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Yakima River Conditions Links:
Yakima River Water Temperatures NOAA's Hydrologic Prediction Service Yakima River Basinwide Flow Site Yakima River Basin Storage Diagram -This is our current fly fishing report for destinations throughout Washington State, focused mostly on our main attraction, the Yakima River. The previous years fly fishing reports (linked above) are also a great resource for you. -December 30th, 2006 -It is very cold here in the Kittitas Valley, and the river is fishable but boy it's cold. The canyon is fairly iced up currently, so focus your efforts further upstream or honestly a float will be tough so hit one of your favorite wading holes for a few hours and get back inside to stay warm. For the drift boat fly flingers watch out at the put ins and take outs as they are very slick, and some have deep snow. For reference we have a foot of snow here at my house. My last guide trip right before the ice up went fair. We've caught more fish on winter outings, and we've caught less, so all in all it was fun, but boy howdy it was cold! Water temperatures were ranging from 36 to 37 degrees, but are now riding just above freezing. It's amazing how active a rainbow and whitefish will be at 36 to 40 degrees, and less as the temperatures decrease. At 32.5 these fish aren't to busy chasing flies. Merry Christmas to all, and happy New Year. We appreciate all those who fished with us in 2006, and look forward to another great season in 2007. Let's go fishin! -November 17th, 2006 -If your from Washington State or beyond you know that we've had considerable rain recently and high stream flows now for several weeks. The Yakima did not flood as bad as many of the Western Washington streams, but boy did we see some flows. It's fun to watch the hydrographs, and see the rivers act as they always have, and should. I'd put off a trip to the Yakima, until we get down below 1500 cfs or so. Some of the best nymphing of the year is in the first few weeks of December, so keep that in mind. If you've fished it than with the --- fly you know what I mean. If you need a fishing fix, here's where I've been thinking I need to go: Lake Lenore for lahontans, Rocky Ford for rainbows, Lake Lenice for rainbows, and browns, and the Tucannan River for steelhead. We'll see if I can break away from thesis research to fish. Pray for me! -October 13th, 2006 -I could pretty much ditto what I mentioned last week, and add that it really doesn't get much better or prettier than right now for a guide trip on the Yakima River. I'll be guiding again tomorrow and can't wait! When can you come? -October 7th, 2006 -The mahogany duns are light brown in sizes 14 to 18. The bwos are green in sizes 16 to 20. The fish lately have been keying in more on the emerging bugs, meaning they are starting to pod up more. Craneflies in a size 10 or 12 have been GOOOOD! Yesterday we fished October Caddis adults and also did well. The nymphing has been hard to beat with stone nymphs and size 18 droppers, like lightning bugs, copper johns, and WD-40s. Most of our fish have been taken on the nymphs. Now is the time to book a guide trip, and it will be good until mid November or so. We’ll float what’s been hot; we have the upper river with less fish but some hoggs, the farmlands with a lot of fish but the average is smaller, and the canyon with a ton of fish with a larger average size, but way more people. It’s hard to beat fall outings. -September 13th, 2006 -Guiding and fishing has been good! We've been guiding both the farmlands and the lower canyon. Yesterday we ran a half day down the lower canyon and our efforts produced 5 fish over 15 inches and better than 20 fish to the boat in 3 to 4 hours. The Yakima is fishin'! Remember here that fish to the boat totals are great, but when you consider the fact that roughly half to 1/4 of all the fish we had shots at got off, than we have had plenty of action on the fly! I love this time of the year. I had a couple of first time fly fishers out the other day, and I'll tell you what nothing beats watching people pick up the fly rod and gain an appreciation for fly flingin'. I had a guy say, "hey this is really fun" - yes it is. We've been guiding and getting out to fish as often as possible. The family and I spent a week in Montana and Idaho recently, and we had a ball fishing the South Fork Snake for browns, Yellowstone cutts, and rainbows, the Henry's Fork for browns and rainbows, and the Bitteroot for cutts, cutt-bows, and rainbows. Check my photos page, I'll get some client pics and vacation shots up. Life has been good, and I expect great fall fishing! The weather has turned a bit cool today and I welcome the cloud cover and decrease in ambient air temperatures. This will help the fairly warm Yakima River Canyon water temperatures. If you need to take a picture of a fish do it quickly, and get that precious resource back in the water to swim another day. Let's go fishin'! -August 16th, 2006 -Well I've guided trips to the upper river from Cle Elum down and in the canyon, and the fishing has been pretty good. The cool water releases from the Cle Elum reservoir offer us a chance to fish each day without any closers. Montana rivers have seen afternoon and evening closers