I usually fish Thorpe to Ellensburg in the spring and summer but that area started shutting down so I began heading down into the canyon more frequently and yes, it is worth the extra drive. The lower river is full of fish right now and the hatches are heavy on the right day. I've also found the fish appear to be bigger there, higher up I was averaging 8-13" fish in the late summer whereas in the canyon I'm getting 12-14" fish on average plus I've landed my share of 16-18" fish this fall down there.
I almost always start out nymphing until the fish begin coming up then I switch over. Personally, I use attractors in the summer but not much in the late fall, I'd rather upstream nymph a dual-nymph rig knowing I can catch fish on it even though it is a major pain in the ass to cast and undo tangles in. Downstream swinging soft-hackles also works pretty well and avoids some of the tangles. Light tippets are needed, you'll loose fish but that is part of the fun (see my report from Friday). The BWOs have just dominated the canyon lately and the trout are keyed onto them so I fish basically 2 flies - a Pheasant Tail (PT) nymph and a BWO Comparadun. They seem to get smaller as the season goes on so now I'm getting them on #18s and #20s, in late Sept. it was #14s and #16s. Good luck, Tim -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, October 26, 2001 9:06 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Yakima Canyon report Thanks for the report Tim. I have fished the Yakima at the Cle Elum boat launch twice in the past week - last Thurs and this Thurs. Last week was windy, overcast and cold. This week it was between storms, the wind was light and it was sunny. I saw very few rises both days and no hatches except a short lived bwo both days in the afternoon. I saw a few cahills (?) and, about 4 Octobers over the 2 day period. I had very little success; 1 fish and 6 or so rises to the dry fly in the late afternoon. One fish was quite heavy and snapped me off immediately. I tend to use light tippets 3lb (6x?) and leaders which has resulted in losing some nice fish while catching some average ones. I could use some advice. Is it wise to use light line to entice more takes, or something heavier? Is it worth the extra miles to travel further towards the canyon from Seattle? I always wade. Was there ever an October Caddis hatch this fall? Do the hatches occur along the river at about the same time? Should I be fishing nymphs instead of small caddis, bwo, etc? Are attractor patterns or streamers in order when no rises are seen? Thanks for any advice. Eric In a message dated 10/24/01 8:47:21 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > Subj: Yakima Canyon report > Date: 10/24/01 8:47:21 PM Pacific Daylight Time > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tim Harris) > Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > 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 >
