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Diagnosis: Patient is highly deprived of fishing time; need to fish
more, immediately.
Prescription: Go fishing. There's no time like the present. Waters
are low and clear. Fish are hungry, mad, and have very small brains.
You can fool them. You can catch them. Be the ball.
The Yakima River is fishing very well.
The water is low. The water is clear. The river is wadeable throughout.
The fish are there, and the bugs are there. Go make beautiful music
with them. This time of year, the river fishes consistently well,
(at least moreso than at any other time). Bring Elk Hair Caddis
flies, especially for the evening hatch, in brown or olive sized
small, down to #18. Bring Orange Stimulators to emulate the big
October Caddis #8, 10) (We have a very nice rubberlegged pattern
that imitates the October very well)- another evening affair, although
you may see a few fluttering about during the day. You'll also notice
the pupa on the bottom in their big cases. A larger Hare's Ear can
imitate this, but there are several other patterns in Issaquah's
Premier Fly Shop that'll do a better job. Bring Baetis for midday.
Blue Winged Olives (BWO), sized #18-22 are effective imitations
of the Baetis fly, but they're inanely small and tough to fish unless
you have good light and consistent or isolated rises from which
to judge when to set the hook. There have also been reports of Pale
Evening Duns, which you can easily imitate with any light colored
(cream, tan, light yellow) mayfly imitation in #14-16. The usual
nymphs will work equally as well, if not better: princes, pheasant
tails, hares ears, zug bug #14-16. Bead head nymphs get deeper more
quickly. The beads refract light and attract attention to the fly.
'They work good' as heard in the shop recently. True enough.
I'll repeat my little strong headed know-it-all opinion vigorously
and long-mindedly expressed last week: THIS IS THE BEST TIME OF
YEAR FOR ALL KINDS OF FISHING AROUND HERE!!! There it is.
Steelheading has been pretty slow. The
best reports are coming from the Snoqualmie, and they are pretty
few and far between. The fish are there, however, and those who
have been going out after them, for the most part, have been hooking
a few. Easy access can be realized; Fall City has some great holding
water right through town. Above there, at Plum Landing, near the
mouth of Tokul Creek offers some good, wadeable, fishy water, and
down in Carnation at the mouth of the Tolt and downstream. You have
nothing to lose.
Sea Run Cutthroat are showing some pretty
good numbers in the Snohomish river system (Snoqualmie, Skykomish),
look for frog (very slow) water and pitch a Knudsen Spider or Purple
Joe at the bank and strip it back. You'll be pleasantly surprised.
The Stillaguamish is also a great sea run stream. Same tactics.
The presentation is more important than the fly pattern. Mike Kinney,
who works in the shop each Thursday and Friday is our resident Stilly
expert, and guides the river for Sea Runs with great success. Give
him a call for a trip or stop by for some how-to.
Puget Sound: The south sound is producing
more fish than up north. The conditions haven't changed much from
last week. Silvers have yet to show in good numbers and size, but
the residents are available off the beaches. Cutthroat abound. Cast
'n Strip a baitfish imitation on the incoming (arguable) tide with
a slow sinking line. You are what you eat. Keep that mindset and
you'll find fish.
We've had a few smattered reports on local lakes,
but nothing to write home about, the higher lakes are turning on
strong and the weather has been cooperative so break your hiking/camping
gear back out and do it. Remember that the high lakes are experiencing
what we saw in the lowland lakes in May, Bug-wise. Damsels, Dragons,
Callibaetis, waterboatmen, Woolly Buggers. You know the drill. Getting
there is the greatest challenge. The fish are hungry.
That's about all I can come up with today, but I'm sure many of
you are cursing my name for excluding something really meaningful.
My Apologies.
Have a marvelous Weekend.
Hugh Pastoriza
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Angling Company All Rights Reserved
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