My 14-year old son had no school yesterday (Monday) so I ditched work and we
hit the Yakima.
We floated and fished from the Diversion Dam near Thorp to Rhinehart Park in
Ellensburg. 10 miles or so. We put in about noon and floated until 6:30.
Water l-o-w. Temperature in the low-mid 80's and sunny. And no wind! (A big
bonus this year for Yakima flyfishers.)
The fishing was not as good as I expected or experienced in past years in
late September. We might have hooked 2 dozen fish. We did catch a couple of
large fish. A 17-inch cut-bow landed and my son had a hog release early. But
overall, I thought both quantity and quality were down.
We mostly fished stimulator/hopper/madame X dries with prince and pheasant
tail nymph droppers. I fished buggers and streamers for an hour or so with
nary a take. No surface activity, although we left before the dusk caddis
hatch may have come off. (The highlite of the day was when my son had a
double hook-up with the dropper set-up and that created quite a ruckus.)
In retrospect I would have fished further downriver.
But there were no other boats on the river. It was peaceful and warm. And my
son and I both agreed; it beat the hell out of school and work.
Gary Meyers
Kirkland