because of elevated water temperatures. The Yakima continues to impress me with what it can offer us. The upper river has been putting out about 1/2 cutthroat to rainbow catches, and it's been a rainbow game in the canyon. You can honestly toss dry flies all day on the upper river and have enough action to keep you busy. Stop in to see Jim at the Yakima River fly shop in Cle Elum and he'll point you in the right direction. The canyon has been good early or late with dry flies. When the canyon bows were not eating on the surface, we've tandem nymphed (stones and droppers) and caught a lot of fish. We have a few more weeks of hopper fishing tight to the high water banks. High flows are incredible for tight to the bank fishing, where half the fun is tucking that foam attractor perfectly next to the reed canary grass, log, or rip rap, and is improved by a swirl, whack, smack, hit or full on EAT. Set the hook, you've got a fish on! Low flows and fall fishing are just around the corner. We've had a good summer guiding, and expect a very busy fall season. If you have a date in mind call early as my available guide dates will book. -July 25th, 2006 -We continue to guide and fish the river in our summer mode. I have been focusing on dry flies, mostly because I'm sick of watching bobbers/strike indicators and love to see the dry fly takes. If you want to search with dry flies let's hit the early am hours or late pm. Hoppers and stones have worked for us and will continue into early September. Fall dates are filling fast so keep that on the back of your mind. September and October will book solid. Please see the below post for additional fishing information as it's still good for a read. Our new little baby is doing well, my wife is comfortable and life is but a dream. It feels like if I blink I'll miss something, and it's all worth living and seeing. Let's go fishin'! -June 28th, 2006 -Sorry for the delay in posts. We have been fishing and guiding. The Yakima River catch and release trout fishery above Roza dam is at summer flow levels and this will mean longer floats, nymphing in the mornings, with occasional dry fly windows, and the highlight of each day either at first light or near dark with the dries. Recently the river has seen a little spike from Cle Elum reservoir releases, but clarity is fine and I will continue with our scheduled guide trips. I have been encouraging 1/2 day guide trips as the best window is the first 5 hours of the day or the last. The near record heat we're experiencing is tough on folks, so drink plenty of water and put on gobs of sunscreen. This has been a good spring, and now early summer for guide trip bookings, and it's been fun. When flows have been too high for river floats it's been a relief to mix it up a bit with some other destinations. I enjoy the spice of life. Keep the small stream options we have as destinations for guide trips in mind, as now is the time to fish them. The small mountain streams are at fishable flows, and will improve as the summer progresses. We have brookie, cutthroat, rainbow and brown trout opportunities in the mountains or in the desert. -We will be up at Grandma's Lake on the 4th of July fishin' for rainbows and brown trout. Does anyone want to join us? Call or email and we can get out on the lake together. We love the Okanogan and are excited to add Crumbacker lake to our private stillwater fisheries. -As a side note we recently ran a guide trip down to the lower Yakima for smallmouth and had a successful outing. It's hard to complain about 84 fish to the boats. It's been a spinning rod game, but fly fishing will improve as flows get lower and clarity improves down there. The smallies have only been focusing on topwater in the evenings for us, but this will change when the water clears. It's been turbid enough to decrease the water star grass growth, which will help us to continue fishing further into the summer months. I will be guiding down there throughout July. Numbers of smallmouth from here on out can be caught, but the large females have mostly moved out of the system, and back to the Columbia. Flows were just too high to really get into the big fish consistently this spring. We did get a few 3 and 4 pounders though earlier in the spring. -June 1st, 2006 -I'm glad to see that the river has dropped and stabilized. She will fish well over the next few weeks. Caddis, pmd, and large dry fly attractors will prove to be worthy patterns to tie up. Nymphing will turn some heads. Let's get out there and fish. I'll be out tonight for a short float and will be guiding this weekend. Life is good and I'm excited to see great conditions for some Yakima River fly fishing. Today is also opening day for the streams and creeks we all love to fish. A few of them are low enough to fish. -We will be offering trips to a new private lake in the Okanogan called Crumbacker Lake. It's a large rainbow trout fly flingers paradise. Check out these pics and email or call for dates and rates. -We had a great Memorial Day weekend and want to publicly thank the soldiers and serviceman defending our freedom, now and in the past. We enjoyed the weekend fishing in Okanogan county and on the Colville Indian Reservation. We found some gems! Jaclyn and I want to add a plug here for