Where exactly is this Hansens Ponds stretch?
Thanks,
Roger
----- Original Message ----- From: "CHARLIE MASTRO" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: Yak Report : Hansen's Ponds stretch : 10/3
Cliff, I fished with a friend of mine that also guides on the Yak this same time last year. We used egg paterns and caught fish all day.
----Original Message Follows---- From: "Cliff & Karen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Yak Report : Hansen's Ponds stretch : 10/3 Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 08:47:10 -0700
Jim,
Thanks for the report. I've never fished the Hansen Ponds or I-90 ponds, but
I've always wanted to. I understand it used to be a great place to catch
lots of bluegills.
This year I made a decision to pay more attention to the Yakima in the fall,
as I had been ignoring it for the last few Septembers'. I've fished it three
times in the last four weeks and have come up with a few decent sized fish
in the upper river, and quite a few dinks, also. I fish with a fisheries bio
and we've been seeing a few spawning chinook from Thorp area to upper Clem
Elum, but what dropped our jaws were the numbers of spawning suckers.
Hundreds of them in that area.
I've also noticed a lack of hatches in the upper river. I seem to recall lots of caddis hatches from previous September months, but I haven't been seeing any. I'm really hoping to hit an October Caddis hatch this fall.
Great report.
Cliff
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Speaker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WA Fly Fishers (E-mail)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2004 6:51 PM Subject: Yak Report : Hansen's Ponds stretch : 10/3
> I fished the Hansen's Ponds stretch today from about 11:30 a.m. to 2:30
p.m.
>
> Flows were steady at about 470 cfs and visibility was excellent. The
> weather was great, sunny and warm with just a little bit of wind in the
> afternoon which quickly died down.
>
> There was some Midge activity; a few Baetis here and there, never really
a
> hatch; quite a few crane flies were ovipositing; and I saw a few October
> Caddis, one of which landed on me and allowed me a good look at it - a
> little smaller than I expected, perhaps a #12, and the body wasn't very
> orange, sort of a dirty, almost orange color.
>
> I saw around twenty rotting chinook carcasses. Some of them had their
tails
> cut off. Is this where they get tagged? At first I just thought it was
odd
> but when I saw that about half of them were like this I figured it was
> probably WDFW collecting tags.
>
> There were only a few sporadic rises here and there so I nymphed the
whole
> time. I started with a #10 Copper John with a #16 Green Rockworm
dropper.
> I got two bows on the C.J., one healthy one about 14", and two whitefish
on
> the rockworm. Thinking that I was really working for a few fish I
switched
> to a #16 BH FB PT followed by a #18 Olive Biot Softhackle. The second
rig
> didn't pay off at all through the next couple riffles so I switched
again,
> this time to a #10 BH CDC Prince with a #18 BH FB PT dropper. As soon > as
I
> switched I started hooking up again and had three more bows before I > left
> that riffle, one on the Prince and two on the PT, one of which was a
really
> fat, strong 13-incher. I kept working it through a few more riffles and
> runs where I picked up another bow and a whitefish, and worked my way
back
> up to my truck. Nearly there, I managed one more bow. So, total for
three
> hours was 7 bows and 3 whitefish - not bad for a few hours but I really
felt
> like I had to work hard for them, it was never really hot fishing.
>
> For those who don't know, the Hansen's Ponds road ends now where the > hole
> referred to by locals as "the slammer" used to be. A small diversion
> channel has been created that runs into the ponds and a parking area was
> created there. The ponds are now considered part of the Yakima and are
> under the same regulations. A nice little footbridge crosses the > channel
to
> a footpath where the road used to be. A lot of new trees are being
planted
> in hopes of providing more shade for the ponds which I understand have
been
> getting to hot. The big swirling hole, the slammer, is gone. They
> restructured the river a bit: now there's a shallow weir that forces > the
> main current through a narrower gap and forms a big riffle and an eddy.
I
> didn't get a single strike in the new habitat - I'm thinking maybe the
> insect population took a hit there and/or it'll be a while before the
fish
> take to it - or maybe it's just not a good spot now.
>
> On my wade downstream there were no fishermen about. On the wade back I
> encountered a couple boats and a pair of wade fishers. Another nice day
of
> Fall fishing.
>
> -tight lines-
> Jim
>
>
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