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.  We've been at it for 9 great seasons.

Wow, DeVar's 1st Klick STEEL

Klickitat Steelhead for Jeff

Awesome Yakima River BOW Norm!

-December 24th, 2009

-I hope you all have the best Christmas and New Years celebrations ever.  Spend the time with those you love doing the things you love.  Wet a line if you get a chance.  I'm heading to Rufus Woods reservoir for some monster trout and to Lake Chelan to fish for mackinaw.  It should be fun.  See you next year!  Thanks for a great 2009.  2010 will be even better with more guide trip options!

-December 9th, 2009

-I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends and ate way to much food!  I don't have much of a fishing report; it's been cold enough lately that I've been wimping out (-6° with the wind chill in the morning and a high today forecasted for 18°).  I say if you are fishing in this than you are a better man than me, good luck.  It'll warm up soon.  Let's get you on the calendar for a winter trip, they're $225 this year.  We also have gift certificates for trips, so email or call if you would like to purchase one as a Christmas present.

-The Yakima needs to unthaw!  Big Pines

Bighorn and Ringer    

-November 21st, 2009

-I've got one thing to say, wow!  This has been my favorite fall for fishing!  The Yakima has been uncrowned and the steelhead have been addictive to say the least.  Guide bookings remain low, while the fishing continues to get better.  If you need a fishing fix please do keep me in mind. 

-Have a great Thanksgiving holiday next week.  Family it's all about time. 

-October 27th, 2009

-Today is my birthday, yahoo.  Fishing for trout and steelhead is hard to beat on the Yakima and the Klickitat.  Here's a Klickitat birthday steelhead for me, taken on an egg nymph. 

-October 19th, 2009

-Wow, get out and fish!

-October 12th, 2009

-Happy Columbus Day!  I've had just about as much fun as a guy can have fishing for steelhead and trout.  This has been an incredible September and October.  If steelhead fishing is your passion than this is the year for you to pick up a rod!  We've caught so many steelhead lately that it's just plain silly!  The return is the 2nd highest on record to the Columbia River.  The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has made it mandatory to keep hatchery fish when caught on several upper Columbia River tributaries to allow more wild fish to pair and spawn with wild fish later this spring.  I have complied with the regulation and have a freezer full of hatchery steelhead.  They have been incredible table fare!  Catch and release trout fishing on the Yakima River has also been mighty fine; our guide trips this fall have been outstanding.  This last Saturday Roman, Tom and I were grinning from ear to ear from the first hole where we hooked 3 or 4 and landed 2 to the next as we did similarly, over, and over and over.  If you like to catch fish on a fly than now is the time to hit the YAK.  We've nymphed before the mayfly hatch and fished a small parachute bwo (size 16-20) during the hatch with a small cripple (size 18-20) dropped back behind.  Let the hatch evolve, meaning you may need to wait on a hole you know is good for risers until the hatch happens.  If it's really cold outside than the baetis and mahoganies may not really be strong until 3pm.  That is what I experienced today.  If you like to watch the bobber (strike indicator) go down a lot and fish coming up to eat your dry fly than I'd book a guide trip before it's to late.  By mid November things start to slow down.  I hope you looked closely at that rainbow trout Norm got early this fall (pic above) as that is a true legitimate Yakima River hogg!  I'm working on getting my photos page up to date, so keep checking back, click here.      

-September 9th, 2009

-It's been a great summer to fish!  We've covered the state in search of Chinook, coho, steelhead, trout, bass and panfish of late.  I'd like to say that it was all on guide trips, but it wasn't.  I'll be honest.  My guide trip bookings are way, way down, so to fill the freezer and to fill my need to get out on the water I've been fishing all of those places I've had on the "to do" list for years.  The guide bookings are coming in for our fall fishing, so I'm excited about that!  The economy should turn around at some point.  Fall fishing on the Yakima River for trout is my favorite past time.  The river has dropped to low fall flows and our mayfly hatches are emerging in the afternoons.  Fishing nymphs up to the hatch is productive and having a dry fly rod ready is recommended, strung up with a 9 foot 5X tippet.  Tossing tiny mayfly dries to risers is hard to beat.  Into the evenings the trout will start keying in on our fall caddis soon.  Don't overlook the power of a well tied cranefly pattern too during September and early October days.  Sorry, can't give you the recipe here.  Give me a ring and we'll go toss some on a guide trip, 509-965-1675. 