a few businesses that made our trip extremely memorable. -May 22nd, 2006 -Well the river blew out with the record setting warm weather, but she is currently on the drop and will be fishing in the next day or so. The weather has been cooler and the clouds have been a nice break from heat and bright sun. The upper river is pretty fishable and looks very fishy currently, and the farmlands and lower canyon will be back in shape soon. The caddis dry fly fishing should be good by midweek or earlier. If I could pick a time to book a guide trip it would be in the next 2 weeks. Let's keep our fingers crossed that flows will continue to drop and then stabilize. Email or call for openings, and let's go fishing. Thanks a ton, David Child, 509-962-5523, david@dreamflyfishing.com -May 15th, 2006 -The Yakima River is in beautiful shape currently. On our last guide trip we caught rainbows and whitefish nymphing, and had enough dry fly fun to keep things interesting. The coming weeks will bring great caddis emergences (especially in the canyon), but the forecasted high air temperatures may release a great deal of snowpack. Keep an eye on flows. I'm fishing this evening, and as many evenings this week as I can before she blows. We'll see what happens. The lower river smallmouth game has begun, but dirty water and high flows has made us work for the fish we've caught. We are not into the 100+ fish smallie days yet, but we will be once the river shapes up. Check the recent photos page. -May 3rd, 2006 -Sorry for the delay in posting. To say we've been busy is an understatement. April 2006 will go down as the best April we've had for numbers of guide days booked. Fishing was up and down on the Yakima; while some days flows were cooperative and we caught fish after fish, other days we had to work for the handful we brought to the net. Luckily we hit some stillwater options on a few of our guide trips and it saved the day on those occasions. One of my more memorable days guiding lately was out in the Columbia Basin where we targeted bluegill sunfish on poppers. I had two anglers that had never fly fished before and these forgiving sunfish were eager to take a twitched fly. We could have caught as many as you could imagine, and some of them were approaching 8 or 9 inches, a great fight on a light action fly rod, especially when you consider the body shape and hard fighting spunk of bluegill. What a great memory. We've had some beautiful days fishing the upper Yakima, as a majority of the month the farmlands and lower canyon have been out of commission with clarity and high flow issues. It's to be expected considering our warm ambient air temperatures and large snowpack. We will continue to see runoff this spring. Currently the Yakima is getting back into shape. The Teanaway River is the major culprit in increasing flows and decreasing clarity, and right now everything above the Teanaway will be fishing, and the farmlands and lower canyon should be shaping up for some baetis, march brown, caddis dry fly action, and dependable nymphing. The Teanaway has been dropping. On our last float on the Yakima we sighted 3 or 4 salmonfly, so that's a plus for large dry fly tossing. The Yakima doesn't get incredible salmon fly hatches like some of Western Montana or streams like the Deschutes in Oregon, but the rainbows and cutthroat do know that the food source is available. Right before dusk do not be afraid to work a good cutbank with a large dry attractor. -I've also been monitoring flows and water temperatures on the lower Yakima River smallmouth fishery. The fish are there, it's just been hard to plan a trip with the high flows and dirty water. I've been waiting for water temperatures to get up to 58 to 62 degrees, and they are there. I've heard of good reports for fishing when flows have cooperated. We'll be down there this weekend to see if things are rockin'. Now is the time to get the large females, and believe me it's fun! Email me or call to get on the books for our remaining open days in May. Life is good, let's go fishin'! -I will be updating the recent photos page asap, so check back to see your pics. -April 17th, 2006 -The river is on the drop, yahoo! Our trips the last few weeks have gone well. We were able to squeeze 5 of our 6 guide trips in by being creative with our floats on the Yakima River, and hitting other attractions (check the stocking reports, those triploids are fun) to keep us entertained. The Yakima has fished fairly tough, but we've boated some quality fish in the farmlands and several different floats in the upper river. The canyon will be fishing much better over the course of the next few days, as cool night time lows and fairly dry conditions are expected. Time will tell, but we may be in store for some great fishing to come. Blue wings and a few march browns were out on our last outing, and we managed to fool a few fish on the surface. Comparaduns and cripples have done the trick. Before I leave a rising fish and toss him in the "to tough to catch category", I've been trying one last hurrah by tossing a skwala over his head; sometimes it works. Nymphing stone nymphs and droppers have been the norm lately. On the days when clarity has been an issue I've favored a dark stone nymph and a san juan worm. It's been