel free to stop by, call, or email and we'll do our best to help out.
Go Fishing. Now.

Hugh Pastoriza

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