Creekside Angling Company

The Back to Normal Fishing Report

Apologies for the lack of a report last time around. Creeky took a hit during the mini-ice age of Seattle two weeks ago and we were forced to shut down for several days, but things are back to normal and we are happy to share with you that along with the power being back on and road conditions becoming a fair degree safer, the fishing is back on track and lets hope it is uphill from here!

February is a month of transition for many wintertime anglers. The Puget sound river steelhead season closes, along with a shift on the coast from primarily hatchery fish to big, strong natives. At this time of the year anglers who are willing to make the trek will turn their attention the the rivers of the Olympic Peninsula.

Others will be boarding flights to far off places where pristine sand flats and tailing bonefish and permit await. But you do not have to go half way around the world to get your fishing fix, or even out to the coast. There is still good fishing to be had right under our noses here in the Seattle area. It is just a matter of taking the time to look!

HEY! YOU! Send in photos of fish you've captured and we will put them on our website in our Catch of the Week section. Email your photos to info@creeksideangling.com Bonus points for a Creekside hat. Here are a few more for your perusal.

#1 A bright little resident coho I caught the other day while fishing a local beach. The beaches are fishing very well right now if you know where to go and what to look for! Come by the shop if you would like some pointers on this fantastic and understated fishery!
#2 This big, beautiful bonefish got caught slippin' by Kelsey Kingsolver on his recent excursion to Christmas Island. We can't stand the amazing reports and photos coming from Christmas any longer! got the dates in the calendar and I will be hosting a group of 8 anglers here in 2013, if you are interested in getting in on the action check out the dates at the bottom of the report and stay tuned for more info to come!
#3 Chris Kilgore lookin jazzed with his first ever steelhead caught out of the Cowlitz river, and a heavy-shouldered buck at that! Great job Chris!

For more pics and updated fly tying instruction/videos check out our blog here.

Yakima: Most of the ice has thawed away from the banks of the Yakima now and the fishing has improved. As the days continue to get longer look for the skwala stonefly nymphs to begin their migration towards the soft edges of the river as they prepare to hatch. During this time a small (#8-12) olive or tan/brown stonefly nymph with a midge or baetis dropper will score some nice chunky Yakima rainbows! Of course, the streamer game is still in play and will remain your best chance at a fatty. Flies to try are: Olive or Natural Sculpzilla #4, Mini Loop Sculpin in Olive or Black, Weir's Sculpin, The Gonga in olive, Pat's Stonefly #6-10,Curtis's Thunder Emerger #18-22, BH Pheasant Tail nymph #16-20, WD-40 olive, brown, gray #18-22, Lightning Bug Pearl #18-20, Micro Mayfly #18-20, Zebra Midge #18-20 in black or red, Brassie in copper or red #16-20, Griffith's gnat #16-20.

Steelhead/Salmon: Most steelhead anglers are turning their attention to rivers on the coast. The fishing has been very good on the Hoh, Queets, and all the Quileute rivers with weather conditions and river flows taken into consideration. We had reports of wild fish showing up on the Hoh, Bogachiel and Sol Duc rivers as early as three weeks ago. From now through April is the time to be there for your best chance at a trophy steelhead! While anglers with single hand rods and nymphing gear can certainly score using yarn egg patterns and beads, keep in mind that a two handed rod is by far the most enjoyable way to experience steelheading on the Olympic Peninsula. If you are new to this type of fishing consider taking one of Brian Styskal's spey classes or booking with Creekside for a day or two on the river. Our head guide, Chris Senyohl will be guiding on the peninsula through april and would be happy to chow you the ways of the long rod and hopefully guide you into your first, (or hundredth) steelhead!

Know that although the Puget Sound systems are either already closed or closing soon, the Olympic Peninsula is not the only game in town. The Cowlitz river is often completely overlooked by fly anglers and produces top quality steelheading almost year round. We offer guided trips on this river through Dave McCoy of Emerald Water Anglers for those who are interested in a quality steelhead fishing experience a little closer to home. In addition, the Humtulips, Wynoochee, Chehalis and Satsop rivers all have good runs of hatchery and wild steelhead and can all be reached within a 2 hour drive of Seattle. Anglers who are willing to expand their horizons will find good steelheading this season on a number of overlooked rivers! If you want to learn one, or all of these rivers give us a call here at the shop. We can give you the info, or put you in touch with guides that will help you make your steelhead season a successful one! Flies to try: Large marabous in black, purple, red, orange. Traditional winter steelhead/atlantic salmon spey flies. Intruders and Guide intruders in Black/Chartreuse, Black/Blue, Black/Red, Purple/Pink and other contrasting colors. Guide Intruders in the same colors. Egg Sucking Leeches, Big MOALs and Loop Leeches in black and purple,Pick Yer' Pockets and other large profile winter steelhead flies. Fot the bobbicators use big, dark stoneflies and egg/beads. Pat's stonefly (4-10), Jumbo John in black or copper (6-10), Dragg N' Fly (4), Tungsten Retriever nymphs, BH Lifters, Lingerie Eggs, Veiled Eggsare all good bets.