working. We thank all of the anglers who have fished with us so far this season, and look forward to the coming weeks of guiding. It'll be fun! -April 3rd, 2006 -Fishing was great before the recent rains, and is still an option, but it will be a lot more fishing than catching. That was the case the other day on our float as the flows ramped up. We caught fish, but boy did we have to work for the handful or so we boated. The risers we found were super spooky. One or two good casts would get a look and then the fish were down. Often if you wait for a while they'll come back up for your midge or bwo, but the other day when they went down, they stayed down. Caddis were seen and adult dry fly patterns were used to fool multiple fish, so that's a plus. Nymphing also is producing, but let's give the river a few days to stabilize. Just looking at water temperatures alone; diurnal highs were reaching 48 degrees while at the peak of the event (2600 cfs) the water temperatures decreased to 41. That helps explain the decrease in feeding activity, and the flows/clarity issues are also major players. The YAK has stabilized, and NOAA's predicting a receding limb on the hydrograph. It's at 2300 cfs right now. We may be back in business for this weekend. Let's keep our fingers crossed, I've got guide trips lined out. The weatherman is calling for more cloudy skies, and it's raining right now. It's Monday afternoon. We'll see what tomorrow brings. -I wanted to share some kind words I got the other day from a client. I do not do it to boast, I just want to give a happy angler a chance to share his incite on a great day we spent together. Stating that one is a 'Guide', according to Webster's Dictionary, would "imply intimate knowledge of the way and of its dangers and difficulties"...and David delivered beyond all my expectations of what a quality guide should be as we spent our first day together on the Yakima. David combined his formal research based knowledge of entomology, an intimate respectful understanding of the Yak's ever evolving hydrology, a very positive demeanor and a gourmet meal...in order to deliver an educational and memorable day. Looking forward to our next adventure, Kip Keener, Seattle, WA -March 25th, 2006 -I got one guide trip in this week and it was a doozy. We caught fish after fish after fish. I have overcome my cabin fever and have been dreaming of fish eating the dry fly. In fact my dreams last night included rising fish, honest to goodness. Yesterday was the largest midge hatch that I have personally ever seen, and we had rising fish to toss to. A well presented and well tied single or cluster midge was the ticket. I bet we had 20 or so on the midge and landed about a dozen. The midging got good around 1pm. We also landed a few more on bwos, although the hatch never really materialized where we were fishing. The nymphing was good in the am with stone nymphs and the "hot ticket" (email for details). My favorite part of the trip was watching the big bows eat skwalas. We caught many fish on my bullethead and foam skwala patterns. Don't only focus on the tight to the bank holding lies. Come out and ride foam lines and current breaks. The river is seeing pressure, but there have always been ways to get around the pressure and catch a ton of fish. -March 14th, 2006 -We were out for two different floats over this last weekend, and spring fishing is here. I love tossing dry flies and catching fish. We found pods of fish in likely foam lines and inside seams sipping midges and bwos. A good presentation will fool these rainbows. I've got to get in the mode of looking downstream again as I row, so we can anchor in plenty of time to fish to the risers. It's been a long winter, and it's nice to fish dries again. We've been searching with skwala stonefly adult patterns and have had good luck on bullethead patterns and flies tied with foam. Tie your own flies as it's going to catch you more fish, or come out on a guide trip and we'll toss some of my patterns. As for nymphing, I'm sure it's good too. Luckily we've had enough action on top to focus on dry flies during our trips. Life is good. -March 6th, 2006 -Keep in mind that many Eastern Washington stillwater gems have opened. I'm waiting for the air temperatures to increase a bit, and you bet I'll be over there nymphing ice cream cones, zebra midges, blood worms and the like, and of course streamer trolling. As for the Yakima, thank goodness spring is on the way. I love nymphing and don't get me wrong we've had superb winter nymphing, but I'm jazzed about tossing skwala stonefly adults, baetis, and soon we'll be in the midst of my favorite Yakima River hatch: the march browns. I ran a guide trip a day or two ago and we had a ball catching fish. We boated a dozen or more and had the chance to catch twice as many. It was a great day. Vern and Don thanks for the memories. I'll cut and past some kind words from them below, and visit the photos page to see a few pics of our winter season: "Thanks for taking the time to fish with us. Don has only fly fished three other times. We appreciated your tips and patience! We had a great trip, and you made it very special. Good job! I will recommend you to others.....need a reference....feel free to use us!" Vern -Here's some