This should hopefully answer questions from both John Sanders and Eric
Hausman regarding Yakima River fishing.
John, there are snags and trees and brush in the Ellensburg Ranchlands
section of the Yakima, particularly the three-mile section from the
Rhinehart Park boat access to the Ringer Road boat access. You may have
noticed the signs at Rhinehart Park that say "Yakima River closed next three
miles due to dangerous conditions."
However, many people float through this section; the guides from
Worley-Bugger in Ellensburg and the Evening Hatch in Yakima do it every day
in drift boats. I would not take a one-man pontoon boat down there unless
the water was pretty low (just because the ones that I have been in don't
seem to have much rowing capability in a have-to-move-quickly tight spot,
especially when the water is moving fast and high), but I take my 13' raft
down there all the time. Also, If you're in a pontoon boat, I assume you are
using the boat to get to spots where you can wade, as opposed to fishing out
of a moving raft or drift boat. This section of water is good fishing and
wadeable when the water is low, it's a bitch to wade when the water is up.
The water in the Yakima system usually starts dropping now, around Labor
Day. I'm no expert on this and I may have some of the information below in
error, but what I believe takes place is the "flip flop," where the Tieton
River west of Yakima becomes the primary source for lower Yakima area
irrigation and salmon migration. If you're a white-water enthusiast, you may
have floated the Tieton in September, when water is unleashed from the
Rimrock Lake Reservoir and there's a couple of weeks of good Class-3-4
white-water. The water that had been pumping out the reservoirs at
Snoqualmie Pass, Lake Eaton and Cle Elum is consequently reduced and the
river from the city of Yakima upstream drops significantly and provides what
many Yakima fly fishers feel are the two best months of the year (Sept-Oct),
fishing-wise.
The entire river from Roza Dam gets more wadeable, especially in October.
The area, that you are referencing, Eric, upstream from the Cle Elum Fish
and Game boat launch is nice for wading.
The accidents I referred to and the drowning at the spillway were all
floating-related, and would not affect any wading plans.
A big caveat to all the above is that a newspaper article in last Saturday's
PI said that this year's flip-flop was going to be timed differently because
of the spillway boating accidents/drownings (in which three people in
separate incidents have lost their lives this year trying to float past the
spillway when warning signs instruct all floaters to get out and portage).
A good source of information on daily water levels and fishing reports can
be obtained from the following web sites produced by both the Worley-Bugger
and Evening Hatch guide service web sites.
Take 'em both with a grain of salt when reading the fishing reports, but
they have good links and information on current water levels.
http://www.worleybuggerflyco.com/yakima_river_conditions.htm
http://www.theeveninghatch.com/index.htm
Hope this is helpful
Gary Meyers
Kirkland
>>
>> A couple of quick questions for you Steelhead experts. The fin clipped fish
>> I talked about seemed too large to be small steelhead. Do some hatchery
>> steelhead never make the run out to see and stay in the river year around? I
>> would assume that just as every rainbow is not a steelhead, not every
>> fingerling in the hatchery makes the trip downstream. I will have to profess
>> my total ignorance on the topic.
>
>
> Thanks for your great report. I love to read reports like these,
> especially after another no-fish weekend.
>
> First off, I am not a fisheries expert nor do I play one on TV.
>
> But I work with a few. And there are several things that fisheries
> biologists like to argue about, and one is the rainbow/steelhead issue.
> One camp says that rainbows and steelhead cannot co-exist on the same
> river system, and the other camp says they can.
>
> The vast majority of the steelhead and rainbows that have been planted
> in the world are said to come from stock from the McCloud River in
> Northern California. These Shasta rainbows are about 100 miles from the
> Pacific without natural barrier to the ocean, presumably with a native
> steelhead run from the coast.
>
> Within populations of salmonids there is a tendency to wander, to
> different streams as adults, to being chinook that rear for a year in
> the river versus going almost straight out to sea. This also seems to
> relate to in the sockeye staying in the natal lake rather than leaving
> as most do after their first year in the lake.
>
> Now, McCloud rainbows were the stock that produced the Great Lakes
> steelhead, so that seems to show that there is some tendency to migrate,
> as in other places these fish stay put.
>
> I tend to feel that there is some connection between rainbows and
> steelhead, and I have personal experience like yours. Last winter I
> caught a nice chunky rainbow from the Snoqualmie River while
> steelheading. But there are still those who will refute my observation
> and tell me it was a steelhead smolt. Humph. I didn't see any parr
> marks, it kinda looked like a rainbow to me.
>
> Take care of that knee.
>
> Rob
>
>
>
>
>