Lakes: Rattlesnake is fishing fair for anglers fishing deep with buggers, leeches and chironomids. Flies to try: Hale Bopp Leeches in Olive and Black, Olive or Black Wooley Buggers, Thin Mints all in size 8 and 10, Water Boatman, Chrome Chironomid, Ice Cream Cone. Note to all hardcore lake fishing junkies: Jay Robeson is back from Alaska and is now booking dates for Issac's Ranch in 2012! Available dates are: April 13th, April 14th, May 12th and May 13th. Jay can take up to 10 rods per trip and the cost is $225.00 per rod. These fill up fast so if you are interested give us a call at the shop and sign up for your chance at some serious gagger bows in 2012!

Rocky Ford: Rocky Ford is fishing well right now. Try a black or olive zonker, sculpzilla or similar baitfish pattern and strip it slowly. Nymphing under a small indicator with tiny midges and scud patterns is also Producing. Flies to try: Zebra midge in Black, Olive, Red #18-22, Softex scud #14-18, Flashback Scud's Olive, Tan #14-18, Kaufmann's BH Scud Olive, Tan #12-18, Hot Spot Scud #14-18, WD-40 Olive, Tan, Gray, Black #16-22, Pheasant Tail Nymph #16-20, Sculpzilla Olive, Black, Natural size 4 or 8.

NaCl Water: The beach fishing has been good in the South Puget Sound area both for sea run cutts and resident silvers. This time of year fish will not hang around in one spot very long so be prepared to fish multiple beaches in a day in order to find the fish. The fish will follow their food source, and when the bait moves the fish move with it! Try scaling back your offerings to smaller sand-lance and euphasiid patterns. During the winter, young of the year and resident coho along with their cutthroat brethren will feed heavily on small nickel to quarter sized plankton. A size 6-8 crazy charlie or gotcha retrieved in short strips will often be all it takes to get these fish to cooperate.

This can be a great time to go out and learn a new beach or try your favorite beach on a new tide. Go at low tide and look for structure, dropoffs, channels, shell or eel grass beds and boulder piles. These clues can help you pinpoint likely areas to fish when the tide comes in. By learning your beaches now, you will have plenty of good places to go when the bait shows up in the coming months and fishing gets red hot!

For more info on this fishery, or to book a guided walk and wade beach trip give us a call here at the shop and we will getyou pointed in the right direction!

Flies To Try: Wests Imitator, Foul Free Herring, Seth's Sand Lance, Muddlers, Wooley Buggers, Miyawaki Poppers, small Crazy Charlies and Gotchas.

Classes/Events:

Christmas Island 2013: Giant Trevally are known for their voracious feeding habits and tenacity when hooked. Every angler I know who has been here and hooked one of these things either re-booked immediately or is drooling for another chance to get out and do it again. Consider that fish in the 30-80lb class, or bigger are consistently HOOKED throughout the year at Christmas. Notice I said HOOKED! More trevally are lost due to break offs on the reef or all out tackle failure then are ever landed, and this is a testament to their incredible fighting ability.

This has been a stellar season thus far and several of our traveling customers have landed fish in this weight class on trips to Christmas Island. Frankly, the constant barrage of fantastic reports is too much to handle anymore, so we booked some dates for 2013 and I will be taking a group of 8 anglers there in March of next year.

Here are the dates for next year:

March 12-19, 2013

Price:$2220/ angler

If you have ever wondered what it would be like to hook a fish that can bust a 12 weight like a twig, this is your chance to find out! If you are interested in going with us call the shop at 425-392-3800 and ask for Charlie.

Stay tuned as we will have more info on this trip and photos/stories from last years anglers to come!

Intermediate Fly Tying- Early Season Hatches on the Yakima:

The skwala stonefly and March brown mayfly hatches on the Yakima are two of the river's most prolific hatches, and two of the most fun hatches to fish! With a good sense of timing, the right fly patterns and a little luck you can have great fun catching fish during the first dry fly fishing opportunities of the year! During this class Charlie Robinton will teach you how to tie and fish proven effective imitations of adult skwala stoneflies and march brown mayflies for fishing these hatches. All materials are included, please bring your own vise/tying tools. $60/person, maximum 5 people.

Where and when:

Wed. Feb 29th, 2012 6:30-9:00 PM at Creekside in Issaquah

Private Spey Casting Instruction-

Winter steelhead time is here and there is no better way to fish for steelhead than with a two handed rod! If you have never fished with a spey rod you are missing out on one of the most fun ways to cast and fish with a fly. Contrary to what the elitists and internet experts would like you to think, spey casting is easy and fun for beginners and will make any level of fisherman a better angler. The concepts and specific casts you learn are invaluable tools that can be transferred over to single handed casting, improving your game on all levels! Learn to cast and fish with a two handed rod by signing up for a private lesson with one of our highly qualified casting instructors. We will walk you through the basics of the single spey, double spey, snap-T, perry poke casting off the right and left shoulder, with an upriver or downriver wind and basic fly presentation for steelhead.

Classes are $100/person for a two hour session. Please call the shop for additional information.

