Today had to be one of the best days imaginable on the Yakima, the weather was picture perfect, the mayflies were abundant, and the trout were rising to flies. This fall may just never end.
I got over to the canyon around 10 a.m. and fished the stretch of water right by Mile 17 all day. I put in at the riffle and worked the stretch up the shoreline from 10-12:15 or so fishing nymphs upstream. The fish were on nymphs big-time today, I got 13 fish in the few hours of working. Many were 11-13" fish but I got one 16" fish, one 18" fish and had one other big one on that I never even got a look at. I was fishing my usual dual nymph rig with a #16 BHPT and a #18 PT dropper, I got most on the #18 but a few on the BH fly. Fish were hanging close behind big rocks so almost anyplace a "V" wake came off a big rock you could find and hook a trout. Just after noon I had worked most of this stretch and was at the slack water, just having lost the one big fish that broke me off so I waded back to shore and went to see if the risers had started yet. Sure enough the main pool was covered with small BWOs and trout were starting to rise. I put in just below the mile 17 sign, waded out to the ledge and began fishing. In the next few hours, until just before 3 p.m., I worked about 100 yards of water and rose about 1 1/2 dozen trout, hooking and landing a little over half of these. The bugs are getting smaller, I started out with a #20 Comparadun and only hooked a few fish with it, when I switched to a #22 I began getting real action. None of these fish were big, 10-14" but they were everywhere and getting them in that smooth current on small flies was pretty challenging. The hardest part was telling your fly from the thousands of real ones on the water, a few times I went to set the hook when a fish took a natural just inches from my fly. All in all an unbelievable day and not crowded either, I only had one boat pass me the whole day which was amazing for a popular stretch of water. If the weather holds call in sick and go fishing, it isn't going to last much longer. Tim