more good news. I have Fridays and Saturdays available for guiding and welcome any and all inquiries. The next few months will be awesome on the YAK. The snow pack is very hard, and I'm hoping for a slow release. Call or email anytime, let's go fishin'! -February 24th, 2006 -All right, now we're back on track for some almost spring fishing on the Yakima. The air temperatures have warmed up and the ice flows are vacant. We got out for a quick afternoon float yesterday and can report that nymphing is productive, streamer tossing will get you some whacks, and a few adult skwala stoneflies are out and about. We saw 5 adults on the water yesterday in the heat of the afternoon. We fished adult skwala dry flies and can report that one hogg was hooked on a size 8 bullethead, olive bodied, rubberleg, female egg sack attached, hand tied job. Another fish was sighted chasing the fly. If that doesn't get you excited about tying adult stonefly patterns than nothing will. Let's get out there! -February 17th, 2006 -Well I was hopeful that we would jump right into some dry fly flingin' in the form of midges, baetis and skwalas on the YAK, but the current cold snap has me a bit frustrated! We are experiencing near record low air temperatures, but it's supposed to warm up early next week. The Yakima is in excellent shape, in that clarity and flows are peachy, but ice flows are making any hopes for "whacking fish" null and void. After going back and forth in my mind trying to convince myself that all is well, I've decided to reschedule my guide trip for this weekend, and honestly if you were planning to come over to fish the Yakima; wait until it warms up a bit and the ice flows bid us farewell. That's my two cents and I'm sticking to it. As a side note, we've just secured access to Grandma's Lake for the 2006 fishing season. May 1st will be the opening day at this private stillwater gem. Holy cow is it going to be good. I'd call me if I were you to check on availability. Definitions to ponder from above: "dry fly flingin'" is what we've been dreaming of all winter, it's the prescription for cabin fever "whacking fish" means you're catching fish after fish, meaning a lot of fish to the fly, and boat "frustrated" means in this case I'm mad at the weather, including the near 0 degree night time lows for mid February, hmmm "null and void" means it's not likely to occur/bummer "peachy" means that flows are just right "all is well" refers to what I was hoping would happen, meaning many fish and fishable conditions for my cleints "if I were you" means, if I could afford a private lake experience I would book Grandma's Lake -February 6th, 2006 -The Yakima has seen fluctuating flows day to day. I was a little apprehensive about a guide trip I ran over the weekend, but was pleasantly surprised by the quality of fishing we had. We floated from Ringer to Bighorn and had a ball nymphing fish after fish. Within the first hour we hooked nearly 15 fish. Granted we didn't land them all, it was a good start. Stone nymphs, san juan worms, and the hot ticket were my weapons, fished with split shot under a buoyant strike indicator. The fish were in the inside seams and in the softer areas of a hole, as opposed to the top of the hole near the riffle. The highlight of our float was the hard fighting 20 incher Ray brought to the net. What a fish and what a battle. The 20 incher had a 10 inch girth at the dorsal. Although higher than normal the river is fishing pretty well. Get out there and enjoy it and hey we hope to run into you at the fly fishing show in Bellevue this next weekend. Stop by the Washington State Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers booth and bid on a trip with us for our 2006 season. Let's go fishin'. -January 26th, 2006 -We are in good shape for some winter fishing currently on the Yakima River, and the report is that Rocky Ford creek is doing well too. For the die hards out there Eastern Washington has some great winter fly fishing options. River flows are on the drop, and are at a good level on the YAK. On a recent float trip down the Yakima we had most of our luck with tandem nymph rigs fished along inside seems and drop offs. We floated in the farmlands, close to Ellensburg. The highlight for me was 3 fish in 3 casts and one measured 17 inches. Ahh, the good olle YAK. If you like the big "Yank" (and if you fish streamers much you know what I mean about the big "Yank") then now is a great time to get out there. I kid you not I had a streamer yank, hook up, and fight with a fish the other day that was in that 20 to 24 inch range. He got off, but I know where he lives now. Let's get em'! -January 14th, 2006 -Happy New Year everyone. The river has been fairly high with the warmer weather and rains lately, but she is on the drop and we'll be out there fooling the trout asap. Rocky Ford is a good winter option when the river is brown. 2006 will be a great year to fish with us here at dreamflyfishing.com. We have many guide trips coming in and more availability in the weeks to come. Fish with me or let me hook you up with one of the many great subcontractor guides we work with. Life is good and the fish are calling. Check out the cool pics I shot the other day.
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