MASTERING WESTERN RIVERS & LAKES
with Rick Hafele and Skip Morris

Saturday Feb 25 & Sunday Feb 26, 2012 Issaquah, WA
Nationally known fly-fishing authors/instructors Skip Morris and Rick Hafele will
take you to a new level of understanding for fishing trout rivers and lakes. During this
two-day workshop they will teach you about the insects that move the fish (Rick has
been fly fishing for over 45 years, and has a degree in aquatic entomology), how to
imitate those insects with the right flies (Skip is a skilled and versatile fly fisher
with almost 50 years of experience, and a true fly- tying master who will demonstrate how
to tie some of his favorite patterns), the techniques for fishing the flies effectively,
how to read the water, and more.

Saturday is all about the hatches, patterns, and tactics for fishing streams.
Sunday is all about the hatches, patterns and tactics for lakes. You can sign up for both
days or only one of the two.

Skip and Rick have taught together for years and have an easy and friendly style.
Their programs are also clear and professionally produced--the information will
be understandable and useful to both beginner and experienced fly fishers. Between them,
they have written 17 books on fly-fishing topics, have played host on numerous
instructional fly-fishing DVDs, and are frequent speakers around the country.

The dates, again, are February 25 & 25, 2012. The place is the Hilton Garden Inn, in
Issaquah, Washington (1800 NW Gilman Blvd). Each day begins at 9:00am and ends at 5:00pm
with a break for lunch and a few minutes between presentations.

Cost: $145 for both days, $80 for either day (members of sponsoring fly clubs pay
$125 for both days and $70 for one day).
Class size limited and pre-registration required.

For more information and to register, go on-line: http://hookednow.com/events

Final Workshop Schedule:

MASTERING WESTERN RIVERS AND LAKES
SKIP MORRIS & RICK HAFELE
Workshop Schedule - Issaquah, WA - Feb 25 & 26, 2012
Day 1 Rivers & Streams 9am - 5pm
9:00 - 10:00 Intros & Understanding nymphs 1 (Rick) - Mayflies & Stoneflies: What they
look like and how they behave.
10:00 - 10:15 Break
10:15 - 11:10 Fishing nymphs - Skip
11:10 - 12:00 Understanding nymphs 2 (Rick) - Caddisflies & Diptera: What they look like and how they behave. (Plus some common nymph fishing mistakes!)
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 1:45 Understanding emergers and dries 1 (Rick) - Mayflies & Stoneflies
1:45 - 2:00 Break
2:00 - 2:45 Fishing dries - Skip
2:45 - 3:00 Break
3:00 - 3:45 Understanding emergers and dries 2 (Rick) - Caddisflies - Diptera -
Terrestrials
3:45 - end Tying nymphs, emergers and dries - Skip
Day 2 Lakes 9am - 5pm
9:00 - 10:00 Introduction to Lakes - Where are the trout? Equipment? Stillwater
Mayflies - Rick
10:00 - 11:00 Fishing lakes deep - Skip
11:00 - 11:15 Break
11:15 - 12:00 Dragonflies & Damselflies - Skip
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 1:45 More lake insect hatches: Caddis, chironomids - Rick
1:45 - 2:00 Break
2:00 - 3:00 Fishing the surface of lakes - Skip
3:00 - 3:45 Whatʼs left: water boatmen, backswimmers, scuds, & leeches - Rick
3:45 - 4:00 Break
4:00 - end Tying lake patterns - Skip

NEW!! Featured Product for 2/2/2012:

Spirit River Rockstars

Part Moal Leech, part intruder, the Rockstar from Spirit River is a fly that is sure to wiggle its way into the boxes of serious steelhead anglers in the Northwest. When this thing hits the current it really comes alive, and yes, it catches fish! It comes in several enticing color combinations and two different sizes: Mini (2.5" #4) and Jumbo (4" #1/0). If you swing flies for steelhead pick a few of these guys up and give them a wiggle. If that doesn't inspire confidence you may be in the wrong sport!

Price: $3.25/ ea

Come on in to Creekside and check them out today!

Feed Fish Flies.

Charlie Robinton
Creekside Angling Company
Seattle & Issaquah, WA
info@creeksideangling.com
www.creeksideangling.com

Attention Washington anglers: Boating laws in Washington state have changed. If you operate a motorized vessel 15hp or above on Washington waterways you are required by law to take a boating safety course and get your Washington boat license. Be safe while you are out fishing and don't get caught without it!

Take a safe boating course and get your boat license in Washington State to increase your fishing success and safety.

Make a difference. More controversial than the Chicago Blacksox, I'm sure most of you have heard about the proposed Pebble Mine near Bristol Bay Alaska. You've also probably heard about the environmentally disasterous potential this mine poses. Either way please read up on the issue and join the fight to stop the construction of the Pebble Mine. For more info go to Sportsman's Aliiance for Alaska or Renewable Resources Coalition or Save Bristol Bay.

Send us your feedback: info@creeksideangling.com

Creekside Angling Company
1410A NW Gilman Blvd
Issaquah, WA 98027
425-392-3800

1308 4th Ave. At Rainier Square
Seattle, WA 98101
206-405-3474 (FISH)