-August 6th, 2009

-Summer fishing continues on the good old Yakima River.  I guided last night and it was really, really good!  We nymphed for a while, but went to the big dry fly once the canyon walls started casting some shade.  I'm telling you we had fishing like unto "way back when", when I used to love heading down to the canyon for an evening float.  Last night was refreshing!  My clients from Texas were jazzed with the fish attacking their Chernobyl ants.  Toss in some homeade/homesmoked salmon and whalla, fun times!  The cooler weather we're seeing is a welcomed relief from the heat waves of July.  We saw triple digits for to long.  For those smallmouth bass enthusiasts out there give me a ring as I've got some spots within 45 minutes of Ellensburg that will be fun for the rest of the month.  We also continue to explore and fish small streams throughout the area that are fishing well and will throughout the rest of the summer and fall.  Now is the time to book with www.dreamflyfishing.com.    

-July 14th, 2009

-Summer 2009 is in full swing.  Let's get you out really early in the morning or late in the evening for some dry fly fishing on the Yakima River.  This is action to right home about.  For the bass enthusiasts you need to get on the water with us.  For the creek enthusiasts, now is the time to hit the mountain streams for beautiful native rainbows, cutthroat and brook trout.

-July 1st, 2009

-June was a great month and thank goodness.  Summer 2009 fishing will be awesome!  I'm excited.  We've been out on the Yakima River around Cle Elum, Ellensburg, and Richland Washington chasing rainbow trout and cutthroat up high in the system and smallmouth bass down low.  Nymphing a stone nymph with a beadhead dropper in a size 12 to 18 size range has been a staple for trout.  Dry dropper techniques have also been fun, so a size 6, 8 or 10 large dry attractor with a beadhead prince or lightning bug or flashback pheasant tail or ... has been good.  We've also had spotty chances, but good ones at match the hatch pmd mayfly fishing, so that's been fun.  Our largest cutthroat came on a parachute pmd in a size 14 during a hatch on the upper Yakima near Cle Elum the other day. 

-For bass we've had fun with about everything we've tossed out there!  Let's go fishin'.      

-May 20th, 2009

-The river is blown currently, but the bass in the basin are biting!  I'd call me if I were you. 

-May 12th, 2009

-We're still in a "hit the river when it's fishable" mode.  With as much snow as we have it's crazy but runoff may just be starting.  I don't remember a spring that came so late, and our recent mountain snow storms have been crazy.  I heard Snoqualmie Pass was closed recently for a snow storm.  It's mid May, come on!  Check out our snotel sites in the Upper and Lower Yakima River Basin, we've got some snow!  Our reservoirs will likely continue releases to make available storage space for within reservoir runoff.  For fun you can monitor the storage levels.  We'll have fishable sections to hit between runoff events, so let's get you on the books for some tandem nymphing, caddis dry fly fishing, and the potential to fool a few on large dry stone attractors.  As a back up let's get you out to fish some of our stillwater gems if the river flows are compromised.  I'll put a package together that will be really fun for bass or trout, whatever your preference.  I'm going to run a May 2009 only special, fitting based on our current economic slump.  Let's call it the Slump Special - $100 off all trips for the month of May.  That'll get me out guiding more and you on the water for a good time at a great price!  Please mention the Slump Special when you book.       

-May 1st, 2009

-As a quick update.  We're fishing!  The river is in great shape for trout and bass.  Let's get out there!  It's only going to get better from here on.  Keep your fingers crossed that water flows will cooperate.  We need to hit the river between runoff events and I really hope to see some nice warm spring weather at some point.  This has been a long winter and cool early spring.   

