My friend, Lisa, and I braved the weather today and headed to Ellensburg to try the Yakima. It was pouring in Seattle, snowing from Snoqualmie Pass to Cle Elum but actually very nice in Ellensburg. We started down the canyon road only to find it closed due to an accident, a truck turned over and blocked the road just up from Red's. We told the guy at the road closed post we were just fishing so we went in to find water before the road block. Fished from 10-12 between mile 19 & 18 but got no hits, saw no rises, etc... The water was a bit higher and colder than my last visit and full of leaves, grass, branches, and other assorted garbage from the wind yesterday. My biggest catch on that stretch was a really big leaf. Saw a few small BWOs in this stretch but no fish up taking them. From 12-2 we fished up from Umtanum and did much better. I landed 5 rainbows in the 12-14" range, lost one and had a few other potential takes. All fish were on a #18 PT that I had dropped behind a #14 BHPT. Lisa got skunked but this was only her 3rd trip out and the fishing was a bit tougher than it was on the last few trips over there. The wind was getting pretty horrid by 2 and the clouds/rain were on the way so we bailed and got to drive through rain most of the way home.
Tim