-April 20th, 2009

-Our guide trips of late have gone OK.  The river has been up and down as usual with spring runoff, so it's been hard to predict when the good olle YAK will fish.  We felt pretty good with the 8 or so fish we got the other day, including a 16 incher that fought like a tank with a 4 foot acrobatic aerial mixed in, so that was fun.  We experienced a great March brown emergence with a few bwos mixed in, but only saw 3 risers.  Stocking and casting to rising fish is my favorite way to fish the Yakima, but I need rising fish.  The bows are on the spawn, so that could contribute to the distraction.  I've learned that simply put the Yakima River rainbows can be fickle, especially in the spring.  It could be red hot one day and cold the next.  When the Yakima has been out of shape we've had great outings to stillwater fisheries for trout.  The general season opener is on the 25th, so grab a kid or grandpa and hit the lakes.  For the bass enthusiasts out there we're just about there.  The lower Yakima is warming up and the smolt outmigration is beginning, so when the smallies enter the river and smolts head to the ocean, whalla, you have some good fishing.  I know everyone likes to catch and release all their fish, but here's a plug for salmon protection.  Consider keeping some smallmouth, they taste gooooood.  As a side note I caught some largemouth bass the other day in the basin, it too is just about to happen.  This warm spring weather is awesome for lake fishing, but will raise the Yakima for trout fishing.  That's OK, we have other places to fish.  For a fun break from Washington fishing, click here to see some highlights from my fishing in the Gulf of Mexico when visiting family for spring break.         

-March 13th, 2009

-We had several good eats on our skwala dry flies today.  It wasn't red hott on the surface, but we did hook some fish with dries.  Spring is almost here; I can feel it.  Nymphing produced another 12 fish, so all in all my clients were happy and so was I!  It's hard to beat a day on the river.  The weather was beautiful and much warmer than earlier this week.  March is a perfect time to get out on the river and overcome your cabin fever.  The good old Yakima is fishing well and is in great shape in clarity and flow.  It's time to book an outing.  We've also learned firsthand and have heard that the Columbia basin lakes are producing rainbows and brown trout.  I check www.washingtonlakes.com often for fishing reports and can't say enough good things about www.washingtonflyfishing.com for cyber fishin'.  For the reel thing though get out there and hook a few for yourself.  Let's get you out there for a 2009 date, call or email for availability.  We're off to a good start in 2009.  Our guide trips so far have gone well.   

-February 9th, 2009

-We got out for a winter float the other day and had a ball.  We landed 10 or so fish, with a nice streamer eating 16 incher thrown in the bag.  The whitefish on the nymph dominated our fish to the boat totals.  We had action from 12:30pm to around 4pm.  The late afternoons have been good on the nymph and the streamer with a twitch or swing.  My big fish came on a downstream chase with a light twitch.  Olive and black are my favorite streamer colors, and it's hard to beat the sculpzilla!  For nymphing use your standard stonefly as the lead or try a san juan worm and drop a small 14 to 18 beadhead dropper off the back.  A fellow Yakima fly fisherman, Daryl Smoots' Bloody Mary has been gooooooood for me this winter.  Let's get out there in 2009.  We're riding in style for this guide season with our new wheels and trusty RO drift boat.  Let's go fishin'! 

-January 11th, 2009

-Happy new year everyone!  I hope the holidays were good to you and your families.  I had some good times with the family, ate to much, so it's definitely time to recuperate with some fishing and exercise.  2009 started off with a bang here on the Yakima with ice damming, flooding in the Kittitas Valley and higher flows than I've seen in the Yakima above Roza Dam.  Click on our recent photos page to see some pictures.  We express our heartfelt wishes to all that may have been affected by the crazy weather, flooding and storms throughout the state. 

-We're looking forward to a busy 2009 guiding season on the Yakima and throughout Eastern Washington.  I would say we are 1 to 2 months out from good consistent daily fishing.  Take advantage of our winter rates until March 1st for a winter Yakima River float trip.